Normally your smartphone is the enemy of sleep, but these apps will help you get a top-quality night’s rest.
Calm
One of the most common barriers to falling asleep is a restless mind, which is what this meditation app aims to address. There are several guided meditation sessions and a seven day course all dedicated to helping you sleep better, along with a range of Sleep Stories – short tales narrated by the likes of Stephen Fry – designed to help you fall asleep. You can try the 7 Days Of Sleep meditation course and one Sleep Story for free, but you’ll need a premium subscription for access to the rest of the app. calm.com
Pillow
If you own an Apple Watch and are interested in sleep tracking, this is the best app available. Pillow will track your sleep automatically if you wear the watch overnight, and gives a detailed breakdown of your rest, including time spent in REM, light and deep sleep, with your heart rate plotted over the top to see how it changes during different sleep states. Pillow also breaks down your sleep into two rings – one showing sleep duration and the other sleep quality – that fit with the activity ring style on the Apple Watch. Finally, there’s a smart alarm that will wake you up when you are sleeping lightly so you’re not groggy, and personalised recommendations to improve your rest. neybox.com/pillow-sleep-tracker
Android Blue Light Filter
The blue light that emanates from electronic devices can disrupt your sleep if you use them in the hours before bedtime, so the simplest bit of tech that could help your rest is a filter that bathes your screen in mind-soothing red light in the evening. There are a few apps available to do this on Android, such as Night Shift: Blue Light Filter and Twilight.
Apple Bedtime And Night Shift
Night Shift is a simple blue light filter feature baked into Apple’s operating system that allows you set a period of the day, say 10pm to 7am, when your phone or tablet will switch to warmer colours on the display (find it under Settings > Display & Brightness).
Bedtime is another built-in feature found in the Clock app that aims to ensure you keep a consistent bedtime, which should help you sleep better, and wakes you up gradually with a choice of gentle alarms.
Sleep Genius
Based on research done to help NASA’s astronauts sleep, this app has a wealth of science to make you sleep faster, longer and deeper. Sleep Genius uses jargon like “neuro-sensory algorithms” and “psychoacoustic music” to explain how it works. In other words: soothing noises. sleepgenius.com
Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock
A lot of apps claim to wake you up during a light sleep phase so you feel refreshed and relaxed when your alarm goes off, rather than sluggish and unhappy, but this might be the one that delivers on that promise with the most consistency. Sleep Cycle also provides analysis of your sleep, which you can then compare with stats from people around the world and also check against habits, like drinking or working out, so you can see how they affect your rest. sleepcycle.com
White Noise Market
Sometimes the only thing you need to drift off to sleep is the right background noise, especially if you need to drown out the hubbub of city life. This free app gives a range of options to try, including a crackling fireplace or the Niagara Falls. whitenoisemarket.com
Written by Nick Harris-Fry for Coach and legally licensed through the Matcha publisher network. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@getmatcha.com.
