It’s past 2am and you have an important meeting tomorrow but no matter what you try, you simply can’t get to sleep. Counting sheep, kicking off the duvet, rainforest soundtracks… nothing is going to help you rest ahead of the big day ahead.
Does this sound like you? In 2016, the human race is still very much about sleep, and yet so many of us are still struggling to get our healthy eight-hour dose of daily shut-eye.
Luckily, though, there’s hope. There’s a surprisingly rich amount of apps on the digital market that have been designed to help you get each and every one of those prized 40 winks, and it’s our blissful duty to inform you which are the best services that’ll help you develop a much better and healthier sleeping pattern. Just try not to fall asleep before the end of this post…
No, not that insipid collection of teen-vampire stories from the 2000s – although maybe trying to locate the literary quality in any of those stories is an activity that’ll probably send you to sleep quicker than you can say NyQuil – this Android-only app actually works to help tire you out by toning done the brightness of your device to suit the time of day.
It’s known that exposure to the blue light that’s emitted by your smartphone/tablet just before you try to sleep may in fact distort your natural rhythm, causing an inability to fall asleep – Twilight works away in the background to help you drift off if you happen to use your device while you’re in bed.
Richly-acclaimed, Sleep Cycle sounds so clever it’s scary. “An intelligent alarm clock that analyses your sleep and wakes you in the lightest sleep phase” – isn’t this the sort of thing that the film A.I tried to warn us about? – “it’s the natural way to wake up feeling rested and relaxed.” You may debate their use of the word “natural”, but Sleep Cycle has built up a formidable reputation from well-rested users across the world – it’s the globe’s “most-used intelligent alarm clock”, don’t you know.
No, this isn’t like the beginning of The Matrix – that’s if you pay to use the upgraded version. Digipill is prescribed to you by the app doctor with the intention of aurally meditating you to good sleep, good health, and just goodness in general. Sounds good, nay? Using a “unique combination of psychoacoustics and NLP to help you to unlock your subconscious in order to change your mood, perception, or even your behaviour”, Digipill apparently gets results in just 20 minutes. All you need is a smartphone, a pair of headphones and a quiet space, and then Brian Colbert, “a leading expert in NLP” and the “psychoacoustic” director of Digipill, will do the rest.
This isn’t as ominous as its name suggests (we sincerely hope, anyway). Sleep Well Hypnosis doesn’t just produce a swirling double spiral on your screen that lulls you into a state of culpable unconscious – it actually works with you to reduce any distractions that may be preventing you from drifting off to sleep. Aiming to help “train your mind”. SWH looks to reduce anxious thoughts, lower adrenaline levels and induce sleep: it’s all achieved by engaging in a one-to-three week programme that involves listening to a 25-minute audio track every night, provided by the app.
An app so genius that you’ll never not be awake late at night ever again? That’s what Sleep Genius are trying to realise with their mobile creation. “The neurosensory algorithms in Sleep Genius help your brain get ready for sleep, guide your brain through each stage in the sleep cycle, and wake you with a gentle, refreshing alarm” are among its bold claims. Bonus material: the research that was applied to the making of this app was also used by NASA to help their astronauts get some shut-eye, so that’s not something to take lightly.
Rain Rain Sleep Sounds (RRSS) really does what it says on the tin. Specialising in providing you with a soundtrack of the pitter-patter of rain falling outside, it’s especially ideal for when it’s, er, not raining outside when you’re going to sleep. With 25 high-quality audio tracks to choose from, it’s been downloaded over two million times – a ringing, raining endorsement if you ask us.
Sleeping worse than ever before? Then you need to Sleep Better, friend. Simply place your phone next to you in bed – you probably do this anyway – by your pillow and the app, somehow, will analyse your night’s sleep. It then picks up on when you’re in the deepest sleep, how many times a night you wake up, and how long you sleep for. It’s designed to help you develop a good sleeping pattern, and its reams and reams of statistics are definitely something to obsess over – hopefully not into the early hours, mind.
Sleep time+ is a mere £1.49 on the App Store and, much like the aforementioned app Sleep Better, tracks your nightly slumbering activities to see how well you sleep each night. It also offers white noise functions, alarm clock alerts and utilises something rather official-sounding called Sleep Lab to produce your nightly statistics – it’s the number one-rated sleep analysis app in the US, UK, and Russia, apparently.
This could be a humorous/horrifying sleeping app. Informed by your partner that you orate in your sleep? Why not listen back to your mutterings with Sleep Talk Recorder, which doesn’t so much as help you get more sleep as it shines a light into your weird dreaming habits. The app only springs into life when it detects notable sounds, so it won’t drain your battery all night long. Plus, there’s this option: “You can also add your funniest clips to your favourites and share them with your friends or the world for great laughs!” You’ll be the coolest guy on your Facebook timeline!
And finally: ahhh, relax. Relax Melodies will play us out of this list with some soothing sounds that’ll hopefully lull us into a deep sleep. Promising to deliver “the sleep that you need and want” with its range of high-quality white noises, music melodies and fully-customisable mixes, Relax Melodies really does pull out all the audio stops when it comes to aiding your journey to snoozetown.
After axing 31 percent of its workforce when it failed to be acquired by Amazon,…
Mozilla Foundation axes 30 percent of its staff, and is eliminating its Advocacy Division that…
Improving security. Mandatory multi-factor authentication (MFA) is coming to the Google Cloud by the end…
New AI assurance platform from UK government will help businesses ensure they can safely develop…
Protecting kids? Australian government confirms plan to implement restriction on social media for children under…
Canada ordered China's TikTok business in the country to be dissolved over national security risks,…