Getting a good night’s sleep is crucial for your health—it can reduce your risk of many serious health conditions, and can even positively impact your mental health. Unfortunately, research shows that one in three adults don’t get enough sleep.
If you struggle to get to sleep or stay asleep at night, you may have thought about trying a sleeping app. But with so many options on the market today, it can be tough to know which ones are worth your while.
That’s why today, we’re taking a look at the features and benefits of 10 popular sleeping apps and how they may help you get better sleep. Let’s get started.
Health Benefits of Using Sleep Apps
The CDC recommends that adults get at least seven hours of sleep per night. But for some people, it’s easier said than done when it comes to hitting the hay. Sleep tracking apps can be a powerful tool to help you on your journey to better health.
Wondering how they can help? Here are just a few of the potential health benefits of using sleeping apps.
Gain Insight into How Sleeping Habits Affect Overall Health
You may not realize how much your sleep affects your overall health, but studies have shown that there is a strong connection between getting inadequate sleep and the development of many serious health conditions, including:
- Hypertension
- Obesity
- Type 2 diabetes
- Impaired immune system function
- Cardiovascular disease
- Mood disorders
- Neurodegenerative disorders
The insight into your sleep habits provided by sleep apps may help you make connections between the sleep you get at night and other aspects of your health. However, it’s important to note that you should always consult with your doctor if you are concerned about your sleep pattern.
Better Prioritize Your Sleep
Using a sleep app at night can make it easier to build a routine that better prioritizes your sleep. Some apps provide reminders, techniques, and even personalized coaching that aim to help you improve your sleep habits.
Having these kinds of resources readily available on your phone can make it easier to stay motivated on your journey to better sleep.
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Get Personalized Recommendations
Gaining insight into your unique sleep patterns and habits can be extremely useful when trying to improve your sleep. Many apps track your sleep trends and provide you with recommendations based on your unique data.
This can make it easier to spot trends that can help you understand the root of your sleep issues.
Help with Managing Insomnia
Some sleep apps are clinically proven to help manage insomnia through CBT-I techniques. CBT-I, or cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, is often the first line of clinical intervention for chronic insomnia.
This therapy uses many techniques that can help you recognize and change beliefs that affect your ability to sleep, avoid behaviors that interfere with your ability to sleep, and develop better sleep habits.
Not all apps use CBT-I, but a select few are approved by the FDA as medical devices for their use of CBT-I.
It’s also important to note that although many sleep tracking apps will advertise the ability to monitor sleep quality and stages of sleep, it’s still doubtful that they are all on par with something like a polysomnography, or formal sleep study. There are varying results as to the accuracy and comparability of many sleep tracking apps with polysomnography.
Best Sleep Apps To Help You Get a Good Night's Sleep
Whether you’re looking for breathing exercises, lullabies, bedtime stories, white noise, or relaxing melodies to help you wind down at night, there’s an app out there that can help. Here are 10 of our favorite apps for both Android and iOS that can help you get a better night’s sleep.
1) Sleep Cycle
Sleep Cycle is an app that tracks and analyzes your sleep cycle patterns by listening to the sounds you make when you sleep. This app aims to provide you with data that can help you understand more about your unique sleep patterns and needs.
Features and Benefits
- Sleep Cycle has a library of guided meditations, sleep sounds, and music to help you relax.
- They offer a smart alarm that can be programmed to wake you during the lightest stage of your sleep cycle.
- You’ll get access to daily reports that show you how much time you spent in bed, how much time you spent asleep, and your quality of sleep.
- No special equipment is needed.
Pricing
Sleep Cycle costs $39.99 per year, and they currently offer a seven day free trial.
Who This App is For
Sleep Cycle is ideal for anyone who is interested in getting more quality sleep, who wakes up feeling groggy in the morning because their alarm went off during a deep sleep stage of their cycle, or anyone who would like to track their sleep data.
2) Headspace
Headspace is an app that provides guided meditations for mindfulness, relaxation, and sleep. They have a library of over 500 mediations.
According to Headspace, meditation can help lower your heart rate, encourage slower breathing, and activate the parasympathetic nervous system, all of which may increase sleep quality.
Features and Benefits
- The Headspace app features a library of hundreds of guided meditations.
- They have a library of sleep sounds and music to help you relax.
- The app offers mood-boosting workouts, including yoga, that can help you stay active in the day.
Pricing
Headspace has the option of choosing an annual plan or a monthly plan. The annual subscription is billed at $69.99 per year and the monthly subscription costs $12.99 per month.
Who This App is For
Headspace can benefit anyone who wants to try out mindfulness and meditation, or experiences anxiety that interferes with their sleep.
3) Calm
Calm is a mediation, sleep, and relaxation app that provides music, guided meditations, and sleep stories for both adults and children. Their unique audio content, which features celebrity guests such as Matthew McConaughey, seeks to tackle mental health challenges like stress, anxiety, insomnia, and depression.
Features and Benefits
- Calm provides a daily 10-minute meditation called “The Daily Calm,” which explores a new mindful theme and inspiring concept each day.
- They provide more than 250 sleep stories, plus sleep music, guided meditations, nature sounds, and more.
- They provide Masterclasses, which are classes exclusive to Calm that help you apply mindfulness to your daily life.
Pricing
The premium version of Calm costs $69.99 per year, and they currently offer a seven day free trial.
Who This App is For
Calm is ideal for people who have trouble falling asleep, want to try meditation before bed, or would like listening material to fall asleep to.
4) Somryst
Somryst is a sleep aid that provides cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, or CBT-I. CBT-I aims to train your brain to calm your mind until normal sleeping patterns are restored. To use this app, a prescription from a doctor is required.
Features and Benefits
- Somryst is clinically proven and approved by the FDA as a medical device, which is why a prescription is required to access it.
- Somryst users have access to Pear’s Patient Service Center, a dedicated team of professionals that can help you get the most out of the app.
- This app allows you to access cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia without the need for an appointment with a healthcare provider.
Pricing
Somryst’s program costs $899, though some insurance companies may cover a portion of the costs. Somryst currently accepts one-time payments, as well as a payment plan of three months.
Who This App is For
Somryst is ideal for people who have chronic insomnia but struggle to access in-person behavioral health services.
5) SleepScore
SleepScore is an app that uses your phone’s microphone and speaker to track and measure your breathing rate and body movement while you sleep, to give you an in-depth analysis into your sleep cycle and patterns.
Features and Benefits
- SleepScore provides you with personalized advice and recommendations for getting better sleep from sleep experts.
- The app gives you a breakdown of your sleep stages, including duration, the time it takes you to fall asleep, and your time spent in light, deep, and REM sleep.
- The app has a smart alarm clock that can wake you up at the ideal time of your sleep cycle.
- You can compare your nightly sleep to an ideal night for people of your age and gender.
Pricing
SleepScore provides both monthly or annual subscriptions at $9.99 per month or $59 per year.
Who This App is For
SleepScore is ideal for anyone interested in tracking their sleep patterns for customized recommendations to improve their sleep.
6) Pzizz
Pzizz is an app that creates “dreamscapes,” a mix of music, voiceover, and sound effects that are designed using the latest clinical research to help you fall asleep fast, stay asleep, and wake up feeling refreshed.
Features and Benefits
- Pzizz has a library of over 100 billion dreamscapes.
- Each dreamscape has narrations that automatically change each time you use them, and they are based on proven clinical sleep interventions.
- Over time, the app learns what kind of sounds you like and dislike to customize your experience.
- Pzizz allows you to set your listening time to any length up to 24 hours, and the sounds will work with or without an internet connection.
Pricing
The monthly price for Pzizz is $7.99 per month and the annual cost is $49.99 per year.
Who This App is For
Pzizz is ideal for anyone who has trouble falling or staying asleep, or wakes up feeling groggy and unrefreshed.
7) SleepWatch
SleepWatch is a sleep tracker app that works in conjunction with the Apple Watch. It seeks to help you build new habits that can help you fall asleep, stay asleep, and wake up refreshed in the morning.
Their sleep improvement program is designed with the latest sleep science in mind, and uses your data together with an AI to establish a customized plan to address your unique sleep needs.
Features and Benefits
- SleepWatch can track and give you data on how much your sleep is interrupted at night and how long it takes you to fall asleep each night.
- The app gives you helpful reminders and updates based on your data that will help you stay motivated on your sleep improvement journey.
- SleepWatch tracks your heart rate as you sleep, giving you data on how much your heart rate slows during sleep, which can be an important indicator of health.
Pricing
SleepWatch premium has both an annual and a monthly plan. The app costs $4.99 per month, or $39.99 for an annual plan.
Who This App is For
SleepWatch is a great option for anyone with an Apple Watch who is looking for a sleep program personalized for their unique needs.
8) Slumber
Slumber is an app that provides sleep meditations, soothing stories, and music and soundscapes that are designed to quiet your mind and help you fall asleep. Slumber aims to help you create a healthy nighttime ritual that eases you from day into night and encourages calm and relaxation.
Features and Benefits
- Slumber provides a diverse array of techniques to help you relax and encourage sleep, including ASMR, mindfulness, breath control, guided imagery and visualizations, and progressive muscle relaxation.
- They have a library of over 30 Soothing Stories, which use guided imagery to encourage relaxation.
- Slumber updates their library with new content every week.
Pricing
Slumber offers some of their library for free, but to access their full library you will need to upgrade to premium. Slumber Premium costs $9.99 per month for a monthly subscription, or $39.99 per year for an annual subscription.
Who This App is For
Slumber is ideal for those that have trouble winding down at bedtime, who prefer to listen to soothing sounds as they fall asleep, or want to try guided visualizations for nighttime relaxation.
9) Sleep Reset
Sleep Reset is an app that aims to improve sleep and reduce sleep anxiety using techniques from top-tier sleep clinics. They offer personalized programs that try to identify and address the root cause of your sleep issues.
Features and Benefits
- New Sleep Reset members take a thorough assessment that uncovers the root causes of their sleep problems.
- Sleep Reset pairs you with a dedicated sleep coach who is available to you via text.
- They have a library of hundreds of cognitive exercises, relaxation techniques, and meditations geared to improve your sleep.
- They use your sleep data to track your progress and sleep patterns over time.
Pricing
Sleep Reset offers a seven day free trial, after which they charge $75 per month.
Who This App is For
Sleep Reset is ideal for anyone who experiences nighttime anxiety, or who wakes up in the morning feeling groggy and reaching for the snooze button even after a full night of sleep.
10) Yours App
Yours is an app that uses specially developed meditations, sleep stories, yoga practices, soundscapes, and more to help you develop new rituals that promote relaxation and relieve stress.
Features and Benefits
- Yours offers an extensive library of sleep sounds and stories that are designed to help you fall into a quicker, deeper sleep at night.
- The app has an extensive library of yoga videos, stretching exercises, and other physical activities that can get you moving and relieve stress.
- They offer special meditations and soundscapes designed for both pregnant users and children.
Pricing
The Yours app is $6.99 per month for a monthly plan, and $59.99 for a yearly subscription.
Who This App is For
Yours is ideal for anyone who wants to try meditations or sleep sounds before bed, experiences stress or anxiety before bed, or wants to use yoga and stretching to relax.
Bonus: Nutrisense for Maintaining a Healthy Lifestyle and Sleep Cycle
Nutrisense’s goal is to help members discover and reach their health potential through data, accountability, and actionable insights. When you join Nutrisense, you will get a continuous glucose monitor, or CGM, which is a painless, minimally-invasive device that helps you monitor your blood sugar in real time, 24/7.
The Nutrisense app allows you to track your daily activities to see how your lifestyle habits, including sleep, impact your blood sugar levels.
Features and Benefits
- In the Nutrisense app, you can log your meals, workouts, and even track sleep and stress levels.
- Using the CGM allows you to view and track your glucose levels over time and identify patterns that may be affecting your sleep quality and other factors.
- Members can receive personalized support from a credentialed nutritionist who will work with you to establish and meet your health goals and make tailored recommendations on meals and nutrition.
- The Nutrisense app syncs with devices such as Apple Health, Google Fit, Garmin, Oura Ring and Fitbit to collect your health data in one simple place.
Pricing
Nutrisense offers four plans: a 3-month plan for $250 per month, a 6-month plan for $225 per month, a 12-month plan for $199 per month, and a month-to-month plan for $399 per month. All plans come with complimentary check-ins with a credentialied nutritionist during your first month.
Who Is Nutrisense For?
Nutrisense is ideal for:
- Anyone looking to understand how their body reacts to lifestyle factors like stress, sleep, physical activity, and diet.
- Anyone who wants to learn good habits and make lasting changes that benefit their health.
- Anyone looking to gain insight into their glucose levels as part of a healthy lifestyle.
Why Nutrisense Can Improve Sleeping Quality
Good sleep is an important aspect of your metabolic health, and tracking your blood sugar levels throughout the day with a CGM can give you insight into how your blood sugar affects your sleep, and vice versa.
Studies show that sleep deprivation can cause higher-than-usual blood sugar after a meal. Sleep problems can also decrease your metabolic rate. A lack of sleep, even for a single night, can have negative effects on insulin sensitivity.
Your blood sugar levels can also impact your sleep. High or low blood sugar can affect your nervous system and may contribute to problems falling or staying asleep.
Dysregulated blood sugar can also lead to things like insomnia, night sweats, and nightmares. Nutrisense can help you make healthier decisions when it comes to your blood sugar that can pay off in the long-term and support better quality sleep.
Engage with Your Blood Glucose Levels with Nutrisense
Your blood sugar levels can significantly impact how your body feels and functions. That’s why stable blood glucose levels can be an important factor in supporting overall wellbeing.
With Nutrisense, you’ll be able to track your blood glucose levels over time using a CGM, so you can make lifestyle choices that support healthy living.
When you join the Nutrisense CGM program, our team of credentialed dietitians and nutritionists are available for additional support and guidance to help you reach your goals.
Ready to take the first step? Start with our quiz to see how Nutrisense can support your health.
Find the right Nutrisense programhealth potential.
to help you discover and reach yourHeather is a Registered and Licensed Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN, LDN), subject matter expert, and technical writer, with a master's degree in nutrition science from Bastyr University. She has a specialty in neuroendocrinology and has been working in the field of nutrition—including nutrition research, education, medical writing, and clinical integrative and functional nutrition—for over 15 years.