Make Your Sleep Better With These 8 Sleep Apps

Getting sufficient high-quality sleep is one of the most important things you can do for your health. Unfortunately, around 30% of adults report short sleep duration and 50-70 million Americans suffer from a sleep disorder.

Lack of sleep is linked to an increased risk of many health problems including obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, and premature death. It can also negatively impact mood, cognitive function, productivity and quality of life.

Fortunately, there are many excellent apps available that can help improve your sleep. This comprehensive guide covers the 8 best sleep apps based on scientific evidence and user reviews.

How Can Apps Help Improve Your Sleep?

Sleep apps can help in various ways such as:

Optimizing Sleep/Wake Cycles

Your body‘s circadian rhythm regulates cycles of wakefulness and sleep. Sleep apps can help optimize these cycles by tracking your sleep patterns and providing insights on how to improve. They also use smart alarm features to wake you at the ideal stage of sleep.

Reducing Sleep Onset Latency

This refers to the time it takes you to transition from full wakefulness to sleep. Apps that play soothing sounds, meditations or bedtime stories can help reduce sleep latency.

Improving Sleep Efficiency

This measures the percentage of time you spend asleep after getting into bed. Sleep tracking apps can identify factors impairing your sleep efficiency such as long wake times or poor sleep staging.

Diagnosing Sleep Disorders

Apps that record snoring, breathing or movement during sleep can help identify potential sleep disorders like sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome or insomnia. This allows you to seek proper treatment.

Reducing Sleep Interruptions

Soothing sounds and "smart alarm" features help prevent disruptions to sleep continuity that negatively impact sleep quality.

Providing Relaxation and Sleep Hygiene Tips

Many apps provide audio meditations, bedtime stories and other resources to help you unwind at night. Some also give personalized recommendations for improving sleep hygiene.

Now let‘s review the top 8 sleep apps with details on how they work and scientific evidence supporting their use.

1. Slumber

Slumber is an app that plays bedtime stories designed to bore you to sleep. It has hundreds of original stories that are intentionally bland and unexciting. The stories are read by soft-spoken narrators at a slow pace with long pauses.

Listening to monotonous bedtime stories is an effective way to quiet mental chatter so you can fall asleep faster. One study found that students assigned to listen to boring stories took less time to fall asleep compared to a control group. The app also lets you mix in nature sounds for added relaxation.

Benefits

Helps minimize distractions and intrusive thoughts at bedtime.
Allows you to loop a story or playlist continuously through the night.
Includes timer and sleep tracking features.

Cost: Free version available with premium subscription ($3.99/month) that unlocks additional content.

Platforms: iOS and Android

2. Calm

Calm is one of the most popular meditation and mindfulness apps. It provides meditations, sleep stories, breathing programs and relaxing music to help you destress and sleep better.

Calm has sleep-specific content such as bedtime stories for adults, deep breathing exercises to relax before bed and sleep meditations. The stories are read by soothing voices and accompanied by tranquil music.

One study found that people who used Calm daily for 30 days experienced reduced anxiety and improved sleep quality. Evidence also shows that mindfulness meditation and deep breathing can lower stress and improve sleep.

Benefits

Wide variety of soothing meditations and sleep stories.
Programs for managing stress, anxiety and sleep issues.
Beautiful animations and music for relaxation.

Cost: Free version available with premium subscription ($69.99/year) that unlocks all features.

Platforms: iOS and Android

3. Relax Melodies

Relax Melodies lets you mix and match from over 100 high-definition sounds to create customized sleep playlists. Available sounds include rain, thunder, nature scenes, white noise, ambient music, Tibetan bowls and more.

The key benefit is being able to blend different sounds at varying volumes to mask disruptive background noises. For instance, you can play thunderstorm sounds to drown out noisy neighbors.

Studies show that repetitive, low-variation noise like white noise, fans or rain reduces sleep disturbances and improves sleep quality for many people. Relaxing nature sounds also lower stress and anxiety before bed.

Benefits

100+ high-quality sounds that can be mixed and matched.
Ability to set sleep and wake timers.
Option for soundscapes to fade out automatically.

Cost: Free version available with premium subscription ($3.99/month) that unlocks additional features.

Platforms: iOS and Android

4. Sleep Cycle

Sleep Cycle is an intelligent alarm clock and sleep tracker in one. It monitors your sleep stages using sound analysis or movement tracking and wakes you in the lightest sleep phase so you feel refreshed.

Waking up during light sleep, rather than deep sleep or REM, leaves you less groggy and improves morning alertness. In one study, people woke up feeling over 3 times more vigorous when waking from light versus deep sleep.

Sleep Cycle also provides graphs showing your sleep patterns and quality metrics like total sleep time, time in each sleep stage and sleep efficiency.

Benefits

Wakes you in lightest sleep stage for optimal mornings.
Charts your sleep cycles and trends.
Can record snoring, breathing and heart rate (with Apple Watch).

Cost: Free version available with premium upgrade ($29.99/year) that adds advanced features.

Platforms: iOS and Android

5. SnoreLab

If you or your partner snores, SnoreLab can help. This app uses your phone‘s microphone to detect and record snoring. It creates charts showing snoring patterns, volumes and durations each night.

SnoreLab can identify potential sleep disorders like sleep apnea based on snoring intensity and gaps between snores. You can bring the recordings to your doctor to help diagnose and treat sleeping disorders.

The app also has built-in tools like a snore diary and decibel meter to monitor the effects of anti-snoring devices, positional therapy or other snoring remedies.

Benefits

Accurately tracks snoring including frequency, volume and patterns.
Charts help identify possible sleep disorders.
Monitors effectiveness of snoring treatments.

Cost: Free version available with premium subscription ($9.99/month) that adds additional features like cloud storage.

Platforms: iOS and Android

6. White Noise+

White Noise+ offers high-quality ambient sounds to help mask disruptive noises for better sleep. It includes over 40 sounds like rain, waves, wind, fans and white noise that can be mixed and matched.

Blocking unpredictable environmental sounds with steady background noise improves sleep quality in numerous studies. Sounds like rain and white noise suppress external distractions to allow faster sleep onset and fewer nighttime awakenings.

This app stands out with a wide selection of natural sounds in different categories. You can set a sleep timer and customize the soundscape with special effects.

Benefits

40+ high-definition nature and ambient sounds.
Lets you layer and customize multiple sounds.
Timer feature fades audio out slowly.

Cost: Free version available with premium upgrade ($2.99) that unlocks additional features.

Platforms: iOS and Android

7. Sleepzy

Sleepzy is designed to help people with insomnia and sleeplessness. It combines hypnotic bedtime stories with meditation and breathing exercises clinically proven to improve sleep.

Soothing narratives are paired with binaural beats and violet noise that promote relaxation. Stories incorporate cognitive behavioral therapy techniques to reduce negative thought patterns that interfere with sleep.

Sleepzy also teaches deep breathing, progressive muscle relaxation and visualization to relieve anxiety. Developing these sleep and relaxation skills can provide lasting benefits for insomnia sufferers.

Benefits

Bedtime stories integrate natural sleep aids and CBT methods.
Guided meditations and breathwork to reduce stress.
Designed specifically for insomnia.

Cost: 7-day free trial then $4.99/month for full access.

Platforms: iOS and Android

8. SleepBot

SleepBot is a popular sleep tracker that monitors your sleep cycles using your phone‘s accelerometer. In the morning, it provides graphs of your sleep stages throughout the night – light, deep and REM sleep.

The app records any sleep disturbances and notes factors like caffeine intake, exercise or alcohol that could affect sleep quality. Over time, SleepBot recognizes your sleep patterns and provides feedback on adjusting habits for better rest.

SleepBot also has smart alarm features, nature sounds, and integration with other apps like Fitbit. However, its key advantage is detailed sleep stage tracking and analysis.

Benefits

Tracks sleep cycles including light, deep and REM sleep.
Logs sleep quality and factors impacting your rest.
Provides feedback on improving your sleep habits.

Cost: Free version available with premium upgrade ($29.99/year) that adds advanced features.

Platforms: iOS and Android

How to Choose the Right Sleep App

With so many apps out there, think about your specific sleep challenges and needs when selecting one.

Do you have trouble relaxing at night? Look for an app with meditations, bedtime stories or nature sounds to calm your mind and body. Calm and Slumber are great options.
Need help falling asleep faster? Try an app like Relax Melodies or White Noise+ to mask distractions and lull you to sleep.
Want to improve sleep quality and analysis? Choose a sleep tracker like Sleep Cycle to chart your sleep cycles and patterns.
Looking to diagnose potential sleep disorders? SnoreLab can record and detect signs of sleep apnea and other conditions.
Suffer from insomnia or middle-of-the-night wakings? Look for an app like Sleepzy designed specifically for insomnia.
Need a smart alarm? SleepBot and Sleep Cycle wake you in lighter sleep stages for more energized mornings.

The Bottom Line

Quality sleep is vital for physical health, emotional well-being, productivity and overall happiness.

Sleep apps can help optimize your sleep-wake cycles, reduce sleep disturbances, diagnose sleep disorders and provide insights to improve your sleep habits.

The most effective apps use science-backed techniques like white noise, meditation, sleep tracking, smart alarms and CBT methods.

Finding the right app that addresses your specific sleep challenges can provide lasting benefits for improving your sleep, energy and quality of life.