I usually tell people to get all the devices and electronics out of their bedroom or to put them in airplane mode so that they can sleep, but sometimes we need to collect some data so that we know how to tackle issues. For sleep my favorite free app is sleepcycle. Why do I love it? Well it’s free and it provides valuable, usable insight and can be used in airplane mode. That’s a winning combination. A lot of times free means crappy or many sleep trackers have to be worn on your body with sleep disturbing electromagnetic output or create bluelight or other issues.
How do you use it? Download the app and then when ready to sleep place your phone in airplane mode, activate the app and place phone or device face up next to your bed on the nightstand. It has sounds or music you can activate if desired. That’s it! After about 30 seconds the screen will turn off and it will track your waking, snoring, breathing, movements and give you valuable feedback in the morning about how much of the different types of sleep that you got. The aim is to get a significant amount of deep REM sleep. This is the most restorative type of sleep and when your body does deep healing.
This app also has a super morning bonus! It wakes you at the ideal time in your sleep cycle with soothing sounds. No blaring, adrenal jumping noise! The app senses within a window that you set when you are heading into lighter sleep and will wake you. Let's say you want to wake up no earlier than 7:30 a.m. and no later than 8:00 a.m. The app will sense when you begin to come out of deep sleep and wake you at the best time during that period. If you aren’t naturally waking at all it will wait until the last minute to wake you. Brilliant!!
Discovering what times you wake and are restless can give us key insights into steps we can take to improve your sleep. If it’s taking a long time to fall asleep we may need to put blue blocking light mitigation into your day or you may need some magnesium. Waking throughout the night may indicate adrenal, blood sugar or urinary issues. Significant snoring noted by the app may alert us to more serious sleep issues like apnea or chronic congestion, allergies, or mold.
My second favorite sleeping and resting app is powernap.com -deepdive. It's not free but it comes in very inexpensive at $2.99 for the download. I love this app because once you know why you’re not sleeping this can be a powerful tool to help you get into a deep sleep and stay there longer. PowerNap products are recordings that convey the effect of natural sleep waves into sounds. This gives you the feeling of deep rest in a very short time. I also loooove their 20 minute nap product but that’s a topic for another day.
As a client you can upload your sleep tracking information into your portal so we can talk about sleep optimization at your next appointment! Give one or both of these a try and wake up to a better, rested, get up and go morning!
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