When insomnia hits, turning to your smartphone usually isn’t the best thing to do. There is one exception, however, and that is when you’re using sleep apps – that actually work!
Insomnia and Sleep Deprivation
We all know just how consumed you feel after a bad night’s sleep. Well, most of us do. Studies have found that one in ten suffers from Insomnia in Ireland and that one-third of adults feel, in some way, sleep deprived.
Insomnia is a sleeping disorder that means you can experience difficulty getting to sleep, trouble staying asleep, early-morning awakening or restless sleep. This often leads to fatigue, low energy, difficulty concentrating, mood disturbances, and decreased performance in work or at school.
Getting enough sleep is directly connected to better health in more than one way. It helps with keeping our immune systems in check and studies even suggest that you are less likely to suffer from a heart attack or a stroke when getting adequate sleep.
Lack of sleep can disrupt brain function, metabolism, heart function, healing and recovery, mental health and it will more or less affect everything you do when awake.
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Sleep Apps That Actually Work
We’ve listed 5 quality sleep apps that will actually do the job and hopefully help you get that beauty sleep that we all so badly need!
1. Pzizz
How does it work? Pzizz combines neurolinguistic programming, enchanting music, sound effects, and binaural beats to help you relax. It generates over a hundred billion slightly different sound effects, to quiet your mind and ease you into a restful deep sleep.
“We utilize effective psychoacoustic principles to create beautiful dreamscapes that will help you fall asleep fast, stay asleep, and wake up feeling refreshed.”
Available for: iOS, Android
Price: Free
Love it as much as I love Pzizz, which I got on your recommendation. Best I’ve used by a mile xx
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) June 10, 2016
2. Sleep Genius
How does it work? Sleep Genius is the world’s #1 leading sleep app (according to themselves) and it might just be a good reason for that, as the app is following research that is helping NASA to get astronauts to sleep.
Sleep Genius was designed by experts in neuroscience and is using sounds that guide your brain through the complete sleep cycle. It will help your brain to prepare for sleep, sleep more soundly, and then wake you at your body’s optimal time.
Available for: iOS, Android, Wearables
Price: €5
“Finally, a scientific and neurologically sound sleep aid that is easy to use and all natural with no side effects” – Kamran Fallahpour, PhD, Clinical Psychologist/Neuroscientist, New York Brain Resource Center.
3. Sleep Cycle
How does it work? According to Sleep Cycle, waking up easy is all about timing. This app’s alarm clock tracks your sleep patterns and makes sure to wake you up during your light sleep, and not during deep- or REM-sleep. Waking up in the right cycle is crucial, and in doing so, it makes waking up feeling natural and helps you to feel rested.
A full sleep cycle lasts for about 90 minutes and is normally repeated several times every night – the first state is the light sleep, that is followed by deep sleep and then eventually REM-sleep (which is also called dream state).
Sleep Cycle uses sound analysis to identify sleep patterns by tracking your movements in bed. It will then monitor signals from your body to wake you up when you are in the lightest possible sleep state.
Available for: iOS, Android
Price: Free
“The result is so gentle and lovely it feels like being woken up by a mermaid stoking your hair or a unicorn nuzzling your toes.” – The Guardian
4. Sleep Time
How does it work? Sleep Time uses an algorithm to map out your sleep patterns and analyzes them. It will help you to relax when it’s time to sleep and help you wake up at an optional time so that you end up feeling fresh and rested during the day.
Sleep Time will also report back to you on your sleep cycles to that you can analyse your sleeping patterns.
Available for: iOS, Android
Price: Free
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5. Digipill
How does it work? Digipill prescribes digital pills (instead of chemical pills) to help you deal with conditions like insomnia, stress and anxiety. Digipill uses psychoacoustics to help you to unlock your subconscious and hopefully change your perception.
Unlike traditional pills, Digipill doesn’t come with any unwanted side effects and there are plenty of “pills” to choose from!
Available for: iOS, Android
Price: Free
“Each Digipill has been uniquely formulated using specific blends of sound and language to gently engage and activate more of the mind.” – Brian Colbert, leading expert in NLP, and psychoacoustic director of Digipill.
Worrying About not Getting Enough Sleep Will Keep You Awake
All sleep apps aren’t up to scratch, but the good ones can be really valuable in rounding out treatment of sleep disorders and sleep therapy.
Another major factor that will determine how well the apps work is how you deal with the fact that you’re having troubles sleeping. It’s easy to stress over not getting enough sleep, but by doing so it will only make it harder to relax, as stress causes hyperarousal that can upset the balance between sleep and wakefulness.
A good idea is to try to tell yourself that ‘this is the current situation, and it’s out of my control to change it.’ Usually by de-dramatizing the problem it makes it easier to relax and to finally fall asleep.
By Elsa Anderling
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