The best healthy sleep apps provide an innovative way to keep track of your sleeping habits and improve your sleep quality. Most sleep apps are easy to use, and they offer different features you can use for sleep. Several sleep apps can help you get the quality sleep you need for everyday functioning. These apps can track your sleeping patterns, provide relaxation exercises, and much more, depending on which app you choose. Some of the most popular features are sleep diaries, alarm clocks, and calming sounds.
There are many sleep apps on the market, but not all are effective. The best sleep apps are simple to use and offer features that can help you fall asleep and wake up feeling refreshed.
Best Sleep Apps
BetterSleep
BetterSleep is the new name for the well-known Relax Melodies app. This app offers sleep sounds and is one of the most popular sleep apps on the market. The app provides a variety of high-quality sounds that you can listen to while you fall asleep, such as white noise, ocean waves, rainfall, and thunderstorms. The app also has various customizable options to create your sound mixes. You can choose to listen to the sounds before bedtime, during sleep, or both. Some people use it when working or feeling anxious.
BetterSleep is available for iOS and Android phones. It’s easy to download through the App Store or Google Play, taking only a few seconds to install. The BetterSleep app is free to download, but you only get seven days to try it out for free. After the trial period, the app costs 59.99 dollars per year.
To set up the app, you’ll have to enter information about your age, goals, and troubles related to sleep. BetterSleep offers mediation guidance that could also help you fall asleep better and get a good night’s rest. The only drawback is that certain sounds are played on a loop which some users may not like.
Slumber Fall Asleep, Insomnia
Slumber is an app designed to help you fall asleep and improve your sleep quality. It offers many different sounds and features to help you relax and fall asleep. The app has a sleep diary so you can track your sleeping patterns, an alarm clock to help you wake up refreshed, and a timer so you can set how long you want to listen to the sounds.
Slumber is available for iOS and Android phones. It’s free to download from the App Store or Google Play, but you can only use a limited number of sounds for free. The trial period lasts seven days, after which you’ll have to pay 7.99 dollars a month or 49.99 dollars per year if you want to continue using it.
Slumber is easy to set up and use. You enter your age, gender, and sleeping habits into the app. It has a clean layout and is simple to navigate. The only drawback is that some users found that the sounds didn’t help them fall asleep.
Sleep++
Sleep++ is an app designed to help you track your sleep and improve your sleeping habits. The app tracks how long you slept, how often you woke up during the night, and how restless you were during sleep. It also offers tips to help you get a better night’s sleep.
Sleep++ is easy to use and navigate. It’s available for iOS devices and is free to download. It remains free, but there’s an option to pay 2 dollars to remove the advertisements, which might be a good idea to avoid the ads interrupting your sleep. All you have to do is install the app, open it, and put your phone on your bed before going to sleep. The only drawback is that it doesn’t offer many features besides tracking your sleep.
Sleep Cycle
Sleep Cycle is an alarm clock that keeps track of your sleep cycle and wakes you up during a light sleep phase. Waking up in a light sleep should help you feel more refreshed than waking up during deep sleep. The app also offers many different sounds and features to help you relax and fall asleep.
Sleep Cycle is available for iOS and Android devices. It’s free to download from the App Store or Google Play and has a 7-day trial. After the trial period, you can choose between several Premium deals that cost 9.99 dollars to 39.99 dollars. Using the app is easy; You enter your data and leave your phone somewhere near you. The app will then do all the work. You can use Sleep Cycle on your Apple Watch if you don’t want to install it on your phone. The only drawback of Sleep Cycle is that it can easily drain up to 20 percent of your phone battery during the night.
Pillow Automatic Sleep Tracker
Pillow Automatic Sleep Tracker is an app that is designed to track your sleep and improve your sleeping habits. The app tracks how long you slept, many times you wake up during the night, and how calm or restless you are when you sleep. It also offers a number of tips to help you get a better night’s sleep.
Pillow is available for iOS devices and is free to download. It has a clean layout and is simple to navigate. The app doesn’t offer many features besides tracking your sleep, but it’s good for people who want to track their sleep without other bells and whistles. You can also share the app with other family members since six people can use the same membership. Although it’s free to download, the Premium subscription costs up to 249 dollars. If that’s too expensive for you, you can choose the yearly, monthly, or quarterly premium features for 19.99 to 39.99 dollars. The app’s biggest drawback is the high price.
Nature Sounds Relax and Sleep
The Nature Sounds Relax and Sleep app offers nature sounds to help you relax and fall asleep. It has various sounds to choose from, such as rain, waterfalls, birds, thunder, and more. It doesn’t have any musical instruments as it offers only natural sounds for relaxing and healing. You can also play white noise to help you fall asleep. White noise can be helpful for babies who have trouble sleeping as well.
The app is available for iOS and Android systems and is free to download and use. However, you may not be able to use all of its features without paying an additional fee. In-app purchases go from 1.99 dollars to 5.99 dollars depending on the premium. The Nature Sounds Relax and Sleep app helps people with insomnia, headaches, high blood pressure, and pain management. You can schedule when the app will shut off if you don’t want to listen to the sounds throughout the night, which can help preserve battery life. The app should work smoothly, but many people didn’t like the 2019 update because of the price increase and sudden bugs. The media player can pop up at times, and the sound stops when you minimize the app.
Tide
Tide is a sleep tracking app available for both iOS and Android devices. It has a clean and minimalist design and is easy to use. The app offers coaching tips on how to get a better night’s sleep. It focuses on mental and physical care through meditation, relaxation, sleep, and concentration. The app offers natural soundscapes, mindfulness practices, and breathing guides to reduce stress, anxiety, and nervousness you may feel when going to sleep. You can also use it when working or studying to help you focus.
Tide is free to download but offers in-app purchases. The app is limited without purchasing the “Tide Plus” package, which costs 11.99 dollars a month or 59.99 dollars a year. Tide Plus offers you access to all of Tide’s features, such as sleep analysis, heart rate and breathing tracking, and more. You can also choose to pay for the app in monthly, quarterly, or yearly installments. Tide is a good option for people who want to track their sleep and receive tips on how to improve their sleeping habits. It’s connected to HealthKit, so you can synchronize the data to your iPhone’s health app. Tide also supports Siri shortcuts. It’s straightforward but may have a few bugs that cause the white noise to stutter or stop.
Sleep Tracker ++
Sleep Tracker ++ is an app that also goes by the name SleepMatic. This app is designed to track your sleep from an Apple watch. The user would wear their Apple watch to bed, and the app will automatically start tracking their rest. The app’s automatic design could prove beneficial for those with busy lives who may otherwise forget to set up an app before they go to bed.
The app provides a full sleep report every morning. The details in the report include when you go to bed, fall asleep, wake up, and get out of bed. The app will also monitor the times when you’re sleeping well or restless. After a while, you should be able to detect certain trends in your sleeping habits based on these reports. The Sleep Tracker ++ costs 1.99 dollars to download. The app has many positive reviews, but some users say it’s not as accurate as they had hoped.
Sleep as Android
Sleep as Android is an Android app with a smart alarm clock and sleep cycle tracking. It’s designed to wake you up gently and at the best moment so that you wake up well-rested and fresh. It tracks and evaluates the quality of your sleep to determine the sleep phases, regularity, oxygenation, efficiency, and heart rate variability. It can record your sleep talk, detect low breath rate, assist you with lucid dreaming, and more. The Sleep as Android app can act as a bedtime reminder to help you fix your sleep schedule.
Sleep as Android app is free to download, but the trial period lasts only two weeks. After two weeks, you’ll have to pay anywhere between 0.99 dollars to 19.99 dollars, depending on the premium you’re interested in. The biggest drawback is that the app isn’t available for iPhone, as its name suggests.
White Noise Lite
White Noise Lite is an app that offers a variety of sounds to help you relax and sleep. It’s available for iOS and Android devices and is free to download and use. The app has a simple and easy-to-use design with a tab bar at the bottom that lets you quickly switch between the different sounds.
The app has a library of 20 sounds that you can listen to, including ocean waves, thunderstorms, fans, and rainfall. You can also create your mix of sounds by combining the different sounds. The app has a timer that you can set to automatically turn off the sound after a certain amount of time. White Noise Lite is a good option if you’re looking for a simple and easy-to-use sound machine app. The sounds are relaxing and can help you fall asleep or calm down. However, the timer is limited to 60 minutes, which many people consider a drawback.
Sleeprate
Sleeprate is an app that is made to help fight sleep deprivation and promote better rest. Sleeprate’s method is based on Cognitive Behavioral Treatment for Insomnia (CBT-I). The app’s process is broken down into three core steps. First, it tracks your sleep. Second, the app sets up a personalized sleep program for the user. Third, the user should see an improvement in their sleep and daytime function.
Sleeprate is compatible with many leading wearable devices, such as the Apple Watch, Fitbit, and Garmin. Sleeprate can track your sleep stages when used with a compatible heart rate tracking device. The app is free to download but requires a monthly subscription. The subscription can be canceled at any time.
Sleepa
Sleepa is an easy-to-use sleep app that offers 32 HD sounds you can mix into a relaxing ambiance. It has nature sounds, different types of rain, city sounds, instruments, white noise, and more. The city sounds include the subway, plane, fan, and train, while the nature sounds include forest, waterfall, and creek. It’s best to use it before bed so that the sounds can help you relax and fall asleep. It has a timer to schedule when the app stops if you don’t want to listen to it throughout the night. Sleepa can work even without an internet connection, which means it won’t use any data if you don’t have WiFi in your bedroom. You can also use it for meditation and focus as it has white, pink, and brown noise sounds.
Sleepa is available only for Android. It’s free to download, but there are in-app purchases with prices from 0.99 dollars to 49.99 dollars. The purchases allow you to use different features and sounds that may not be available in the free version. The free version has ads that are often too loud for many people.
Sleep Sounds
Sleep Sounds is a sleep app that’s available for Android devices only. The app has a library of sounds that can help you relax, like white noise, rain sounds, nature sounds, and more. It’s designed to help you fall asleep faster, relieve tinnitus and insomnia, improve mood, and ease stress and anxiety. You can also use it to focus better. It allows you to create mixes of sounds that suit your needs the best. You can play the sound in the background since it won’t shut off when you minimize it. It can work without the internet, so it won’t use your data when you don’t have WiFi access. Sleep Sounds has a sleep timer you can set up so that the app shuts off when you fall asleep. It’s a good way of saving battery life because the app can drain your phone if you leave it on throughout the night.
Sleep Sounds is a free app, but it does have in-app purchases going from 0.99 to 14.99 dollars. By paying, you get to use several features that aren’t available in the free version.
Calm
Calm is an app that’s available for both iOS and Android devices. The app has plenty of content to help you relax, sleep, focus, and more. It includes various videos like nature walks, sounds of the ocean, and rainforest sounds. There are also articles on how to meditate and breathe. Calm is for anyone, whether you’re brand new to meditation or a seasoned expert. It’s also for anyone who needs a mental break, a soothing sound, or a peaceful night’s rest. It offers guided meditations in lengths of 3 to 25 minutes, so you can choose the perfect length to fit your schedule. The topics it offers include calming anxiety, deep sleep, relationships, breaking habits, gratitude, and more.
The Calm app is free to download and install, but you can only use certain features without paying. If you want to get the best of it, you’d have to pay 14.99 dollars a month or 69.99 dollars a year, depending on the features you want
Headspace
Headspace is available for both Android and iOS devices. It’s a meditation app with ten free sessions to help you get started with meditation. You don’t need any experience with it, and the sessions are only 10 minutes long. The app also has a free Basics course that will teach you the basics of mindfulness and healthier life. You can get a personalized plan that’s tailored to your specific needs. The app includes audio lessons, videos, articles, and live sessions with experts. It’s designed to help you relax to achieve better sleep and overall mindfulness.
The Headspace app is free to download, but you need a subscription to access all content. The monthly subscription is 12.99 dollars, while an annual subscription is 69.99 dollars. By subscribing, you get access to different features and content you may not be able to access in the free version.
How do Sleep Apps Affect Sleep Quality?
Sleep apps can affect sleep quality by helping you relax, fall asleep faster, stay asleep, and wake up more refreshed. Many apps help to stay asleep by masking noise distractions like a dripping faucet or the cars passing by your house. Sleeping apps are known for their calming effects that improve your sleep quality by helping you relax your body and mind before bed. They can be very helpful in getting rid of any restless thoughts that keep you from falling asleep.
Do Sleep Apps Affect Sleep Cycles?
No scientific study proves that sleep apps don’t affect the sleep stages or sleep cycles. Sleep cycles are regulated by the circadian rhythm, which is the body’s natural sleep-wake cycle. Sleep stages are usually determined by how long you spend in each stage, not by how you fall asleep. It is possible that using a sleep app may help you fall asleep faster, but it’s not clear if this would have any long-term effects on the sleep cycle.
However, sleep app users have generally found that these programs help them stay asleep longer by masking other distracting noises.
What are the Other Factors that Affect Sleep?
Other factors that affect sleep are varied and can be different for everyone. How fast you fall asleep and how well you sleep in general depends on many things.
Other factors that affect sleep are:
- Noise
- Light
- Temperature
- Stress
- Emotions
- Mattress Quality
Jill Zwarensteyn
Editor
About Author
Jill Zwarensteyn is the Editor for Sleep Advisor and a Certified Sleep Science Coach. She is enthusiastic about providing helpful and engaging information on all things sleep and wellness.
Combination Sleeper