Top 10 Apps for Better Sleep

There have been ample scientific studies that harps on the importance of sleep for a healthy and productive life. A night of good full sleep helps us get rid of all the exhaustion and start our day with a lot of energy. Not just for physical needs but even mental and emotional fatigue can be dealt with a propoer sleep. And as we fall asleep, we put a stop on this mental marathon of thoughts and emotions. We wake up with a reset, refreshed mind. 

But with less physical activity and more sedentary life nowadays, our body sometimes finds it difficult to slip into a slumber immediately. Also, increased use of technology results in a stimulated brain which is not easy to turn off. However, we can use technology itself to solve this problem. There are many apps in the market that helps us deal with insomnia and other sleep-related issues. Let's check out the best ones.

Sleepa

Rating: 4.6

Downloads: 1M+

Storage Space: 38 MB

• Sleepa offers a collection of music and sounds of HD quality which can be used to build a perfect ambience for sleep or meditation.
• 32 selected sounds from 4 categories- rain, nature, city and meditation sounds. 
• It also includes – white noise, pink noise and brown noise. 
• You have the option of saving your favourite pieces of sound.
• Timer option lets you set the automatic cutoff.
• No internet connection is required hence you can use it anywhere without worrying about the network.
• It is present for only Android phones.

Sleep Cycle

Rating: 4.4 (Android)

Downloads: 5M+

Storage Space: 54 MB

• This app employs an innovative technology- accelerometer that uses the microphone of your device to monitor your sound patterns and estimate the stages of the sleep cycle. 
• It then wakes you up when you are at your lightest, non-REM stage of sleep.
• It wakes you up with a gentle wake up call with suitable alarm melodies.
• It will help you understand your sleep pattern better as it creates an entire graphical analysis of your sleep cycle.
• You need not keep the phone on your bed or under your pillow, it works just fine if you leave it on the nightstand or even floor.
• It offers two snooze options- intelligent and normal. Intelligent snooze makes each snooze period smaller, slowly waking you up. You can snooze by shaking the phone or double-tapping. 
• It also offers a customizable wake-up window for up to 90 minutes.
• Free app with in-app purchases which are optional and cost between - ₹50 - ₹5200 per item.
• Available for Android and iOS.

Sleep as Android

Rating: 4.5

Downloads: 10M+

Storage Space: 19 MB

• Similar to the previous app, Sleep as Android monitors your sleep cycle and wakes you up when your sleep is lightest.
• It provides sleep deprivation stats and bedtime notification.
• It provides binaural beats; nature sounds and lullabies to help you fall asleep easily.
• It prevents you from snoozing by providing CAPTCHA, math solutions and different other methods.
• Playlists for alarm including online radio-alarm.
• It also provides the feature of snoring and sleep talk recording along with anti-snoring stats.
• It can detect heart rate using android wear and BT smart devices.
• It can be synced to the smart light to help you wake up easier.
• It provides various sleep advice and can be integrated into health devices like Google Fit.
• It is free with optional purchases within the app.
• It is supported only on android devices.

Slumber: Fall Asleep, Insomnia 

Rating: 4.4

Storage Space: 98.8 MB 

• It offers different ‘slumber episodes' which like the app claims, will make you fall into a deep sleep within minutes.
• It offers a library of relaxing, sleep-inducing stories, kid’s stories, ASMR and soundscapes.
• You can choose your favourite nature sound and background effect to help you sleep. You can tag your favourite ones and listen to them offline. 
• It also offers meditation guides and stories that try to induce mindfulness, hypnosis and gratitude to help you relax.
• You can customize the sounds and also postpone the ending of the episode.
• You can tag your favourite pieces to listen to offline. 
• The free version provides 10+ episodes and you need to buy premium to gain full access to the rest.
• It is compatible with iOS.

Relax & Sleep Well

Rating: 4.7

Downloads: 500K+ (Android)

Storage Space: 82MB (Android) & 187 MB (iOS) 

• The app contains hypnotic and meditative sessions by clinical hypnotherapist and author of 7 self-help books Glenn Harrold.
• In the free version, you get 4 hypnotherapy and meditation recordings and more than hundred recordings in paid subscription covering topics like self-confidence, sleep, weight loss, spiritual healing, self-esteem, binaural beats, phobias and addictions etc.
• All recordings are professional studio quality.
• It contains a user-friendly interface and a support system, which resolves your queries within 24 hours.
• The free version provides with 29-minute-long hypnotherapy sessions among others that will help you relax.
• The app employs Glenn’s hypnotic vocals, affirmations and suggestions for the user’s subconscious mind and specific musical notes and frequencies to induce calmness.
• It is compatible with Android and iOS.
• In premium, each track would cost around ₹300.

Digipill

Rating: 3.7

Downloads: 50K+ (Android)

Storage Space: 8.3 MB(Android) & 117 MB (iOS) 

• This app helps you beat insomnia and other mental setbacks through guided meditation recording by Brian Colbert, a leading expert in NLP (Neuro-linguistic programming, a psychological approach of trying to change our thinking to achieve personal goals.)
• The ‘relaxation -pill’ is a 20 minutes recording which helps you relax. It is present in the free version.
• Except this one there are more 12 ‘pills’ or recorded sessions that you can buy from Pill Store within the app.
• The concept of the sessions being using psychoacoustics to tap into your subconscious mind and change your perception of things for better.
• All you need to do is download the session, put the headphones on and find a quiet corner. 

Headspace

Rating: 3.6

Downloads: 10M+ (Android)

Storage Space:  17 MB 

• The app is mainly used for guided mediative techniques to reduce stress and anxiety but it is also very effective when it comes to help in falling asleep.
• It offers original stories and relaxing background sounds to help your mind relax.
• It also has guided exercises to help you wind down your body and mind and make you ready for deep sleep.
• The free version has around 45 minute long audio recordings that induce calmness by making visualize specific experiences.
• The paid version offers around 40 mediation courses which can cost you around ₹120 to ₹8300 per item.
• It can be downloaded both in Android as well as iOS devices.

Pzizz 

Rating: 3.8

Downloads: 500K+ (Android)

Storage Space:  855 MB(Android) & 34.3 MB (iOS) 

• This widely recommended app plays ‘ dreamscapes’ which are sleep optimized mix of audio that keeps on changing every night.
• The recording contains- carefully selected music, voiceovers and other background sound effects including 3D voice.
• It will relax your mind quickly and make you fall into an undisturbed deep sleep and then wake you up with a fresh mind.
• It also includes a wake-up recording that slowly wakes up your mind and body and fills it with energy.
• It also offers nap-module and focus-module with crafted recordings to induce the same.
• You can customize the sleep duration, voice gender, 3D effect and volumes according to your need and interest.
• The app is free but you can also download the Pro version which comes with 7 days free trial and then you can pay around ₹744 (depending on your plan and in-app purchases)

Noisli

Rating: 4.2/3.1

Downloads: 100K+ (Android)

Storage Space: 215 MB(Android) & 265.9 MB (iOS) 

• This is a high-quality background sound and colour generator that helps you get relaxed.
• It mostly helps you drown out distracting sounds and concentrate better on your work or sleep.
• It provides a wide range of sounds from nature like- forest, waves, birds to city like- coffee shop, train etc. and lets you play them offline anywhere.
• You can also create your own mix.
• Countdown timer function helps you to become more efficient in your work as well as fall asleep easily.
• It comes at a small price of ₹160, a one-time payment. 
• It can be downloaded both on Android as well as iOS system.

Reflectly

Rating: 4.3/4.6

Downloads: 1M+ (Android)

Storage Space: 23 MB(Android) & 120.6 MB (iOS) 

• Although it is not a sleep-inducing app it can help you clear your head and make you more susceptible to sleep.
• The app employs AI to help you journal daily, reflect on how your day went- the negatives as well as positives. It teaches you to deal with negativity and pronounce the influence of positive things.
• It uses psychological techniques like mindfulness, gratitude, cognitive behavioural therapy to help you gain perspective in life and have lesser mental and emotional baggage.
• It gives you guided questions and helps you to organize your thoughts.
• Using this before bed will surely make it easier for you to let go of all your worries and embrace a sweet sleep. 

 Conclusion

Here is a bonus visualization practice you can try on days when your phone gets discharged or you feel like going for some non-tech method. This technique will help you fall asleep in minutes (even if you are sitting!) 

Close your eyes and concentrate on your breaths. Take a few deep breaths. Now slowly as you breathe out, imagine as the air is passed out of your nostrils, you are slowly sinking into your bed. Imagine your body, every part of it – legs, hands, torso, head all of it is getting pulled into the ocean that is your bed. Keep on imagining it in a loop. It’s a tried and tested method that will pull you into a deep slumber almost immediately. 

---

Co-author:  Shreya Arya

A digital marketing enthusiast with experience in HR and hospital management, Shreya has wide interests ranging from philosophy, psychology to latest trends in automation. She is also a freelance content writer and loves lending beautiful words to ideas and feelings.