Ever since I started reviewing iPhone apps a few years ago, I’ve come across dozens of innovative and useful apps, but very few of them have impressed me as much as Sleep Cycle has.
Now, where to start? Sleep Cycle is an app for the iPhone (sorry iPod Touch users,) that allows you to monitor your sleep patterns and average sleep time. I know that doesn’t sound particularly interesting, but I haven’t gotten to the best part yet. Sleep Cycle isn’t one of those apps where you have to manually input your sleep data, no, this app allows you to put your iPhone under your covers, where the built-in accelerometer measures movement and translates it into a nice graph.
The first time I tried this I must admit I was a bit skeptical, but when I woke up in the morning there was a cool graph documenting my sleep pattern from the night before (deep sleep, dreaming, and awake.) In addition to monitoring sleep patterns, Sleep Cycle slowly wakes you up at a preset time so it feels like you’re naturally waking up. I was skeptical of this too at first, but to my surprise, it really does work.
This video demonstration really sold me on Sleep Cycle:
I would strongly recommend that you buy this app, and for $0.99 a more seamless, functional sleep app can’t be found. Sleep Cycle gets an A+ in my book.
Visit Sleep Cycle’s website here
Buy Sleep Cycle [App Store, $0.99]
Note: The views expressed above are mine alone and not necessarily those of iPhonefreak.com.
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March 18th, 2010 at 8:05 am
I've been using Sleep Cycle now for a few months and I agree with this review. Getting a sleep graph may not sound all that exciting but it is really addictive. It is especially good at explaining why you might feel tired even if you've gotten 8 hrs of sleep (you might have disturbed sleep architecture ie. the different stages och sleep cycles). I've found that it doesn't work equally well on all mattrasses (I've tried 3 different ones), the softer the better. But I've been so impressed with the alarm sounds that even though I haven't been able to get a descent sleep graph, I've still used it just for the really nice alarm sounds!
March 18th, 2010 at 4:35 pm
I've been using it for a couple of weeks and, since it begins to wake you up when you are in a light sleep state, I've found that I am getting out of bed about 20 minutes earlier and feeling much more rested when I wake. It's well worth the 99 cents and the slightly annoying bit about sleeping with my phone.
March 18th, 2010 at 6:02 pm
Wondering if your phone can still ring while the app is running, as that would NOT be good!!! I suppose one should set their phone to the silent mode while app is running? Wondering if that has been a problem for anyone…. Comments?
March 19th, 2010 at 8:33 pm
Pretty cool app. I don't usually purchase to many apps, but I think this will be one of them! Great review as well.
March 20th, 2010 at 12:56 am
I have used it for a couple of weeks….and its pretty cool to see the nights you have had some "drinks"….how comatose you are. Deep, deep sleep cycle. But yet, in the am, your up refreshed. Of course the days you wake up and your rest has been less than stellar, you know why…. woken up in the middle of the night…or too much tossing and turning. You tend to remember then….Love the wake up sounds. I just wish there was a way to have it ring without the vibrate, it kinda ruins it for me…and I really dont want to deactivate my vibrate just for this app. Cause I forget to reactivate it and I miss stuff I need.
Otherwise a fantastic app! Thanks!
March 29th, 2010 at 12:12 pm
Very nice iPhone app,i really appreciate the developers of this iPhone app.
May 15th, 2010 at 10:36 am
i think its an amazing think , i think it requires some special hardware to monitor the situation , anyway unbelievable ,really interesting to try this application .