Sleep Cycle: My Favourite iPhone App

If you’ve been a reader for a while you probably have come to the realization that Alaryyk and I are “macheads”, “appleheads”, or whatever you call people who only use mac devices.  They are just…better!  They may be a little pricier, but they save you so much money that you would otherwise spend having your PC hard drive wiped of viruses several times per year, and their laptops last for ten years!  They also offer big discounts for students and educators.  Plus, iPhone technology is at least a year ahead of all other touch-screen technology (I read this in a paper and cannot remember the source, but believe me, we’ve tried others and they’re almost impossible to type with).

In case you have an iPhone, I want to tell you about my favourite app – Sleep Cycle.  It is ideal for insomniacs, and/or people who have a hard time crawling out of bed in the morning.  You place your phone upside down in your bed, and for the first couple of nights, it detects the movements you make as you slip into different cycles of sleep – deep sleep, dreaming, and waking.  Then, it wakes you up either at the time that you have set the alarm to go off, if you remain in deep sleep at that time, or up to half an hour earlier, if it detects that you have drifted into less deep sleep during that half hour.  Thus, when you are awoken, you feel much less tired than you would otherwise.  I have been using this app for several months now, and it hasn’t let me down.  It is only 99¢ at the app store – a dollar very well spent in my opinion – less than half of a one-way ride on the bus, and it never expires!  Plus, it comes with a lot more appealing alarm “sounds” than the standard iPhone sounds – I use Eric Satie’s “Gymnopedie”, myself!  Much better than a quacking duck.

Going to a sleep clinic to have your sleep patterns analyzed often entails a multi-year waiting list and/or thousands of dollars.  I recommend this highly to anyone who struggles with sleep.  It provides a graph of your night’s sleep for each night you use it, which is also incredibly interesting – how long were you dreaming for?  Were you exceptionally tired or did you have difficulty reaching deep sleep?

Here are a few examples:

An “average sleeper’s” graph

“Disturbed Sleep” – now this one looks more like mine usually does!

Sleep under the influence of alcohol!  Now that’s why I always wake up about three to four hours after falling asleep when I drink (very rarely now, for this reason along with my hatred for the liquor hangover).

This device has made crawling out from beneath the covers a lot easier for me, even when I’ve only gotten a few hours of sleep.  Insomniacs unite!