The Best Sleep Tracker Apps for iOS and Android Author: Purple Staff Share Tweet Share

Your mobile device can be used to monitor your sleeping patterns as you sleep. There are many sleep tracking apps available that can help improve the way you sleep, so you wake up feeling refreshed each day. These are the top 5 best sleep tracker apps you can get for your phone or wearable device. Top 5 Sleep Tracking Apps Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock (Android, iOS) Fitbit (iOS, Android, Windows) Sleep Genius (Android, iOS) Pillow (iOS, Apple Watch) Sleep as Android (Android, Android Wear OS) For some of us, getting to sleep and staying asleep is tough. Some people believe that sleeping poorly is a simple fact of life, and they may even rely on sleep medicine to get through the night. But there are a great many factors that affect our sleep that we don’t notice since we’re asleep when they occur. Sleep tracking apps can help you discover which internal and external factors are affecting your sleep while you’re soaring through dreamland. Once you’re able to see your sleep trends in colorful graphs on your phone or wearable device, you’ll be able to track your breathing, hone your sleep patterns, and learn how to get the good sleep you deserve. How Do Sleep Tracker Apps Work?

Most sleep tracker apps can measure the duration and quality of your sleep from under your pillow. So how do these things work, anyway? Let’s take a look at how this smart tech tracks your ZZZs. Movement Sleep tracking apps understand when you’re sleeping and which sleep state you’re in based on your movements while sleeping. Your phone has a nifty piece of hardware in it called an accelerometer. This allows it to monitor movement, acceleration, and the force of gravity. If you have a wearable device, it’s likely equipped with an actigraph sensor, which tracks movement more precisely than an accelerometer. You tend to move more during some states of sleep (early sleep stages) and less during deep sleep (the later sleep stages and REM sleep), so by tracking your movements, your device understands which state of sleep you’re in and its duration. Heart Rate Wearable devices can monitor your heart rate, providing even more information about your sleep state. When you fall asleep, your heart rate slows down and your blood pressure drops. Then, when you hit REM sleep, your heart rate can go up again as you dream. By measuring these fluctuations, you can get a much clearer picture of your sleep cycle. Sound Many sleep apps activate your microphone at night to capture any noises that might be interrupting your sleep (with sometimes hilarious results). What you want to listen for here are the sounds coming from your body. You might have unknown issues with sleep apnea, restricted breathing, or snoring that are preventing you from achieving satisfying sleep. Environmental Changes Some sleep trackers monitor environmental changes such as the brightness and temperature in your bedroom. The app will then correlate these factors to your sleep cycle to tell you how to improve your sleep. Lifestyle Choices

Sleep trackers can do a lot without your help, but one of the most important tasks is up to you. Most apps ask you to document lifestyle factors and things you’ve done throughout your day to determine what could improve your sleep. For example, an app might ask how many coffees you drink, when you eat dinner, whether you smoke, etc. What you do during the day can have a huge impact on your sleep at night, so inputting these lifestyle choices is crucial to understanding the big picture. Why Should I Track My Sleep? Apps already take up most of our day, so do you really need one to ferry you to dreamland too? If you have trouble sleeping, you should give one of these apps a try (and it’s not like you don’t already bring your phone to bed every night). Here’s why. Get More Sleep The biggest benefit of sleep trackers is that they help you sleep more. Recognizing patterns in your sleep cycle and daily habits can help you change your environment and your schedule to maximize sleeping hours. Or, you might find out about sleep disorders you didn’t even know you had and then be able to seek a medical solution. Studies show that getting more sleep reduces the risk of illness, improves mood, boosts the immune system, and helps regulate your weight. Improve Your Sleep Quality Getting more sleep is good but improving your sleep quality is just as important. If you find that your sleep cycle is irregular, it could be causing a lot of havoc in your life. You might find that natural light in your room is affecting your sleep patterns and that going to bed earlier will help you sleep more soundly. The first step to improving your sleep quality is to analyze your sleep cycle with the data generated by these apps. Understand What Causes Poor Sleep The microphone and movement trackers in your device can help you understand what’s causing problems with your sleep. Whether it’s snoring or breathing problems, a partner tossing and turning, or temperature fluctuations, you can get to the bottom of it pretty quickly with these sleep tools. The lifestyle tracker can also help you understand if your choices during the day are affecting your sleep at night. When you see the trends laid out clearly, you can make effective changes to your routine. Wake Up Rested