When it comes to improving your sleep, the boost you’ve been looking for might be right at your fingertips. There are many sleep apps available that have been crafted to help users everywhere drift off into a peaceful sleep and beat their insomnia. From alarm clocks to mediation apps to those based on cognitive behavioral therapy, there is a sleep app for every level of sleep struggle.
I personally use multiple sleep apps to help improve my sleep routine and overall sleep experience. After changing my thoughts and behaviors surrounding sleep, adjusting my sleep routine, and starting my go-to sleep supplements, I added in some of my favorite sleep apps as icing on the cake.
The great thing about sleep apps is that they are easy to find, convenient to use, and most come with free options along with paid subscriptions for more premium features.
Let’s get started with my personal favorite sleep app that I use literally every night.
Relax MelodiesÂ
Okay, so when it comes to sleep apps, Relax Melodies is my all-time favorite. It is a sleep app that includes both free and subscription plans with many features to help get you sleeping deeply all throughout the night. It includes sleep sounds, sleep stories, and sleep meditations that you can either listen to just while you are drifting off to sleep or that continue throughout the entire night.
Some of the sleep mediations are compiled into a journey that includes several sessions that gradually take you through different sleep-inducing techniques. For instance, there is a Sleep journey called 7 Nights of Blissful Sleep that includes 8 different sessions built on different techniques including mindfulness meditation for sleep, sleep hypnosis, body scan, and progressive muscle relaxation.
The app also provides many immersive sleep stories that guide you through soothing journeys narrated by calming voices that take you deep into another world. The stories allow your mind to drift and distract you from the day’s stress and anxiety.
In addition to the sleep stories and meditations, the app includes access to a variety of sleep sounds that pair perfectly with sleep, including sounds of nature, animals, fans, white noise and even ASMR.
When using the app, I throw on my Bluetooth sleep mask headphones and listen to a sleep meditation called Dropping Into the Present Moment every night. It is a 14-minute sleep meditation that has a calm and soothing voice that guides me through a deep breathing technique and peaceful mantras/thoughts that lull me into sleep.
The thing I probably love the most about the sleep app is that it allows you to customize the mix of sounds that you listen to either on their own or along with the sleep stories and meditations. For example, my current sound mix is composed of a combination of an oscillating fan, wind in the trees, and white noise. It plays alongside my meditation and I have set it up to continue my custom sound mix all throughout the night even when the meditation is over. With my sleep mask headphones, I can allow the mix to play all throughout the night while not interrupting my partner while allowing me to drown out his snoring.
PzizzÂ
Pzizz is a sleep app that “utilizes effective psychoacoustic principles to create beautiful dreamscapes that will help you fall asleep fast, stay asleep, and wake up feeling refreshed.”
The app offers a variety of different dreamscapes which are a mix of specialized sounds that were curated to help you fall asleep. One of the dreamscapes is Heliophoric which utilizes a mix of instruments and sounds that have been shown in research to minimize anxiety and reduce stress. It guides the listener into heart and breathing rates that are conducive to sleep.
You can also choose which narration you would like to play on top of the dreamscape. The narration options are based on science-backed techniques such as diaphragmatic breathing, grounding, and guided imagery. You can even customize your journey with a specified time for the music and voice to fade out.
What’s even more unique about the app is that the options are split into 3 different categories based on your goal for the session. The 3 categories are Sleep, Nap and Focus and each has its own special set of dreamscapes and narrations that were curated to either help you relax and fall asleep to wake up with more energy after a nap, fall asleep and stay asleep easily throughout the night or focuscapes that help you calm your mind and center your thoughts.
You can also set a timer for when you want the dreamscape or focuscape to be over so that you can time your perfect power nap (check out my previous post The Art of the Power Nap to learn just how long the perfect power nap should be) or wake up relaxed and refreshed in the morning or end your focus meditation.
CBT-I Coach
CBT-I stands for cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia and is the number 1 recommended treatment for people who suffer from chronic insomnia. It is based on the principles of cognitive restructuring and sleep education to change maladaptive behaviors surrounding sleep and treat insomnia.
What I love about the app is that it can be used along with in-person CBT-I with a therapist or sleep specialist like myself, or it can be used as a stand-alone app to educate on the principles of CBT-I to improve sleep and cure chronic insomnia.
This is the app that I encourage my clients to use when we are doing our coaching sessions because it gives them so much great information right at their fingertips while we discuss the strategies together.
I also love that it includes a sleep diary that allows people to track their progress and pick up on poor sleep habits and patterns that may be contributing to their sleep issues.
I recommend taking a look at these sleep apps and get on your way to transforming your sleep. Whether you are struggling with chronic insomnia or just looking for a way to take your sleep to the next level, there’s something for everyone.