The Sleep Cycle App has been around for quite a while, but it really is a great iPhone app and has now dropped in price to just 69p. This intelligent app monitors your sleep throughout the night. You set an alarm for the time you have to get up and for the half hour before that time, the app waits for when you're in your lightest sleep and then wakes you up with a pleasant alarm clock. You wake up feeling refreshed, less groggy, and much more ready to face the day.
BUT DOES IT REALLY WORK?
Remarkably enough, it really does. In different sleep states, from light to deep, you move differently. The accelerometer that is inbuilt into your iPhone monitors this movement throughout your sleep. The app then allows a 30-minute window in which to wake you up before your desired alarm time. During this period, Sleep Cycle will wake you up when it senses that you are in a lighter sleep.
With a usual alarm clock, you could be awoken during any sleep state. If it wakes you during a deep sleep, you will feel much more tired and groggy, even if you have slept for longer. The Sleep Cycle is much more likely to wake you up at the optimum time, and you will feel much better because of it.
EXTRAS
Not only do you get awoken at the optimum time, but you can also simply tap the iPhone to put it on snooze. Don't worry about sleeping in, though, as the snooze times soon get shorter and the alarms get a lot louder!
Also, see how you've slept. The Sleep Cycle monitors your sleep throughout the whole night and the results are displayed in the morning in the form of a graph so you can see when you've been in your lightest and deepest sleep and how long you slept for.
To get the app, go to iTunes.
