Sleep Cycle - Sleep Tracker

Description of App

Waking up made easy.

An intelligent alarm clock that analyzes your sleep and wakes you in the lightest sleep phase – the natural way to wake up feeling rested and relaxed. 

We now help more than a million people wake up rested!

Featured in: CNN, Wired, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, BBC, The New York Times and many more.

#1 Top Paid app in Japan 
#1 Top Paid app in Germany 
#1 Top Paid app in France 
#1 Top Paid app in Russia 
#1 Top Paid app in Netherlands 
#1 Top Paid app in Taiwan 
#1 Top Paid app in South Korea 
#1 Top Paid app in Sweden 
#1 Top Paid app in Norway 
...and many more. 

"It just works. Period. It does exactly what it advertises which is absolutely amazing." 
-- 5/5 stars on 148apps.com

Sleep cycle is continuously rated as the best intelligent alarm clock, Sleep Cycle is now the worlds most used intelligent alarm clock.

  • Sleep Cycle monitors your movement during sleep using the extremely sensitive accelerometer in your iPhone.
  • Sleep Cycle then finds the optimal time to wake you up during a 30 minute window that ends at your set alarm time.
  • Look at the screenshots for recommended iPhone placement. 

As you sleep you go through different phases, ranging from deep sleep to light sleep. The phase you are in when your alarm goes off is critical for how tired you will feel when you wake up. 

Since you move differently in bed during the different phases, Sleep Cycle can use the accelerometer in your iPhone to monitor your movement and determine which sleep phase you are in. 

Sleep Cycle wakes you when you are in your lightest sleep phase. 

Sleep Cycle was developed using proven sleep science and years of research and development. 

MAIN FEATURES

  • Waking up made easy! Sleep Cycle analyzes your sleep and wakes you in your lightest sleep phase.
  • Detailed sleep statistics and sleep graphs for every night.
  • 15 carefully selected, high quality, alarm melodies.
  • Use iPod music as wake up sound
  • Snooze by shaking or tapping the phone lightly.
  • Customizable wake up window. From instant (regular alarm clock) up to 90 minutes.
  • Background mode - set your alarm and exit Sleep Cycle - sleep analysis will continue in the background
  • Sleep notes: see how events such as drinking coffee, eating too much or having a stressful day affect your sleep quality
  • Long term graphs: track sleep quality over time, see which days of the week you sleep best and much more
  • Export sleep data to Excel for detailed analysis

REQUIREMENTS 
Ability to charge your phone by the bed
Ability to place your iPhone according to the instructions (see screenshots)

Version

4.1

Free or Paid

Free

Apple Watch Support

Yes

Device(s) App Was Tested On

iPhone

iOS Version

11.3

Accessibility Comments

Works great with VoiceOver. Even some parts of the statistics screen are accessible, such as your average time sleeping or your best and worst nights. Only glitch I've found is that the wake-up mood (optional feature) doesn't read on the statistics screen, but you are able to set one.

VoiceOver Performance

VoiceOver reads most page elements.

Button Labeling

All buttons are clearly labeled.

Usability

There are some minor accessibility issues with this app, but they are easy to deal with.

Other Comments

As this was mentioned on the latest Maccessibility podcast, I figured it would work with VoiceOver, and except for the little glitch above, it does. I've only had it a few nights, but it has performed well.

Recommendations

2 people have recommended this app

Most recently recommended by Jen 11 years 4 months ago

Options

Comments

By Hadi on Friday, February 22, 2013 - 04:14

Hello this app is very amazing! It's 100% accurate, and also very accessible! Good god it's been a while that i don't hear my alarm clock taking me out out of a deep, delicious sleep. since this app atempts to wake you up while you are in a light sleep phase, i always feel good and refreshed when it goes off! it just is awesome that i am no longer experiencing that worse feeling of tiredness when waking up! This app remains my #1 best top app, because i also suffer from a long-term insomnia. i hope that we could be able to use the graph thing, so i'm going to contact the developer and see that if they can add a featured-sleep log for voice over users, who can't look up at the sleep graph. this way we could be able to know that how much we were in a deep sleep and monitor our sleep phase during the night. for people who want to know where to place your phone, just put it beside you in your bed in such a way that you don't knock it off while in sleep! Enjoy, and i defenetly recommend this to app who those using there iphone as an for their alarm clock!

By heidi on Friday, February 22, 2013 - 04:14

Hi there, I have have used Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock, but now I have a new favorite... It is called WakeApp - it has similar features, and it also records the noises that occur during the night (snoring, talking, laughing (!!) and also other noises that disturb my sleep). I think it´s really awesome, check it out! https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wakeapp-alarm-clock-sleep/id392358256?mt=8
Hello there heidi may i know that how is the statistic page look like in the wake up app? does it offer a log? or like sleep cycle that part is not accessible and you can only see your total hours slept and total hours in bed
Hi Hadi, the statistics in WakeApp show you when you fell asleep, how long it took you to fall asleep, how long you were in deep sleep and light sleep/awake phases and sums it all up by giving you a sleep quality index (SQI) in percent. So you can find out over time how your personal SQI is. And you can also see your actual movements in graph form.

By Jen on Monday, July 22, 2013 - 04:14

When the alarm wakes you up, there's a question that asks, "How did you feel upon waking." VoiceOver only says "form 1, form 2, form 3" for the choices. Does anyone know what the actual choices are?
Hi Jen, If you are using the Sleep cycle Alarm Clock app, how are you getting to the wake up screen? I've never gotten the "stop" button on the alarms screen to work, and have just had to close the app as it says in my original post. Thanks, Chelsea

By Callum Stoneman on Monday, July 22, 2013 - 04:14

I've also never been able to get to the wake-up screen. I did get to the form 1, 2 and 3 choices once but don't have a clue how I did it, I must have been still half asleep :)

By Jen on Monday, July 22, 2013 - 04:14

Inside the app, the "stop" button doesn't seem to work. But if you close the app after the alarm goes off, then double tap your home button to go into the app switcher and close the sleep cycle app from there, you will see the wake-up screen when you reopen the app. It's a strange way to have to go about it, but it's the only way I've got it to work so far. And don't worry about losing data when you close the app; everything will still be there once you get back into it.

By Jen on Sunday, September 22, 2013 - 04:14

Hi Everyone, I just wanted to let you know that you can now turn off the alarm from within the app. The "stop" button finally works. There's no longer a need to exit the app, go into the app switcher, and turn it off. "Stop" works whether the alarm goes off, or you wake up early before the alarm.

By Explorer on Monday, September 22, 2014 - 04:14

Hi Heidi About this up, is there a way to stop it early when you wake up? I tried to use it but when I do there are no buttons once it starts recording. I had to turn off voice over and start tapping on the screen. But then I lost my original recording. Any suggestions? I also emailed the developer. Thank you.

By TheBlindDragon on Wednesday, July 22, 2015 - 04:14

Wow! That sounds like a great app! I've never used that app before.

By treky fan on Wednesday, July 22, 2015 - 04:14

Hi, I'm thinking of buying this app, but I have one question about it. In order to monitor your sleep, where is the best spot to set you I-phone, and can this app monitor your sleep even if you don't have it open?

By treky fan on Wednesday, July 22, 2015 - 04:14

I just bought this app, however, I'm confused. How do you set the alarm? I thought it would be under the alarm tab, but I don't see any way to set the alarm. Do you have to use your iPhone regular alarm clock?

By TheBlindDragon on Wednesday, July 22, 2015 - 04:14

In reply to by treky fan

I'm not sure, maybe contact the app developer and ask them your question? I don't have the app installed

By Chelsea on Wednesday, July 22, 2015 - 04:14

Hi,
To set an alarm, go to the alarms tab and use the pickers to set the time. Although the app just updated, I checked in the setting alarm mechanism appears to be the same. Write back if you find different.

By Joseph Westhouse on Friday, January 22, 2016 - 04:14

Can anyone speak to how this app works if you're not sleeping alone? My wife gets out of bed earlier than I do most mornings because she has to go to work significantly earlier than me, and I'm too lazy to get up at the same time. I'm concerned that her motion in the morning will confuse the accelerometer and it won't have as good of an idea about when I should wake up. Anyone have experience with this and can comment either way?

By Quinton Williams on Tuesday, August 22, 2017 - 04:14

The app now no-longer has the issue where the stop button doesn't work. ALso, you no-longer need to have your device in bed with you due to the addition of sound analysis.

By Chelsea on Tuesday, May 22, 2018 - 04:14

Hi,

I've updated the app's directory listing to bring it more in alignment with the current iOS versions. I continue to use this app almost every night and was thrilled that they announced support for the appleWatch (finally!!) I can post the AppleWatch app to the associated directory, but wanted to ask if anyone else is having this issue before I do.

Waking up works great! Setting the alarm works great. However, once you've actually started a sleep session, no sound is heard from VO. I'm not sure if this has something to do with how they record the sound or not. This means that you can't check the time audibly during the night using your watch, nor can you stop the built-in alarm when it wakes you up. solution? Place your phone on the charger out of reach so you have to get out of bed to stop the alarm. I know, I know, unexpected feature, but was wondering if other people had the same experience.

Hi,

Yes, I'm also experiencing that once the alarm has started, there is no sound from VoiceOver, or from the watch or iPhone in general. Also, Taptic Time on the watch doesn't work while the alarm is in progress. Do you know if the developers are aware of this issue?

I used to love using this app a few years ago and have now just found it again. If the issue with no sound from VO could be resolved I would definitely start using it again.