10 Top Apps To Track Sleep For Better Productivity

Since 16 hours of the office workers' time are divided between 8 tracked hours of work and recommended 8 hours of healthy sleep, they seem the easiest thing to manage.

However, the demands of 24/7 economy are more than often satisfied at the expense of sleep hours.

This price is no way justifiable because our well-being and productivity are linked, among other factors, in getting good sleep.

With a variety of sleep solutions on the market, there is no need to wait for the National Napping Day to enjoy a healthy sleep. But before exploring advances in technology of managing sleep, let's revisit the basics.

Why Is Good Sleep Important

With 2 billion people suffering from insomnia, it comes as no surprise that the market of tech solutions for sleep management is on the rise. Indeed, aside from sleep disorders, people have multiple sleep issues that can be addressed by taking a data-driven approach to improving sleep hygiene.

The data on sleep research prove that insufficient sleep:

makes a negative impact on productivity
increases diseases risk
impairs cognitive and driving skills
undermine judgement
causes physical and mental tiredness including headaches and poor focus
decreases the level of performance.

How Long Is It Enough To Sleep

The specific number of sleep hours your body needs for building a healthy sleep is easy to assess by monitoring your well-being during your waking time: if you feel energetic throughout the day rather than sluggish, you got enough hours.

On the contrary, feeling overwhelmed too easily, or prone to overeating might be a signal that you have to reschedule your night routine and allot more time for sleep.

With taking into consideration genetic variations, the need in sleep hours for an adult varies from 7.5 to maximum 8.5 hours per 24-hour cycle.

One of the techniques that promises the immediate results when you want to fall asleep fast is attributed to popularity among military.

What Factors Contribute To Good Sleep

The factors making an impact on good sleep are:

Light: exposure to natural daylight makes not only the good start for the day but actually gets your body and brain ready for a good healthy sleep. When you sleep it is advisable though that the room is dark.
Menu: in regard to drinks, it is common knowledge that you need to avoid caffeine intake 6 hours before you go to bed.
Stress Level: staying physically active during the day will help build the 'sleep drive' and manage stress at best.
Environment: keeping the bedroom cool at about 20 degrees helps get healthy sleep.
Screen time: NOT checking email or social media right before bed is what you owe your brain and body.

Best Sleep Management Apps

According to studies, the global sleep tracker apps market demonstrated big growth dynamics since 2013 when the first sleep-tracker was introduced. The benefits associated with a ‘well-managed’ sleep are significant.

Data about quality of sleep can come handy for improving the situation. The main principles of sleep tracking and the brilliant explanation of its mechanism is a must read that you can find here.

Diving deeper, we identified the sleep apps that can surely enhance your sleep experience and help you claim your 8 hours of sweet dreams time.

Sleep tracking apps are ideal as detection tools for spotting issues associated with your sleep (in particular, snoring and sleep debt). By introducing these 10 sleep apps to your daily routine, you enrich your sleep hygiene for better productivity and increased stamina.

Awoken - Lucid Dreaming Tool

One of the reported effects of being in the lockdown is the increased number of people that describe their dreams as more intense and vivid. To utilize this time for coping with stress, you can try Awoken app designed to journal your dreams and enhance your sleep experience.

The app was installed for more than 500000 times, and got lots of positive feedback from consumers. It enables you to keep record of all the dreams and send you low audio cues to activate 'lucid dreaming' mindset by playing a special Totem Sound you choose.

What's more, it highlights the most highly repetitive topics from your journal so that you could see the patterns and explore your dreams further. It's a free app with additional in-app options that you can purchase for $0.99 - $1.99 per item.

Sleep Orbit Calm 3D Sounds

3D audio delivers you 'real-life-sounding' effects to help you get healthy sleep and reduce anxiety. With the number of over 1 million installations, Sleep Orbit got massive popularity across all the age groups. It offers high-quality recorded actors' voices available even in offline mode.

The user can choose among 17 unique categories of sounds with the additional option of importing their own audio files.

If you feel a creative streak, you can make your own mixes including dynamic themes with scenic views, and they will be saved and stored automatically.

What's more, while using this app for falling asleep, you can set a mute timer that will silence the sounds and turn your device to save battery power.

Relax Melodies

It is a free app designed to assist you in exploring the best sleep management practices that 35 million other users implemented. In case you are facing insomnia or any sleep-related issues, giving a try to this app is fitting.

The name speaks for itself and suggests that you choose from a collection of relaxing melodies and sounds of nature. Additionally, the app features a choice of mindfulness meditations you can entwine into the sound mix to enhance your sleep experience.

What's more, you can integrate the preferred songs from your own music library into the sound compositions to experiment with customized sleep solutions and discover the best working for you.

Peak Sleep

By including Peak Sleep app in your digital diet, you opt for healthy sleep hygiene. There are 8 sleep management practices to choose from for more restful sleep: Mindfulness Meditation, Guided Imagery, Progressive Muscle Relaxation, Acceptance, and commitment Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Relaxation Music, Natural Sounds and Breathing Exercises.

About 80% of app users confirmed good results in improving their sleep routine with Peak Sleep. The app encompasses sleep tracking to compile sleep-related data.

What's more, it provides personalized recommendations based on your sleep stats, over 120 sleep relaxing guides, and the option of recording the sleep progress in your digital sleep diary.

Sleep Cycle

Appreciated by over 5 million users, Sleep Cycle became a leading sleep management software due to its tracking functions that help analyze your sleep patterns in a click.

By selecting your wake-up time, you ensure that the app rings the alarm during the light phase of your sleep, which means waking up refreshed.

The app's built-in tracker collects and processes the data to evaluate whether you are in light or deep sleep and wake you up at the most perfect moment within a 30-minute window that you set.

Taking a scientifically backed approach to relaxation in sleep management is key to waking up 'properly' and feeling energetic during the day.

What's more, the app provides detailed information on your sleep phase in graphs on the Statistics dashboard.

SnoreLab

With over a million installs, it proves to be the best app for sleep management. Unfortunately, the snoring problem as the undermining health condition is more common than we might think: according to statistics, about 100 million people suffer from sleep apnea worldwide.

It causes inconsistent interrupted breathing and results in insufficient sleep. SnoreLab offers clear recording and tons of tips addressing the night snoring issues.

What's more, on the premium subscription plan, the user gets access to ads-free content, storing more samples in full session history, rest rating, and cloud backup.

Pzizz

Pzizz is the best app to fight insomnia and fall asleep fast. Its functionality includes three modules.

In a Sleep Module, there is a track of three and a half minutes of music customized to wake you up so that you start your day with energy.

In a Nap Module, the user can 'craft' their naps that prove to make a positive impact on improving performance and mood.

What's more, implementing this app during the daytime in the Focus Module helps you get in the zone and immerse in deep work to feel more productive and fully concentrated on immediate tasks.

Nature Soundloops

If you are looking for long-term solutions in sleep management, there is a simple app that offers just 6 classic nature sounds (rain, fire, waves, wind, creek, birds) that will be more than enough for getting good sleep and increasing personal productivity.

What's more, Nature Soundloops does not overload you with notifications or other 'engagement-provoking' content that keeps your sleep away. With this app, you give your brain a much-needed break from the daily burdens to help it restore power and help you wake feeling refreshed.

MellowMe

This is one of a kind app that assists in relieving sleep disorders by blocking distractions. It provides high quality sounds and full screen breath visualization to help you reduce stress and increase focus.

You can easily swipe between sounds.

The positive effect of music and meditative sounds stretches to the sleep time and helps get refreshing rest. It includes a mixture of white noise, nature sounds, alpha wave and light music perfectly suitable for deep sleep.

What's more, you can run an app in the background even when keeping your phone locked. The app is Bluetooth enabled, which makes it easy to use for listening and breath training.

Pillow

This app lets you track your sleep, gather relevant data, and utilize it for improving your sleep with the science-backed algorithm evaluating your sleep and presenting measurements in the sleep quality index.

This innovative approach lets us visualize the “sleep quality” in metrics that state not only how much you sleep but, more importantly, how well, which can help identify the way of sleep improvement.

The app has an integration with your iPhone’s Health app.

What's more, on Pillow Premium, a user gets access to automatic recordings of night “activity” along with a full analysis of the sleep phases in Snooze Lab.

It is available on the iPhone platform and supports Siri Shortcuts. The app is ideal for use from Apple Watch.

In Conclusion

Not to compromise your well-being or put yourself at a disadvantage by allowing bad sleeping habits, cultivating healthy sleep hygiene must become your top priority, especially at times demanding grit and resilience.

Technology, in the effort to reach our dreams, brings new sleep solutions that eliminate the chances of sleep deprivation and ensure an increased quality of sleep. Want to experience a more productive day ahead? Learn to sleep right, right now.