Sure, you’ve used your phone to wake up some morning, but have you ever tried to use it to help you sleep? A wealth of applications are there waiting to fill your room with all kinds of sounds and music to relax you. These are our favorites:
Spotify
Thanks to Spotify, activity-based playlists have become extremely popular in most music applications. So go to Spotify or any other streaming service you’ve subscribed to, and type ‘sleep’ in the search box to see a host of specially selected playlists, as well as an entire genre of music to relax to. From classical music to soothing sounds of nature, you’ll have plenty of options to choose from. Using the Spotify timer (tap the top three dots on the right to see this option), playback will stop after the amount of time you’ve chosen.
Calm
Calm covers many facets from mindfulness to meditation but also features a series of ‘bedtime stories’ that are specially designed to help you relax. Remember the ones your parents read to you as a child, and you’ll get the general idea of the subject. Several of these stories are free, but to access the vast majority, you will need to pay a subscription of $13 a month (which you can try for several days for free). The stories last about 25 minutes, and there’s no need to set a timer, as you should be asleep before the end.
Tide
Tide is a kind of jukebox full of white noise and sounds of nature that will help you concentrate, meditate, or fall asleep so that it can be useful in many ways. To sleep, you have sounded like the sea, rain falling, and even a pencil writing, but to access some, you’ll have to make payments within the application. Anyway, the free selection there is quite decent. Tide will even detect when you’re asleep and stop playback.
Brain.fm
The most exciting part of Brain.fm is that it claims that its music (which is produced by algorithms) is scientifically proven to help you sleep (or to help you relax or concentrate, depending on what you choose). We’re not entirely sure about that, but we’ve found that it works pretty well and that you can select sounds that help you relax or sleep soundly. You’ll get 10 free sessions when you install the application to see if you’re convinced, and after that, Brain.fm will cost $7 a month.
Relax Melodies
Few sleep applications are as well designed or as complete as Relax Melodies. You can mix and match the sounds you want (from a flute to a storm), add meditation exercises or stories if you like, and even access some breathing exercises and stretches to help your body fall asleep better. Some of these things require you to have the $5 a month premium subscription, but there’s undoubtedly enough free stuff out there for you to see if it’s worth the money.
Pzizz
Like Brain.fm, Pzizz says his sounds come from algorithms and have a lot of science behind them. Although it’s good for sleeping, we didn’t find it as useful as some of the other applications on this list (and you do). The app offers a custom mix of music, voice-overs, and different sounds to help you fall asleep, but after its free trial period ends, you’ll have to pay $5 a month to keep using Pzizz.
Sleep sounds
Sleep Sounds have a pretty representative name. We like the focus on a single task, as well as the simplicity we see within the app itself. You can choose from several general sounds (like a fire or a river) to fall asleep, or create your mixes with whatever you like, from rain falling on an umbrella to guitar chords. The only drawback is that it’s only available for Android, so if you’re using an iPhone, you’ll have to choose something else. For $1 a month, you can get the premium version, which removes the ads from the interface.
photo by pexels
