Sleep Cycle

As a college student who suffered from insomnia, it has been a tough fight for me to show up and pay attention in class. I tried all of the resources that my school offered: I went to counseling, I met with a psychiatrist, I took prescribed medication. However, most of the time the medication I was taking was too sedating.  It left me feeling groggy and I had trouble concentrating. There was one thing, though, that every doctor I saw has emphasized: practicing good sleep hygiene. If you are able to practice sleep hygiene, it is definitely essential to helping improve your sleep habits, as well as sleep quality. Check out our article on sleep hygiene for more information.

However, it is extremely difficult for a college student to go to bed at a routine time and almost impossible to not use his or her phone and laptop before sleep. So I tried to find another way to help myself. I started using this smartphone app: “Sleep Cycle”. Every night before I go to bed, I set up the time range that I would like to be woken up the next day. The app detects your movements and breathing sounds to determine when you fall asleep. It then measures your sleep cycle and wakes you up within the time range you set, but it times waking you up when a sleep cycle or half of it is complete. I find by using the app, I start my day more refreshed and energetic.

Another cool thing about the app is it gives you charts showing statistics of your sleep, so you know when you were in a deep sleep during the period.

Note: We do not specifically endorse this app and we do not know of any research showing it helps with sleep but we don’t know of any harmful effects of it and could be something to try, if you wish.

Have you ever had trouble sleeping? Were you able to develop better sleep hygiene? If you decide to check this app out let us know if it helps!