Sleep Cycle: an iPhone app for analyzing sleep patterns

[DuB]

Home page: Sleep Cycle Have you ever woken up feeling completely wrecked when the alarm clock goes off, despite the fact that you have slept "enough" hours? When this happens you have probably been awakened during a deep sleep phase, and your whole day can turn into one long zombie marathon. Other days you spring out of bed with a smile on your face, feeling completely rested even though you shouldn't. As the alarm clock goes off, chance seems to play a big role in how your day will become. But does it really have to be that way? This is where the Sleep Cycle alarm clock application comes into play. During the night you go from light sleep to deep sleep, occasionally entering into a dream state which is called REM-sleep. These are things that your normal alarm clock does not care about, and will go off at the set time regardless of whether you are in a light sleep phase or in the deepest sleep. However, since you move differently in bed during the different phases, the Sleep Cycle alarm clock is able to use the accelerometer in your iPhone to monitor your movement and determine which sleep phase you are in. Sleep Cycle then uses a 30 minute alarm window that ends at your set alarm time and wakes you in your lightest sleep phase. "This isn't really something new. These so called bio-alarm clocks have been around for years and work very well, but they usually come with a hefty $200 price tag. I realized that the iPhone has all the components needed, and decided to make an alarm clock that works exactly the same, but sell it for a dollar or two instead." Maciek Drejak, the programmer behind the application, says Here are some real life examples of sleep graphs generated by Sleep Cycle. Example 1: a typical sleep graph The first example is a text book sleep graph. When sleeping you go through sleep cycles that last for about 90 minutes, these cycles go from deep sleep to shallow sleep and dreaming. If you look at the graph above you can see that the peaks are about 90 minutes apart - these are the sleep cycles of this person. You can also clearly see that for every cycle the person goes into less deep sleep, this is typical for a normal sleep graph. Example 2: more irregular sleep with a period of being awake or nearly awake at 6am The second example has a bit more irregular sleep. The user did probably not sleep as well as in example 1. In this example the user's partner got up at 6am. This is clearly seen - the user was awake or nearly awake at around 6am when her or his partner got up. Example 3: no or little movement was sensed This is how a graph will look like when the phone has trouble sensing your movements. If you see graphs like this make sure the placement test in sleep cycle works well. During the placement test the phone should make a sound every time you move in bed. You can also try placing the phone closer to your body. Example 4: sleep under the influence of alcohol This example is not a good nights sleep. Although alcohol can make you fall asleep easier it makes it hard to sustain a full night of good sleep. The first half of the night the person goes into some deep sleep but during the second half a lot of time is spent being awake or nearly awake This really makes me wish that I had an iPhone. It would be really neat if some of you with iPhones would download this app and post some of your sleep graphs, along with a description of how you slept that night, including whether you were on any drugs or alcohol, etc.

[DuB]

Come on guys, this is really cool...... isn't it?

[Jaymun]

My first night with this, apparently it calibrates over the first two for improved accuracy though I never sleep particularly well on sunday nights, because I wake up too late on Sundays. I woke up easily, and during a dream (so it was right about the end there, with it being in the dreaming phase, although I was still ready to go back to sleep (probably due more to the <7 hours of sleep, not when I was woken up). I do, however, find it a little strange that it chose to go off at the point furthest from awake during that cycle.

[Merro]

Does this thing really work? Can they detect if your sleeping or not? Sorry dumb question.

[Jaymun]

Does this thing really work? Can they detect if your sleeping or not? Sorry dumb question. I think it's based on how much you move. If you look at the beginning of mine you see it's near the top when I was falling asleep. I don't know how well it sensed when to wake me up, so that's slightly disappointing.

[DeeryTheDeer]

You can check the ratings and reviews for the app on iTunes. Seems rather mixed if you ask me, and the general consensus is that there's not enough accurate information on the levels of sleep. If it was free, I still might give it a try, but I don't want to spend a dollar on it.

[Jaymun]

An update again. It's strange how accurate the graph is. I had a slightly better sleep tonight, as indicated by the increase in deep sleep. I woke up after a dream at 6:02, where the graph shows that it senses such. From two nights, the app is good for recording your sleep cycle, which is kinda cool, although it doesn't seem to wake me up when I'm the closest to awake, the only reason it's nicer to wake up to are the gentle alarm sounds that gradually increase in volume. My ipod's jailbroken, and getting this for free is great, but the graph interests me enough (I'm always curious about stats to do with my life) that they deserve $1 from me, so I'm going to buy it.

[catzisconfus]

i have this too and used it 2 nights, but i can't use it anymore because i set alarms that go off during the night

[Spenner]

I just got this last night, but I was too tired to set it up

[Erii]

I know this is a few monthsbold but I used this last night and I have a question-on the statistics when it says time is that the time when you are in whichever sleeping phase?the only reason I ask is because I want to find when i'm in rem state so I can wild . I know this seems like acdumb wuestion but my graphs first number is in the 20's so i'm confused