Sleep Cycle iPhone App

**Jeigh** · 02-15-2010 03:48 PM

Just downloaded the Sleep Cycle App for the iPhone. The idea is that it records the stages of sleep you are in during the night based on your movement in the bed using the iPhones accelerometer. If you then set your Alarm for say 8:30 it will wake you up when you are in a dreaming / light stage of sleep rather than in a deep sleep within a 30 minute time period. At first I thought it wouldn't work and was nothing more than a gimmick, but after reading about 100 reviews saying how amazing it is and that people wake up feeling very refreshed it peaked my interest.

I thought about how this could be applied to Lucid Dreaming, would this work well for methods such as WILD / WBTB. I find a lot of the time when I set my alarm for a WILD attempt I get woken up in a very tired / drowsy state and pretty much just give up right away or loose focus when trying to WILD. If this app could wake you up during a REM period of sleep rather than deep sleep would this improve the chances of a successful WILD?

The only problem with this App is the 30 minute time period which can't be adjusted. If you're in a deep sleep the whole 30 minutes then it will just wake you up when it reaches the time limit, there have been a lot of requests to make this customisable to 90 minutes.

**MJMax** · 02-15-2010 04:00 PM

Seems pretty cool, try it out and tell us how it goes. The only problem for me, though: "
Sleep Cycle does not work for Tempur mattresses."

**Levels** · 02-15-2010 10:43 PM

I just got this. Looks interesting.

**Loaf** · 02-16-2010 12:03 AM

Freaky. I just posted a new blog post, with Sleep Cycle as one of the apps I linked to.
I've never tried apps. I have this thing about leaving my electronics on over night.

**RealShift** · 02-16-2010 12:10 AM

Not sure how accurate it is , but I've been using this app for a while now, to estimate my sleeping patterns.
Just to get the general idea of when to wake up, during a REM cyle for example, depending of what technique I'm trying.
It's also interesting to see rougly how many dreams I've had, how long they where and how fast I reach the idividual stages.

**destinationmoon** · 02-16-2010 05:41 AM

Does the alarm turn off by itself? This may be helpful for my DEILD attempts

**Naiya** · 02-16-2010 06:13 AM

Very cool. Is this a free app or no?

**Loaf** · 02-16-2010 07:48 AM

Sleep Cycle alarm clock costs 99 cents from the app store:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sleep...320606217?mt=8

**Jeigh** · 02-16-2010 09:26 AM

Originally Posted by destinationmoon

Does the alarm turn off by itself? This may be helpful for my DEILD attempts

I've only just used it for one night so I'm not sure but I think you have to turn it off manually. The first night isn't enough to go by but my graph certainly made sense, followed a pattern similar to the normal sleep cycle etc. Unfortunately I didn't get to see whether I would wake up more 'refreshed' than usual because I woke up an hour early for some reason. I like it a lot so far though, and it's as good as free anyway can't argue with 99c.

Also if you don't want to / can't leave it plugged in overnight just switch it to Airplane Mode and turn the screen brightness down as low as it can go and turn push notifications off. This helps to conserve the battery.

**Levels** · 02-16-2010 11:25 AM

Ok so i used this last night. It does work on the Ipod touch despite what they say on their website, just make sure its fully charged at the start of the night.

Also, the alarm does not turn itself off after a certain amount of time, you have to do it manually.

**kingofhypocrites** · 02-16-2010 02:12 PM

Originally Posted by destinationmoon

Does the alarm turn off by itself? This may be helpful for my DEILD attempts

Try Routine Timer for iPhone. This will accomplish what you want. Just set the first step of the routine for 6 hours, etc. Or optionally, Alarm Clock Pro... in this case just create an MP3 with 9 beeps and then hours of white noise after it. Then assign it to the playlist.

**Medevila** · 02-16-2010 04:16 PM

Originally Posted by Levels

Ok so i used this last night. It does work on the Ipod touch despite what they say on their website, just make sure its fully charged at the start of the night.

Also, the alarm does not turn itself off after a certain amount of time, you have to do it manually.

Really? I have an iTouch 1st gen... Will it work?

**Jeigh** · 02-16-2010 04:28 PM

Originally Posted by Medevila

Really? I have an iTouch 1st gen... Will it work?

No it wont unfortunately, it only works on 2nd Gen iPod Touches. I guess the reasoning for that is since they don't have speakers you'd have to sleep with your headphones in all night, I also have an iPod Touch 1st Gen and it wouldn't install onto that.

**Jeigh** · 02-17-2010 03:15 AM

Just tried it for the second night, no Lucid dreams or anything but the graph still seems to make sense. The graphs from the two nights are very different, on the second night there is a lot more deep sleep compared to the first night. But yesterday I had a fairly intense football training session, so it would make sense that there would be more deep sleep on the 16th-17th one right?

**bushi** · 02-17-2010 04:54 AM

Does the iphone run flash files?

If so, you could run the timer.swf file from that lucidologo site. Then you could set up custom times for alarms.

**beachgirl** · 03-06-2010 03:08 AM

thanks for the suggestion, it sounds promising...
i look forward to trying it!

**Zhaylin** · 03-14-2010 06:46 PM

Actually, it doesn't work with ANY iPod Touches- only the phones.
I'm hard-headed (even though the app specifically asks that you NOT download it onto a Touch) and sure enough, it doesn't work.

It sounds pretty promising though and I'm very jealous of people who can use it.

**jonnyboy** · 08-17-2010 09:27 PM

hi all,

i have been using this app on and off for a little while now, and for its advertised purpose i think it works really well. this got me thinking about how it could be used as a lucid tool, and i think there is great potential if the author could be persuaded to incorporate some lucid-oriented features. provided he/she is willing, it wouldn't require much work (developer myself). i would actually like to contact the author to make this suggestion, but i thought i'd post here to get some opinions before i did so, because i'm not sure exactly what to propose:

as far as i can see, currently the app works by monitoring your deep/light cycles through the night, and sets off the alarm during your last expected light cycle of the night.
in order to make the app useful as a lucid dreaming tool, the app could have a setting to set off the alarm during one of your deep cycles. for instance, in the 3rd or 4th of the night. also, it could have a different alarm for this purpose, perhaps one that's a little more abrupt?

so what do people think would be effective? i want to try MILD myself, i see how it could work and how this app could be useful. if people share their opinions then i'd be happy to get in touch with the author

thanks

PS. and it does work with ipod touches. i have one myself, not an iphone. perhaps Zhaylin has an older model?