What Sleep/Dream Apps Are You Using, and What Are Your Thoughts?

I did a search on this forum with regard to the Sleep Cycle App by Northcube (disclaimer - I have no affiliation with the developer) and found only one brief thread from back in 2010. It just so happens I'd stumbled upon the Sleep Cycle App after reading a link from a FryingMan dream journal entry about his use of a sleep mask. Anyway, I set up the program and used it last night in the manner set forth in the instructions. Well, I'm pretty impressed. It seems to do everything it advertises, and the graph of my sleep pattern (as judged by the movements detected by the accelerometers in my IPhone) was very interesting to see. I KNOW the app graph is accurate because a wicked thunderstorm woke me up at a couple of minutes past 2:00am, at which time I wrote in my dream journal, and sure enough, the graph recorded that period and labeled it as "awake", plus other awakenings I did NOT recall. Although it got only mediocre reviews in 2010, the ratings of this app have skyrocketed in the intervening four years, I suppose due to continued development and the addition of features.

So...it occurred to me it might be a good idea to have an updated thread on what dream/sleep related apps people on this forum are using, and what your thoughts are on them are. After all, four years with regard to app development is practically an eternity! So...what apps if any are people using? Are they useful? Are they hokum? Lets hear it!

Frank

*Moved to Lucid Aids*

Great idea. I was looking at this app recently but downloaded a free supposed equivalent. I will get it now. I suppose using my phone for recording will not mess up the results since indeed I will be awake while recording :).

The app I'm using for RC reminders on iOS is Lucid Reality Check By KitschMaster. Kind of annoying custom interface, reasonably configurable, but can't use your own sounds at least not in the free version. I've tried using it for morning alarm-based DEILD too (set the exclude times to be FROM 8am TO 6am in order to enable this mode) but I haven't had luck with that mode and now I'm using remee for that purpose.

I still want to write my own lucid dreaming app as I can write iOS apps. I'll get to it one day :).

I have that Sleep Cycle app, but I have been reluctant to use the alarm clock feature.
It's meant to wake you up during your lightest sleep phase, to help you feel more alert... But I wonder if that would kill dream recall, because you would never be waking up mid-dream?
Does anyone have experience with the alarm feature?
Am I right in thinking that dream recall would be better after a deeper stage of sleep?

My guess is that recall is best when you naturally wake up, which (I think?) means passing through the lightest stages of sleep. Alarms always kill recall for me, for a couple of reasons: 1) the shock, 2) the physical movement to reach for and turn off the alarm (assuming a non-auto-snooze sort of alarm).

Dreamer:

The app provides quite a library of very gentle "alarms". I don't employ them to wake me up at any time other than in the morning when I need to get up. Ordinarily, I'd be using a far more abrupt and jarring alarm, so this one is a gift by comparison! The value of the Sleep Cycle app is that it records in graphic form, your nightly awakenings and you can determine the times, intervals and actual numbers of you own personal sleep cycles. Then, if you use a supplement or modify your sleep pattern you get actual data with which to perform a comparison. The app wants you to collect five nights of data - I suppose for repeatability and accuracy. In any even, it is neat.

I've only just started using it and don't have five nights yet...but I can tell you that the "alarm" I chose is called "Morning Mist" and it is gentle and has not interfered with my recall one iota.

Frank

I haven't used that app or the alarm feature but alarms in general can hurt recall. That app sounds really neat, I had heard of one like it before but didn't know if they worked or not. I use an android app to remind me to RC called Lucidity, it also has a dream journal and some other features.

Thanks to a post ~Dreamer~ made in her workbook I remembered to look for an app like f.lux for android. I found one called Twilight that's really nice, makes it to where I can use my phone when going to bed without worrying about it hurting dream recall.

I believe the app Frank's talking about allows you to turn off the alarm while still recording the night. Frank, how many nights does it store? Weeks/months/years/no limit?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mismagius

Thanks to a post ~Dreamer~ made in her workbook I remembered to look for an app like f.lux for android. I found one called Twilight that's really nice, makes it to where I can use my phone when going to bed without worrying about it hurting dream recall.

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Glad I could be of assistance! :)

Oh yeah, I should have mentioned f.lux. It's a free program that changes the colour temperature of electronic screens to reduce blue light exposure, which suppresses melatonin production. I have it installed on my laptop and iPhone (needs to be jailbroken, but perhaps there are similar apps in the App Store.)

I have a few lucid dreaming apps that I'm trialling at the moment - I will report back if any pass the test.
I also have an app for white/brown noise, as I've heard ambient noise can be useful during WILD. There are plenty of ad-supported free apps for that.

Something else I've been using all this week is blue-blocking safety glasses. I put them about 1-2 hours before bed and keep them on until I turn out the lights, and I fall asleep right away [bed-time insomnia though is very rare for me]. I keep them by the side of the bed for WBTB if I get up and need to turn on a light. I usually don't have the discipline (or the motor skills) to put them on before activating my phone for voice journaling in the middle of the night, I just keep the screen brightness on minimum and direct the screen away from my eyes while recording.

Anyone uses 'Awoken' before? I just downloaded it I haven't really looked through it properly but its got a dream journal, daily reminders for awareness +RC and you can set a number of gentle alarms to play within a peroid of time during the night. I think the idea is that you may be able to hear the sound in a dream without waking you up, so reminding you to rc

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FryingMan

I believe the app Frank's talking about allows you to turn off the alarm while still recording the night. Frank, how many nights does it store? Weeks/months/years/no limit?

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I think it could be as long as years. I suppose that is a function of the available memory in your phone. One thing I like is you can e-mail the graphs to yourself! I have a free screen capture program (MWSnap) so I can even capture and print it. Pretty cool. I don't know if this site permits images to be uploaded, or if you need a certain number of posts to do so, but I'd like to be able to show folks what the graph(s) look like. EDIT: Nevermind. Figured it out. Images are attached below.

I just looked at the graph from this morning. As you know, last night was my first night using Silene capensis (African Dream Root). There is a marked difference in the graph from when I hadn't used it, and I find this fascinating! Subjectively, I did not notice any increase in vividness or recall, but oddly, the main (and ONLY) dream character in last night's dream was a black woman. How interesting is the subconscious!!!

Frank

Frank: What does "Warning: Few movements" mean in the second picture?

Some app called dreamer it reminds me every hour to check if I'm dreaming or real world

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ~ Dreamer ~

Frank: What does "Warning: Few movements" mean in the second picture?

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It means I placed my IPhone too far away from me on the mattress and the amplitude of the signals from the accelerometers was lower than ideal. I had it on the far side of the mattress, way further than the recommended 10-12 inches. My bad. :nono:

Still got usable data, though...sufficient for comparison purposes.

Frank

Well now I'm really stoked to try this app and compare supplement vs. non-supplement nights, and to correlate the graphs with middle of the night journaling when waking from dreams! And then to feed back this data into remee use, thanks for posting this!

And congrats on the ADR interesting first night! Yes the SC is interesting indeed.

I downloaded a sleep cycle app but it didn't work last night I think it was because its to far away I will try again tomorrow

If you downloaded the same one as me, it has a calibration routine that plays a tone when it detects motion. Place it in the spot on the bed, then go from laying on your back to laying on your side. You should hear the tone, indicating the detection of your motion occurred and was recorded. That way you know the positioning is valid for data recording throughout the night.

The one night I got marginally decent data was because I located the IPhone where it was convenient for the power cord, and ignored the placement recommended in the instructions. Once I followed directions, the data was perfect.

Frank

Don't worry it worked haha It just took me time to find the graph of my sleep but I figured it out now =)

LawyerFrank

I just downloaded the Sleep Cycle app. Can't wait to try it out tonight:)

The app gets more analytical and more interesting after it has accumulated a minimum of five nights worth of data. So far, I'm impressed. It's clever, simple, and accurate. Last night I woke up, looked at the clock after I recorded the second (of four) recalled dreams, and then had a lengthy period of wakefullness (insomnia, really) which was accurately reflected in the graph this morning.

The app will graph "sleep quality" at 10 days, 3 months or "all", quantify your sleep quality by the day of the week, tell you how much time on average you spend in bed per day of the week, and tell you when you went to bed and when you got up on every day that you recorded data. Pretty cool!

Frank

I am using the DreamZ app, and it is quite useful with a dream journal (audio and text) with a password lock and a dark interface. It uses the iPhone accelerometer to track your sleep phases and plays a cue that bleeds into your dreams and lets you become lucid. It also uses this for an alarm, and it wakes you up within thirty minutes within your set wake up time where you are either just finishing a dream (for better recall) or in the lightest phase of sleep (for feeling well- rested). Both the alarm and dream cue have plenty of options and can also be recorded. The only problems are that its been a looong time since the last update, and it is hard to go through and re-read you dreams.