Being a graduate student, working three jobs, and planning a wedding on top of it all can be exhausting. Whether you’re a student, a professional, or a stay-at-home mom chasing your kids around all day, I'm sure you can relate to my crazy life and would agree that sleep often gets placed low on the list of priorities. As much as I wish I could extend the hours in a day to give us all ample amounts of sleep, I am not God! ;-) However, I do know of an app that just may be from God. This little 99-cent app will help to improve your life and even make waking up after a night of not enough sleep enjoyable!

Who needs a Sandman when you have a Sleep App?

What is this magical bit of technology that will improve your life? It's called the Sleep Cycle App. The Sleep Cycle App is a bio-alarm clock you can easily download onto your phone that will improve your overall wellness by awaking you in a way that leaves you feeling energy-filled at the start of your day and well-rested throughout your day. When I first discovered the Sleep Cycle App I was skeptical, but if getting more rest was a possibility I thought it was worth a try. I used it for a week as a trial period and I haven't stopped using it since!

How It Works

Our bodies were made to sleep in cycles. The cycle starts off with a light sleep, which moves to deep sleep, and then into our REM cycle (which is our deepest sleep and also the state when our minds like to dream); eventually we move back out to our light sleep and the cycle begins again. We continue in this cycle until we either wake up naturally, or are jarred out of our cycle by an obnoxious alarm clock. Have you ever woken up having had a full 8 hours of sleep or more, but still feel exhausted? Chances are it's because you were interrupted by your alarm clock in the middle of your deep sleep cycle. The purpose of the Sleep Cycle App is to use a smart alarm clock that understands these cycles in order to wake you up at the lightest point of your sleep cycle, so that you can wake up feeling refreshed and ready for your day.

You're probably wondering how your phone could track your sleep cycle. You may not know this, but all smart phones have an accelerometer implanted into the body of the phone. An accelerometer is an instrument used to measure vibrations. Before you go to bed you must place the phone under your pillow and then as you sleep this accelerometer detects your movements. Because we move differently depending on what part of sleep cycle we are in, it can map (very accurately I must say) our personal sleep cycle. After you have set your alarm it will wake you at your lightest phase of sleep.  There is also no startling beep to wake you up; it plays a very soothing melody which begins softly and progressively gets louder, which also helps to gradually draw you out of sleep in a peaceful, natural way. 

Why I Love it

Like I said before, it only took me one week to get hooked on this app. Since I have started using it, although I haven't been able to get more sleep, I feel as if I have more energy throughout the day and I don't wake up with that groggy feeling. For those of you who are still doubting the Sleep Cycle App, let me just get really personal for a moment and tell you - the first night I tried this app, I had to get up to use the rest room three different times and in the morning when I looked at my phone, the app had perfectly recorded my sleep cycles including when I had gotten up! I was astounded. The bottom line is, this is an app that really works and can improve your life. Check it out for yourself - download this technological Sandman today and make waking up easy!