After a hectic day, the best thing you can do is to get a beneficial amount of sleep. There are always new studies appearing that prove how important sleep really is to a person, improving everything from your energy and mood to your metabolism.

However, it may not be quite as easy to get that much-needed sleep, especially the deep sleep that can make all the difference. As items such as the Remee Lucid Dreaming Mask might not be worth the money and it may instead be a good idea to try a few apps to help you with your sleep.

Here are a few top iOS and Android sleep apps that can help make a peaceful night possible.

Sleep as Android (Android, $2.89)

android sleep apps

One of the apps I like the most is called Sleep as Android. The app originally started out as an alarm clock that would wake you up during the best time in your sleep cycle within a 30 minute period. However, it has evolved greatly over time, and has now become a fully-fledged sleep tracking app.

It can record how well you sleep during the night, determine how much of your sleep was considered “deep sleep”, wake you with nature alarms that use gradual volume up, offer different challenges that you must complete to prove that you’re awake in order to turn off the alarm, provide sounds to help you fall asleep and more.

While a lot of these features can be found in a number of different sleep and alarm clock related apps, Sleep as Android sets itself apart with its impressive graphs. As the name suggests, the app is available for Android only. It’s available as a 2 week trial before paying $2.89 to unlock it.

Sleep Cycle (iOS, $0.99)

sleep apps iphone

iOS users need not be worried that Sleep as Android isn’t available for their devices and instead there's another great alternative called Sleep Cycle. While not quite as feature rich as Sleep as Android, it offers a very nice user interface and also allows you to track how well you sleep and wake you up at the best time within a 30 minute window.

It also offers simple, helpful instructions on how to place your device on your bed in order to best detect movement throughout the night. This app is available for just $0.99.

Sleep Talk Recorder (Android, Free)

sleep apps iphone

Sometimes, if there’s something that’s really stressing you out, there’s a chance that you’ll be talking about it in your sleep. Therefore, you could also use Sleep Talk Recorder to record all of your spoken nonsense to determine what may be irking you. The great thing about this app compared to a regular voice recorder is that, while the voice recorder would create a night-long recording, Sleep Talk Recorder will monitor whether you say anything, and only record whenever you do.

This prevents long sessions of complete silence during your recordings, saving you much time and effort. You can also share your sleep recordings over social media if they're funny, as well as via the app's servers. There's even a "toplist" where the best shared recordings are listed.

Of course, all of that is in good fun and you're more than welcome to keep your recordings private.

Assorted Music Apps (iOS)

sleep apps iphone

A great way of getting sleep is to make your surroundings as comfortable as possible, and a fantastic way to do so is to play calming music. There are a number of different apps available for iOS devices which can get the job done, including Custom Sounds of Nature Lite, Naturespace, White Noise Lite, and many more.

For a full description of all of these apps, check out our article about iOS apps that soothe you to sleep.

Sky.FM (Android & iOS, Free)

apps for sleep

Finally, I’d like to offer Sky.FM as my final recommendation. Why on earth would I recommend a radio app? Sky.FM is a fantastic service which offers a number of different genre channels, including slow-tempo ones such as Nature, Relaxation, and other minimalist sounds.

All of these are fantastic for relaxing your mind, which aids in falling asleep. Best of all, the app offers a sleep timer and can automatically turn off after a preset amount of time so you don’t have to keep music playing throughout the night and into the morning.

Best of all, Sky.FM is available free for both iOS and Android.

Conclusion

These 5 tips will hopefully make a significant difference in improving your sleep. While there are always more apps out there to try, these are among the best apps available to help you settle in for the night and track how well you actually sleep.

Do you use any iOS or Android sleep apps to help your fall asleep or track your sleep? What’s your most favorite feature for apps like these? Have you improved your sleep pattern this way? Let us know in the comments!

Image Credit: thejbird