What the Tech: Apps to help you sleep

We found some tech gadgets and apps that may help you fall asleep fast and wake up refreshed.
We found some tech gadgets and apps that may help you fall asleep fast and wake up refreshed.
Published: Mar. 16, 2023 at 12:28 PM EDT
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LANSING, Mich. (WILX) - It’s spring-forward weekend, meaning more daylight at the end of the day. The downside: we’re having to wake up an hour earlier.

If you’re one of the millions of people who never get enough sleep already, the next few weeks aren’t going to be easy.

You can get an idea of the problem of getting enough sleep by browsing the app stores. There are hundreds of apps to help you relax and fall asleep and wake up on time.

If the snooze button makes you rush, one of these alarm clock apps will force you to get out of bed.

Alarmy calls itself a “motivational alarm clock”. The only way to turn off the alarm is by exercising, taking steps, playing a memory game, or solving a math problem. You can’t hit “snooze” because there is no snooze button.

To fall asleep, there are dozens of apps that play sleep sounds like waterfalls, thunderstorms, and white noise. Take your pick here. A few of the bests are Soothing Sleep sounds which let you create your own sleepy-time sounds and Restly which claims to use science to help you fall asleep within 2 minutes.

For Android users, there’s the app “Sleep as Android” with adult lullabies, and nature sounds. It also records snoring and sleep talking, and a sleep cycle alarm clock to wake you up fully rested.

If you have an Alexa device by the bed, you can use several sleep skills. Many require a subscription to block ads. You can also use these devices to stream music created specifically for sleep. Binaural beats are sounds at two set frequencies.

If you can sleep with earbuds or headphones, you’ll hear one frequency in the right ear and another frequency in the left. Scientists say your brain will create an additional tone that’ll help you fall asleep fast. There are binaural beats playlist on Amazon Prime, Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Music. Use the one you subscribe to though, otherwise, you’ll hear ads that may wake you up.

Remember: It’s unsafe to wear noise-canceling earbuds or headphones to listen while you sleep because you wouldn’t be able to hear a smoke alarm or one of the kids yelling from their room.

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