After I first got my 3Gs and began traveling, I yearned for a consistent time piece on which I could rely to awaken me in the morning. Fumbling around with cheap alarm clocks in various hotels often left me annoyed – especially when the time was inaccurate and I neglected to notice. Before my iPhone, I used my Motorola Razr’s alarm clock and selected a long ringtone. It sufficed and was reliable, at least (as long as I had my charger).
My first attempt, however, at using the default alarm clock on the iPhone left me unimpressed because the ringtones aren’t appealing. So I began to look for an app that would fulfill my desire for an alarm with a clock display so I would have the best of both. The various apps I tried were an improvement (including local weather, landscape display, better ringtones, wake to your own music, etc.), yet without a cradle, there was no easy way to stabilize it on a hotel nightstand to display the clock.
Without a recommendation, I purchased Sleep Cycle after reading the App store reviews and exploring the developer’s website. I am stunned at how well it works! So how does it work?
Throughout the night, a person’s sleep moves between different sleep phases – from deep sleep to nearly-awake. Sleep Cycle analyzes the movement in the bed to determine in which stage of sleep a person is in and, according to the app itself, “uses a 30 minute window that ends at your set alarm time to wake you up when you are in the lightest sleep phase… a natural way to wake up where you feel rested and relaxed.”
There are some specific steps to take for it function: the phone must be plugged in; the app must be left on (do not lock the phone); the phone is placed face down on the bed and be next to – not under – your pillow (a fact that many make many uneasy since it’s plugged in). According to the developers, it also takes about 2 days of calibrating, so if moving to a different bed it might not immediately function as well, but I have never noticed a problem. On activation, the ringtones are soothingly subtle and get increasingly louder as the vibrate feature of the phone also activates from intermittently to constant. My only gripe is that there is no snooze feature: should my lightest sleep phase be a deep sleep (which has happened maybe twice), I struggled to get up.
In the latest update, the developers added a sleep cycle graph so you can see the different phases of your sleep from the previous nights. This is a neat feature for the curious, such as myself, who notices how accurate it is when I occasionally get up in the night to soothe a 2-year old.
Sleep Cycle works… it works remarkably well. Do I notice that I awaken more relaxed and refreshed? Actually, I’m a caffeine hound and can barely function without my morning java, however, I do wake up in a better mood since using Sleep Cycle. So well, in fact, I have stopped using my alarm clock at home and rely on this app alone as not only my travel but also my primary alarm. No, I don’t have a clock that displays the time from my phone throughout the night. Now I just ignore all the ones in the room and wake up happier.
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12/19/09 Update: I just heard from the developer who is definitely considering a snooze option in future version! They are just checking on the best method to activate the snooze vs. turning the alarm off.
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At the time of this writing, Sleep Cycle is priced at $0.99 in the App Store as a special launch of version 2.0.
Sleep Cycle was bought at author ‘s expense and reviewed on Just Another iPhone Blog. For further information regarding our site ‘s review policies, please see the ‘About ‘ page.
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