One of the only things you take to bed with you is your phone. Most of the time that’s a problem – exposing your body to phone screens is one of the WORST things you can do before you sleep. These screens suppress the levels of melatonin your body produces, making it harder to get to sleep. It’s especially true when you’re a teen, because your body naturally ‘delays’ in releasing melatonin – meaning you feel like going to sleep at a later time.
To help, we’ve compiled the best apps to help you sleep we can find.
But these aren’t gimmicks filled with the soothing noises of calm rivers and birds chirping. These are legitimate apps that will help you get the sleep you need. And they’re easy to use!!
Check out our reviews of best ones we could find below!
Sleep ASAP
The great team at Sleep ASAP have created this awesomely clever app designed to help sleep strugglers.
The app works by you giving their team of experts your ‘SleepDNA’ – a combination of your personality + sleep symptoms – and creates a personalised plan to help you get enough sleep.
It sounds really simple, and it is! Well, it is for you… For the Sleep ASAP team, this is no joke. They go through all their resources to solve your problem individually. It’s a big, big deal. And it’s free!
You can get a better understanding of the app here.
SleepQ
This app is really clever.
Did you watch the video? If you did, we don’t really need to explain much.
SleepQ uses an innovative technique to get you into the habit of sleeping well, and it helps you understand how much real sleep you’re getting. Routine is one of the most important features of a good sleeper, and the app cleverly takes advantage of this.
The app is really cheap and can be used by anyone at any age to quickly improve their sleeping habits.
SleepBot
This is a great and popular app. 
The SleepBot app works with your computer on mysleepbot.com to track your sleeping patterns even further. Just ‘punch in’ on your phone when you go to sleep and ‘punch out’ when you wake up. It’s as simple as that for tracking your sleep. The website will automatically keep records of this, so you when and on what days you’re getting the most sleep. Clever stuff.
The app also has a great feature for those people who take a while to actually doze off. You can create an ‘offset’ so that the tracking starts a little while after you ‘punch in’. Too cool!
MotionX 24-7
This app means business.
The MotionX 24-7 app has been in development for seven years, and you can tell.
The app is able to monitor your heart-rate through your iPhone camera! As a result, it can tell exactly when it is the optimal time in your sleep cycle to wake up. That’s when it’s alarm goes off.
It also has a nifty feature that lets you set ‘smart alarms’ for optimal power naps. Nap like a boss.
This one needs to be seen for yourself. Check it out here.
Pillow
Okay, let’s say you’re a bit daunted by all the awesome choices above (you shouldn’t be) and you’re not ready for them yet (you are).
Pillow is a free app that does a lot of these things on a smaller scale.
It has a ‘smart alarm’ that aims to wake you up at your optimal time within a 30 minute wake-up window and a 10 minute snooze interval. It offers some other nifty tools, including a very goofy ‘Dream Journal’ section that you might have fun with if you want to keep track of your dreams. (P.S. check out our article on dreams on this site to learn more about them!).
The full version is not worth the price, but the free version might be a nice place to start before you move on to those more formidable apps.
So, there you have it! Some great apps to choose from.
If you have any awesome suggestions leave them in the comments below! In the meantime, SleepOnIt!
Sleep On It! is a non-profit community organisation aiming to promote proper sleep for young people. You can support their cause on Facebook, Twitter and on their website!
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