Tired of sleepless nights? We test apps designed to help
How we tested
Wired used each device for three nights, then took the products and data to Dr Irshaad Ebrahim of the London Sleep Centre (londonsleepcentre.com) in Westminster, who compared them against clinical sleep tests. "These devices can spot a pattern in your sleep," he says, "but from a diagnostic view, they're limited."
Lark
A sensor is worn on the wrist, monitoring movement and sending data to an accompanying app. It estimates the best time to rouse you (by vibrating) based on sleep patterns. "It can't detect depth of sleep," says our expert, Dr Irshaad Ebrahim, "but it can detect continuity of sleep. It's best used in conjunction with a sleep diary."
Wired: Elegant app; good advice on Pro version
Tired: Over-zealous vibrations
Score: 6
Cost: £89.85
Specifications
App: iPad
Placement: Wrist
Detection: Actigraphy
Waking method: Vibration
Advice level: High
Sleep Cycle
Load this app on to an iPhone, which you place under the sheet at a corner of your bed. It monitors your motion, while also accounting for any partner's movements. Ebrahim thought that the fact it isn't worn on the body would make it less accurate, and that the app's sleep-monitoring algorithm "couldn't deal with someone sleeping totally still".
Wired: Inexpensive; useful if you have to share your bed
Tired: Limited accuracy
Score: 4
Cost: 69p
Specifications
App: iPhone
Placement: Mattress
Detection: Actigraphy
Waking method: Alarm
Advice level: Low
Zeo Sleep Manager
Don the headband adorned with a plastic box (an uncomfortable barrier to sleep in itself) and this scans the brain's electrical activity, sending the data to an iDevice. Come morning, you can examine four levels of sleep depth. Ebrahim was fairly impressed that "the Zeo does actually measure something physiological".
Wired: Direct brain monitoring; highly nuanced data
Tired: Headband difficult to ignore
Score: 7
Cost: £119
Specifications
App: iPad, iPhone
Placement: Forehead
Detection: EEG
Waking method: Alarm
Advice level: High
Gear4 Sleep Clock
Looking and acting like a standard clock-radio/iPod dock, this monitors your night's sleep by emitting a low-frequency radio wave which detects motion - the data is sent to the docked iPhone. The graphical output showed movement during sleep, but little else.
Ebrahim is wary of its usefulness: "I would go for a device that is on your body."
Wired: Cloud storage; nicely thought-out app
Tired: Cannot differentiate partners
Score: 3
Cost: £129.99
Specifications
App: iPad, iPhone
Placement: Bedside
Detection: Radio wave
Waking method: Alarm
Advice level: Low
MotionX Sleep
This works in the same way as Sleep Cycle, but has added functionality, such as a heart-rate monitor and a power-nap setting that learns your optimum doze length. But Ebrahim is unsure about the value of such data and the sleep ratings it generates: "You can probably know the same by asking yourself how you feel in the morning."
Wired: Heart-rate monitor; unobtrusive
Tired: Ugly interface; simplistic advice
Score: 4
Cost: £1.99
Specifications
App: iPhone
Placement: Mattress
Detection: Actigraphy
Waking method: Alarm
Advice level: Low
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
