Yesterday I wrote about the WakeMate, a new and upcoming iPhone App + wristband that ‘uses Actigraphy to monitor your sleep cycles and pinpoints the precise moment when you should wake up’.
The WakeMate, including software, sells for $50 and you can pre-order it at the WakeMate store. Since then I found a similar solution that you can use now for just $0.99.
A few minutes after the post went online I received several tips about a similar App which is just, well, an app. At first I couldn’t imagine an App without a wristband or any other accessory doing the job. I mean, how can an iPhone track my sleep patterns without some kind of extra interface?
Turns out that Sleep Cycle uses the accelerometer in your iPhone to monitor your movement while you sleep. All you need to do is place your iPhone on the side of your bed, as pictured on the right here.
I downloaded the app last night and set it up as explained. At first I thought it would be awkward to sleep with my iPhone under my bedsheets but then I figured it would be a lot less awkward than sleeping with a wristband.
The result was baffling. I woke up early but awake and the stats it generated are probably the most intimate piece of information I ever posted online. Check it out:
I will test the app this week and report back here after that. But after just one night I’m completely sold on the idea and am also wondering how this affects the WakeMate.
For 1/50 the price and no bracelet needed I also don’t see a bright future for WakeMate. The WakeMate probably has more detailed stats and might be more accurate, but 50 times more accurate?
Maybe the WakeMate will be precise enough to generate stats like the one below.
Now that would be cool:
I like the stats suggested. Might add “snorring volume” and “direct elbow hits” myself.
You stick it under the sheets as shown in the photo.
The problem with the sleep cycle app is that it measures movement instead of heartrate.
This means that over de past few weeks (when I tested it) it woke me up everytime my girlfriend went to the bathroom or one of our cats jumped on the bed :)
A great toy, but not a very handy one.
How do you prevent your phone from falling off your bed?
I tried Sleep Cycle for a few weeks now. And it does it’s job quite nicely. When I put the iPhone under my pillow it only registers my movements and not the ones from my girlfriend.
Often mkes you wake up to early though. But a lot more awake then waking up from a alarm clock in your rem-sleep.
Sleep Cycle is great. use it frequently–and it even wakes me up at just the right time. Wish it would export the data more sensible (like CSV) rather than screenshots!!
Damn – the app no longer supports iPod Touch…
And it doesn’t work on a futon, since it absorbs too many of your vibrations… but is still lovely to sleep on.
SLEEP CYCLE IS AMAZING!!! I donwloaded it last night as well and after one night it woke me up during a light sleep cycle. Better than that stupid TYLENOL sleep tracker pm!! It just wants me to purchase drugs!! stupid!!
0.99 is well worth it, the iphone is AWESOME!!!
One thing that no one has mentioned is that sleep cycle can only be used on the iphone. WakeMate supports iPhone and iPod Touch, Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile, Palm, ‘Non-Smart’ Phones (Java) For those with the iphone the sleep cycle may work better but if you have a different phone its either wakemate or nothing…
While I enjoyed the “suggested WakeMate graphs” a lot I wanted to explain a bit more about the science of actigraphy.
The reason WakeMate uses a wristband is because with the science behind this technology (using movement to determine various sleep factors – called actigraphy) the actigraph (accelerometer) MUST be placed on the subject’s wrist for it to have any scientific relevance or accuracy. Unless the iPhone is strapped to the user’s wrist there is absolutely no scientific relevance with their application.
Additionally, WakeMate not only provides an optimal wakeup feature and sleep analysis (more detailed than Sleep Cycle’s because WakeMate’s uses established scientifically validated algorithms), but WakeMate can provide a personalized optimal sleep plan to tell users exactly how long they should aim to sleep based on their internal rhythms.
Just wanted to make sure you had all the facts about the science.
@Greg: All very well, but to be honest, people don’t need “scientifically relevant” sleep analysis. Whether studies have been done categorizing sleep based on an iphone in the bed rather than a sensor on the wrist is irrelevant. What matters is whether it works. People might be more likely to believe that your system works without testing it, because of the scientific evidence. However, they can just test the sleep cycle and see that it works, as it only costs a dollar. I personally don’t know whether the wakemate is a better system, I just know that sleep cycle works very well, and is something that is within my budget.
Actually, I used Sleepcycle and that was why I decided to preorder the Wakemate. Putting my iPhone into my bed every night (and for some reason, the system was very finicky about placement in my bed) was growing tiresome though the results were good. Getting the same results but just wearing a wristband was worth $50 in my book.
I have a water bed, I also put it under my iphone under my pillow so it will pick up only my movements and not my husbands. I was AMAZED, seemed to be extremely acurate, and wake me at just the correct time..
If Sleep Cycle works you should buy a new mattress: One thing I invested in is a proper mattress.
It did not even cost me an arm maybe around USD900 (S$1500): it is a hard one with less than 1in latex on top.
This was 5 years ago and it has not moved, not bad.
But Sleep Cycle in incapable of detecting my turning.
Take a look at how alcohol affected my sleep cycles after a heavy night out. There’s definitely still a pattern but i think i was close to being pronounced dead.
chris
Would help if i left the link wouldn’t it. Still drunk obviously.
http://christophercharlesrichards.blogspot.com/
chris
Sleep cycle is rubbish, nice idea, and ok when it works. On average twice out of every night I turn it on on going to bed, it turns itself off, so nil point on those nights. On the other nights it has a half hour window to wake u – u set yr latest wake up time, it picks a light sleep time in the half hr running up to that. Problem being our cycles are up to 90 mins and more commonly around that duration. On it’s off tonights, tonight the third in a row, it buzzes in the middle of the night, random time, tonight 3.41 after being asleep for 3 hrs, and wakes me up. No emails have come in and sleep cycle is off so the buzz was it switching off. And any good sleep app would shut yr texts and emails off surely, like flight mode. Am new to iPhone but this is rubbish, it wakes me up in the middle of the night and not in the lightest time running up tolatest wake up time. Pissed off and awake.
Hey Jane, you can put your phone in flight mode and Sleep Cycle will still work.
That looks like a great way to track your sleep.
I’m switching to Android, so I may try out the arm band thing, especially after seeing the good and bad parts of Sleep Cycle.
First, Jane: the iPhone does not permit applications to control outside settings like that. The app can’t automatically put you into airplane mode, and unless you’re jailbreaked (unlike Android) you have to select settings and turn on airplane mode from there.
I do agree about the duration though, that’s the biggest shortcoming I’ve seen with this app and why I have come to find it completely useless. The app should allow you to set the wake-up “window,” instead of having it default to 30 min. It’s a PITA to have to calculate 1.5 hour increments from whatever time I go to sleep and then guesstimate how tired I am and how long it’ll take to fall asleep and add that on there, figure out how long I want to sleep for, etc, just to hopefully set it for the right time. However, don’t expect that or any other suggestions to occur anytime soon, as the developer appears to be EXTREMELY lazy. On May 21, he announced that he would finally be creating a 3.0 version of the app (not sure what justifies 3.0, as his 2.0 update contained very few new things). Today, (June 21) he announced that he hasn’t started yet but will start “soon.” He actually has a list of “previous suggestions” that he doesn’t want you emailing him about, since he hears it so often. How difficult would it be to add this feature? Not very, but once you pay he doesn’t care to continue providing you service. He could even charge for a new app–I’d easily have paid for another app to have that feature.
Occasionally, it’ll work and it feels awesome. Being half-awake and hearing the alarm quietly and wondering what the sound is and then turning it off and arising. That compared to having a blaring loud alarm wake you from deep sleep and wake up in a delirious/foggy state. I never would have considered paying $50 for one of these wristbands (or ~$200 for a dedicated device) until experiencing the few times that Sleep Cycle properly worked. But now it’s on my wish list.
How does having a memory foam mattress affect the results?
Why have scientific results? Hint: So the application actually works.
Ditto on the “get a better mattress” comment btw. Sleep cycle is pure fail on my mattress.
You guys obviously have the phone placed in position where the phone can sense toe movements. This explained on the website. Try the test function on the app so you can find a place where the phone can sense your movements
OK I am baffled by my results as they show when I fall asleep and then it is nothing across the night until I wake up on my own. I cannot tell at all whether it isn’t working or I never move all night (which I think is true) My stats start within 3 min.(normal for me to fall asleep) then drops down to bottom and stays there until I wake up which is about 3-5 minutes of wake. it looks like I have died throughout the night, but since I wake up, obviously not so. Never have had the alarm wake me as I wake up just as fast as I go to sleep. Is it me or the app?
Marie I have had the EXACT same experience over the last three days of trying Sleep Cycle. Completely dead until I wake up by myself, always before the alarm went off.
So what ever happened with this?
So what ever happened with this?
This app is good, but what if I wake up during the night? Or if my wife does in order to go to work?
I’ve taken the time to compile some more WakeMate Reviews over at my new site.
So its kind of competition between these apps ?
Give your likes to the app to figure out which one is better on: http://www.appvsapp.mobi/sleep-cycle-alarm-clock-vs-wakemate/105-104
No actigraphy measures heartrate.
Actually I have an iPod touch and sleep cycle app and it still works fine for me