Tag: Sleep »

Fitness app company Runtastic has released their first app focused around sleep: Sleep Better.

The app includes sleep tracking, which tracks sleep cycles, duration, and efficiency; a 'Smart Alarm', which will attempt to wake users up in light sleep periods; and Moon Phase Tracking among its features, with users encouraged to also track daily variables such as stress levels, caffeine consumption, and workout habits. This data is then visualized for the user, allowing for analysis of sleep behavior based off of what happened on that given day.

Sleep Better is available to download now for free.

SPECIAL GIVEAWAY: Want your own copy of MotionX Sleep? The developers have given us a link that will send you a unique code to redeem for a FREE copy of the app. Simply click right here to enter. Offer available to US iTunes account holders only.

When I first took a look at MotionX Sleep, I was fairly impressed with all the sleep-monitoring app’s handy functionality. However, that was then. Now MotionX has added a laundry list of new features and tweaks, making it even more formidable in the world of iOS lifestyle software.

Along with a bunch of minor optimizations, a number of features have been directly improved thanks to customer feedback. MotionX Sleep now offers an “audible placement test” to make finding the best spot for the special pillow alarm much easier. The alarm itself has also had an interface tweak, making it easier to set. Sleep history and other statistics can be viewed in one, seven, or thirty-day summaries to give users better detail on their sleep habits. This info can also be shared on Facebook and Twitter as an effective way of convincing our mothers that we are, indeed, getting enough rest.

The Smart Sleep Cycle Alarm has also been improved by way of allowing users to adjust their wake-up window, including new sounds, and adding an optional vibration. Finally, the interface has been adjusted to make certain features easier to customize. The 24/7 Daily Step Counter can be turned on or off from the main menu, and undesired sleep recordings can be deleted straight out of the sleep log.

It’s the little improvements like these that go a long way. While MotionX Sleep was a worthwhile investment for health-conscious iOS users before, it’s even more useful now.

There are all kinds of fitness apps that work with users to become healthy and happy when they’re awake, Dream:On focuses on our sleep...specifically our dreams.

Other apps work with people while they’re sleeping. There are even accessories like the Jawbone UP that keeps track of sleep phases and sleep time. Dream:On also monitors users’ sleep patterns but uses that information to sense when users are dreaming. While we’re dreaming, the app starts to play a “soundscape.” That soundtrack playing during users’ dreams are meant to induce a dream selected by the sleeper before he or she went to sleep.

There are only two soundscapes available for dreamers to pick from for free. Additional soundscapes are available as in-app purchases for about $1.10 each. Recording experiences with the dream will also help the app change to work better in the future. There are also sharing options like tagging Facebook friends that were in a dream.

It’s also important to realize that this app is an ongoing experiment. Data obtained by Dream:On is sent anonymously to aid in an experiment by psychologist, Richard Wiseman, at the University of Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom. Wiseman hopes that by using the app and data from thousands of participants, our understanding of the science of dreaming will grow.

[via The Next Web ]