Whether you’ve been feeling restless due to stress or have been struggling with insomnia for some time, you’re not alone—50 to 70 million Americans have trouble sleeping.
Thankfully, there are numerous apps that can help you get a healthy dose of shut-eye. Sleep is paramount to your physical and mental health, so be sure to look into these six best sleep apps while cuddling up in Sew Sweet Minky Design’s handmade minky blankets to help you relax.
Relax Melodies: Sleep Sounds
Device compatibility: iOS and Android
Price: Free with optional in-app purchases
With Relax Melodies, you create your own ambiance. This app allows you to mix and match over a hundred sounds/music, meditations, and bedtime stories to help you drift off to sleep.
There are nature and water sounds, white noise, and binaural beats that you can infuse into your meditation practice. And if you decide to opt-out on meditation or sleep stories, you can simply stick to creating your own mix of melodies. The Relax Melodies app also lets you set a bedtime reminder and a timer.
Relax & Sleep Well
Device compatibility: iOS and Android
Price: Free with optional in-app purchases
Hypnotherapist Glenn Harrold offers free hypnotherapy and meditation recordings in his Relax & Sleep Well app. These audio recordings include calming sound effects, stereo-echoed affirmations, and Glenn’s hypnotic vocal techniques. All of this helps to alleviate stress and anxiety that may be stopping you from getting a good night’s rest.
Sleep Time
Device compatibility: iOS and Android
Price: Free with optional in-app purchases
If you want to track the quality of your sleep, then the Sleep Time app is a great option. Not only does this deep sleep app provide soundscapes and white noise to help you fall asleep, but it also logs the amount and quality of sleep you're getting. Sleep Time also carries additional features like:
- 20 built-in, soothing alarm sounds.
- Detailed monthly and weekly graphs that illustrate your sleep cycles.
- Advanced wake-up optimization algorithm that analyzes your sleep phases and sets off the alarm at the perfect moment.
Using this app requires placing your phone on your bed, so it can effectively track and monitor your sleep.
Headspace
Device compatibility: iOS and Android
Price: Free for select content and $69 a year for full access
Headspace is a guided meditation and mindfulness app that’s great for sleep. With expert guidance from former monk and Headspace co-founder, Andy Puddicombe, you can find:
- Numerous meditation exercises for issues like stress and sleep.
- Simple animations to accompany your meditation exercises.
- Mindfulness exercises to do throughout your day while cooking, eating, commuting, and more.
- Peaceful sleep sounds to ease your mind.
The app has a free Basics pack that includes a 10-day beginner’s course on meditation and mindfulness. You can then subscribe to Headspace’s full library for $69 a year, where you’ll have access to hundreds of meditation, mindfulness, and bedtime exercises.
Calm
Device compatibility: iOS and Android
Price: Free for select content and $70 a year for full access
“The #1 app for sleep, meditation, and relaxation,” the Calm app carries hundreds of guided meditations, bedtime stories (for kids and adults), and peaceful tunes to help you calm down and hit the hay. The stories are read by celebrities like Matthew McConaughey and Stephen Fry.
The Calm app is free with limited access and $70 a year for full access to all of their stories, meditations, and specific categories like stress and ASMR.
Reflectly
Device compatibility: iOS and Android
Price: $47.99 a year or $9.99 a month
When your mind is still buzzing with all of the day’s events, why not try journaling? Reflectly is a virtual self-care journal. It presents questions that encourage you to organize your thoughts, reflect on your day, and consider any problems you might have faced.
This can help you sort out your thoughts and move past them to get a good night’s rest. Better yet, the Reflectly app allows you to save all of your journal entries, so you can go back and identify particular areas in your life that might be affecting your mental health.
Rest Up with Minky Blankets
As you’re browsing through these sleep apps, be sure to also look into Sew Sweet’s minky blankets. Vegan and 100 percent polyester, these high-quality blankets are perfect to snuggle up in while working on your meditation and sleep practices. So check out our extreme minky blankets today!