THE DREAM IN ACTION

For those interested in how I slept last night, here’s your answer. This graph, capture by the Sleep Cycle iPhone App, shows when I was in my deepest sleep and when would have been best to wake up. I went to bed at 11:21pm last night and woke at 6:23am, 7 hours and 2 minutes of sleep. If this morning is any indicator to how the app works, it’s amazing. I was SO refreshed and ready to crush it this morning it was amazing. No caffeine necessary.

I’ve always used my mobile phone as my alarm because I like the consistency that provides when I’m traveling for biz or pleasure. As long as I have a power outlet I can trust that I’ll wake the same way. For some reason when I’m using someone elses alarm clock I get really nervous about falling asleep, not sure why, I’m just weird.

Although I do like using my mobile phone as my alarm I was not all that impressed with the iPhone’s alarm. When the most appealing sound for waking up is a barking dog, you know that the options aren’t great. So, on a twitter recommendation (I believe from @msg) I checked out the Sleep Cycle app.

Here’s how it works:

You set the time you’d like to wake up (6:30am) then it tell you to place the iPhone in your bed. I put it just under my pillow.

Throughout the night, a person’s sleep moves between different sleep phases – from deep sleep to nearly-awake. Sleep Cycle analyzes the movement in the bed to determine in which stage of sleep a person is in and, according to the app itself, “uses a 30 minute window that ends at your set alarm time to wake you up when you are in the lightest sleep phase… a natural way to wake up where you feel rested and relaxed.”

We’ve all waken up in a funk, and hopefully, we’ve all waken up fresh. If this app can guarantee that you’ll be fresh in the morning it’s worth much more than $0.99.

Some of the limits are, the phone must be plugged in; the app must be left on (do not lock the phone); the phone is placed face down on the bed and be next to – not under – your pillow (I put it just under and it worked very well). Also it apparently takes about 2 days of calibrating, so the graph above might not be perfect since it was my first night. When the alarm goes off, the sounds are soothingly subtle and get increasingly louder as the vibrate feature of the phone also activates from intermittently to constant. One thing I actually love is that there is no snooze. It knows when you should wake up so it doesn’t give you the option to delay waking up, which makes perfect sense.

Many folks have used Withings.com to send their weight via a WIFI enabled scale to Twitter. This type of tech that can affect how your body feels is awesome. I love tools that bring the web to the world and the world to the web. If I can can feel 20% more alert during the day due to the Sleep Cycle app it may become one of the most valuable apps I’ve purchased.

Have you tried out Sleep Cycle, let me know what you think. Also, if you have other app recommendations PLEASE let me know!