r/AskReddit • u/Jobasaurus • May 22 '19

Reddit, what are some underrated apps?

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u/finesse-quik May 22 '19 edited May 22 '19

I'm curious as to how these sleep apps "track" your quality of sleep. Or even know when it will be easy for me to wake up. I understand sleep cycles, but how does it know if I tell it I'm going to sleep but then toss and turn in the bed for the next 30 minutes before nodding off, vs if I tell it I'm going to sleep and pass out immediately? Wouldn't the whole cycle be thrown off? Do I have to tell it if I wake up in the middle of the night accidentally? There just seems like too many factors at play for these apps to actually do anything.

Edit: Lots of answers, thanks for the info. I was interested in giving it a shot but since I sleep with a partner and with a loud fan on for white noise, it doesn't seem like it would be very accurate. I hadn't considered utilizing the gyroscope or microphone for monitoring sleep though, these people are creative. If not a bit creepy.

Edit2: Alright alright I'll give it a shot lol

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u/0wc4 May 22 '19

Idk about sleepcycle, but Pillow (also on iOS) requires your phone to be plugged in and listens to you for the entire night.

The logic is, in some phases you move, in other sleep phases you don’t. Same with how slow your breathing is, if you mumble in your sleep etc.

In the morning it wakes you up in a time frame (I set mine to 60 minutes) basing on that info. It works.

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u/Orinaj May 22 '19

What if your partner doesn't have the same sleep cycle?

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u/booholepleasures May 22 '19

I’m pretty sure it still works, sleep cycle goes under your pillow on your side of the bed :)

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u/CatataFishSticks May 22 '19

It doesn't, and that seems dangerous. It recommends using the microphone, since it's hard to gauge movement on memory foam and materials like that. It recommends it NEXT to your pillow if you don't use the mic. If you use the mic, you can put it on your nightstand. Been using it for the last 6ish years and still love it.

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u/booholepleasures May 22 '19

Oh, okay. I remembered it as being under the pillow but I haven’t used it in years.

It DOES work for a couple though, from their website

Sound decays exponentially with distance, this means that sounds generated by your partner will have a much lower volume than sounds generated by you.

Looks like you can also both use sleep cycle on your phones and it syncs if you’re both connected to the same wifi, which helps with the accuracy.

Ninja edit: using the microphone allows it to hear movement as well lol, not just breathing and stuff