App Review: Sleep Cycle

As someone from a very warm state (California) who has lived abroad in a very tropical country (Taiwan), I am not used to it getting dark so early and it being so cold every morning. Hence, I’ve found myself struggling to wake up every morning for my early classes. 

After accidentally sleeping through my 9:35 a.m. class for the second time, I decided to download the application Cornell University recommended for its students. The application is called Sleep Cycle, and the main focus of the app is to wake you up during the stage when you are in light sleep. It uses either the microphone feature or the Accelerometer feature on your phone to analyze your movement as you sleep. The application measures your sleep quality, shows you what sleep stage you are in at different times, and records your time in bed. 

Since the app is free, I thought I’d test out its effectiveness for one week.

Monday

The night before, I set the alarm to wake me up between 6:55 and 7:25 am, placed the phone beside my bed and went to sleep. The application woke me up with melodious harmony at 7:10. I was pleasantly surprised when I honestly found it easier to wake up. However, I was still a little dubious of the application, as I thought it could be my own bias towards the application (so that I was tricked into thinking it was easier to wake up.) 

Tuesday

For Tuesday, I set the alarm between 5:50 – 6:20 a.m. for my 8am Political Science class. I don’t think I’ve ever woken up so easily for my 8 am before. Although upon looking outside my window and seeing it was still dark made me sleep again. I hit snooze and the application immediately went into another 30 minute interval that woke me up during the lightest stage of my sleep. 

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday 

I am now convinced this application is the real thing and I’ve started to tell people to download it. 

Pros

Easy to use and understand 

Easier to wake up 

More energy when awake 

Tracks your sleep quality 

Cons

– You will still feel a little sleepy upon waking up

Say goodbye to waking up like this:

And say hello to waking up like this:

• rest
• sleep
• sleep cycle