I think we can all agree that being ripped from a deep sleep by a blaring alarm clock is one of the most miserable feelings in the world.



Unfortunately it's a feeling I'm all too familiar with. Since I get into the office at 7 a.m. most days, I'm used to the alarm clock blaring at miserably early hours.

Some mornings I wake up feeling super refreshed. Other mornings I wake up feeling like I've been hit by a Mack track.


I'm known for passing out at friend's houses at random times...

After reading about the iPhone app Sleep Cycle for what seemed like the millionth time this weekend, I decided I'd download it and see if it helped my sleep at all.

Sleep Cycle uses your phone's accelerometer to track your movements as you sleep to determine when you are moving in out and of the different stages of the sleep cycle. It then uses a 30-minute window (based on an alarm time that you set) and gently wakes you up at when you're not in the deepest phase of sleep.



Monday morning I knew I needed to be awake by 5:45 to get to the gym for my workout, so I set the Sleep Cycle alarm for 5:45 knowing the phone would wake me up sometime between 5:15 and 5:45 when it sensed I was starting to come out of a sleep cycle naturally. I think the alarm went off around 5:35.

This morning I needed to be awake by 6 to get ready for work. The alarm went off at 5:42.

(Because I am paranoid about oversleeping, I set a back-up alarm for five minutes after the Sleep Cycle alarm was set to go off. I've never had to rely on it though, the Sleep Cycle app does the thing.)

Aside from trying to wake you more naturally, the app also collects really interesting data on your sleep and spits it out for you in nice charts.

Here's a comparison of my sleep Sunday night to my sleep last night.



I got fewer hours on Sunday night, but it was a much more high quality sleep than last night.

I've only been using the app for a few days, but I haven't had that Mack truck feeling lately. Sure some days I'm tired (like this morning because my sleep was apparently crap last night), but I haven't had that "where the heck am I?" feeling when you get jerked back to reality from a really deep sleep.

If you're curious about your sleep, I highly recommend giving Sleep Cycle a try. It's only 99 cents in the App Store.

Have you ever tried Sleep Cycle or used any other method of tracking your sleep?

Sleep Cycle didn't pay me anything or give me any sort of discount to write this post. I bought the app on my own and just wanted to share because I really enjoy it.