Best iPhone sleep apps & sleep-tracking apps

Price: Free
Download: App Store

If all the apps here seem slightly high-tech, then you might want to investigate Alarm Clock Free. This turns your iPhone into a good old-fashioned digital alarm clock. Alarm Clock Free has some advanced features, such as weather conditions, but mostly we find users love the great representation of a classic LCD display.

Read next: The best health tracking apps for iPhone

Price: 79p
Download: App Store

Well reviewed, fully featured and highly customisable, Alarm Clock Pro regularly gets five star feedback from happy customers. It's plain to see why: the clean, clear minimalistic design is easy on the eye, simple to set up and most importantly reliable. A choice of alarms, tones along with music, podcast and audiobook options, helps cushion the rude awakening and for those insomniacs you can fall asleep to a variety of potentially soothing options. Alarm Clock Pro also displays a fairly detailed four-day weather forecast, while a relatively new shake-to-snooze is a blessing at weekends. Also available from developers iHandy is Alarm Clock Free, which lacks the full feature set found in the Pro version.

Read more: ihandysoft.com

Preinstalled (iOS 10 and later)

Bedtime is a clever but simple new feature in iOS 10 that helps you to achieve more consistent sleeping habits.

The clever thing here is that, as well as picking a wakeup time, you also tell Bedtime how long you hope to sleep each night. With these two pieces of information in mind, it will then give you a warning when it's time to hit the hay in the evening.

If that sounds good, here's how to set up and use Bedtime on iPhone.

Price: £2.29
Download: App Store

Fun yet functional, CARROT Alarm aims to make waking up more a pleasure with a series of songs, greetings, games and tasks to start your day. #1 in Utilities in more than two dozen countries, the app is a breeze to set up - swiping up or down to choose your desired alarm time, then simply dragging CARROT to the right or left to set the alarm. Users are offered the ability to receive rewards, while unlockable app upgrades are available, both adding to the fun.

Read more: meetcarrot.com

Price: £2.29
Download: App Store

Deep Sleep is a guided meditation app designed to help lull you into a deep sleep. Andrew Johnson is based in Ayrshire on the West Coast of Scotland and has created popular self-help CDs to deal with stress symptoms. The dulcet tones of Mr Johnson talk you into a state of deep sleep, so works similar to meditation or hypnosis (an audio sample is below). Your mileage may vary depending on your cynicism; but we find guided meditation (once you get into it) to be a great way to relax.

Price: Free
Download: App Store

From the team behind the Horror Channel, available on satellite and cable, Night Terror is both a scary sleep aid and alarming alarm app. Designed for solo sleepers and placed under a pillow, the app includes some creepy sounds - church bells ringing, devils laughing, someone repeatedly whispering "open your eyes", along with short, spooky stories. All are designed to influence your dreams, which you can share via Facebook and Twitter. If you really can't sleep, Horror Channel TV listings are also included, although you'll need a TV close by to really benefit. While clearly a novelty and not an ideal alarm app, Night Terror still comes with a warning and is likely not suitable for everyone.

Read more: horrorchannel.co.uk

Price: Free
Download: App Store

Pzizz is an intriguing app that combines sound and narrative to help guide you into a deep sleep. Whereas other apps (like Deep Sleep) have a single narration, Pzizz creates randomised soundtracks containing speech and ambient audio to create a new track every night. The advantage of this, of course, is that the soundtrack does not become repetitive and stop working. Pzizz is one of the best ways to get to sleep at night.

Price: £2.29
Download: App Store

Simple and stylish, Quick Alarm also benefits from being compatible with any older iDevices you might have lying around, especially in the bedroom. The app offers the choice of two analog clock interfaces - black or white - along with a modest selection of sounds ranging from a traditional alarm to a 'drinking dog' and seasonal Christmas theme. Quick Alarm also automatically fits to your device's screen and includes the ability to dim the display, simply by swiping your finger down. While not the most feature-rich alarm available to iPhone users, it works just fine and is a breeze to set up.

Read more: dieselpuppet.com

Price: Free
Download: App Store

There's nothing better than tucking into bed and listening to the rain hit the roof. It's extremely soothing and helps you fall asleep easily. If it's a dry night but you'd still like to listen to a downpour, it's worth downloading Rain Rain Sleep Sounds. The app does exactly what it says, giving you 25 audio recordings of rain. They cover rain falling on different surfaces, but there are also sound recordings covering storms, ocean waves and the wind. More than 2 million people have downloaded it, so you needn't question its popularity.

Price: Free
Download: App Store

Anxiety is thought to be a major cause of insomnia, and it can stem from anything - such as a stressful day at work. The thing is, though, you can't go to bed with this all on your mind. You just won't fall asleep. Recolor, a colouring book app for iOS, will help you sooth your mind before you get some shut-eye. It's been designed with fresh, harmonic colours to help you rest, and the pictures consist of animals, mandalas, bouquets and more. The concept here is that you channel your anxiety and stress into creativity, which will help hugely an hour or so before bed.

Price: Free
Download: App Store

Sleep deprivation is a common health issue and affects millions. There are a number of causes, from stress to using technology before you doze off. Relax & Sleep wants to help you get more shut-eye through hypnosis and meditation. Created by self-help audio author Glenn Harrold, it offers a range of hypnotherapy recordings covering insomnia, anxiety, mindfulness, confidence and self-esteem. Four of these are available for free, although you can get more than 80 additional recordings as in-app purchases.

Price: Free
Download: App Store

Reduce stress by listening to natural audio when you sleep. Relaxing Nature Scenes combines different audio streams, such as seagulls, crickets chirping or the sounds of a flute. There are lots of in-app purchases (currently free) such as Sandy Beach, Rainforest Evening and Mountain Stream. A soundboard is used to pick audio noise to combine together and Relaxing Nature Scenes can send you to sleep, and wake you back up.

Price: £1.49
Download: App Store

Rise Alarm Clock combines a stylish, stripped-down iOS 7/Windows 8 influenced minimalist design with ease of use to help ensure you won't forget to set the alarm, or wake up to it. Beautifully designed, the apps use of colour, typography and gesture-based interface, including support for left-handers, is clear and easy on the eyes. A choice of custom themes helps soften the blow of waking early, while the app includes support for iTunes and Spotify. To add to the choice, developers Simplebots recently teamed with Morningbell Tones to offer some additional alarm tones available via Top In-App Purchases.

Read more: simplebots.co

Price: Free
Download: App Store

You won't have any trouble finding a sleep tracking app for iOS, because there are loads of them. However, SleepBot is one of the best you can download. It's a smart alarm clock that records your movements during the night, giving you an insight into how you sleep. You also benefit from a smart alarm clock mode that wakes you up with a gentle sound when you're in your lightest sleep phase. Ten custom-designed soundtracks are available, and you're able to listen to soothing ambient sounds to help you fall asleep.

Price: Free
Download: App Store

Sleep Cycle is a popular app that uses the iPhone's built-in motion tracker to monitor your movements during sleep. It's an innovative approach to an alarm clock; you place the iPhone under your pillow, and Sleep Cycle analyses your movements. This enables Sleep Cycle to monitor periods of deep and shallow sleep and you get a handy chart in the morning of how well you slept. The neat feature we love is hat Sleep Cycle adjusts the alarm clock to wake you up during a period when you're moving from deep sleep to shallow sleep. The alarm gently tinkles under your pillow to draw you slowly out of your slumber, and you can shake the iPhone to put it in snooze mode. We find this the best alarm clock in existence; it wakes us up slowly and gets us out of bed on time, feeling refreshed and ready for the day.

Popular and well reviewed, Sleep Cycle utilises your Apple iDevice accelerometer to monitor movement to determine which sleep phase you are in. The app then uses a 30 minute alarm window, which ends at your set alarm time, then wakes you in your lightest sleep phase. This, suggests the developers Northcube, should ensure you have a more productive day, while providing users with sleep statistics and graphs to determine how well they have slept. For those serious about sleep, Sleep Cycle comes with 'Top In-App Purchases' offering a more detailed, web and cloud based service called SleepSecure, which also allows users to share sleep cycle data, including between devices.

Read more: sleepcycle.com

Price: Free
Download: App Store

Sleep Time is another alarm clock that monitors your sleep activity and wakes you up at the right time. Sleep Time also contains a soundscape (gentle ambient music) that you can use to help get to sleep in the first place. Sleep Time also tracks heart rate and pulse information, and reports on stress levels. It's a good way to get a report on how well your sleep is going.

Price: £1.49
Download: App Store

Novel yet necessary app for any heavy sleepers out there content to have five more minutes in bed, followed by several extra hours in bed. Not for the grumpy, SpinMe Alarm Clock requires as the name suggests a fair bit of effort to turn off. Users need to place thumbs on their iDevice screen and spin, well turn around, not once but twice to silence the alarm. The great news is this works a treat, although it's less effective when you simply want to set a reminder alarm during the day. As a bonus, Abdulla Al-Shurafa's app allows users to wake to music, which may be the more pleasant option first thing in the morning.

Read more: spinmealarm.com

Price: £1.49
Download: App Store

Wake Alarm Clock's minimalist design utilises the best of Apple's iOS design language to create a beautifully understated app that offers the ability to set alarms by voice alone on more recent iPhone models. The innovation extends to gesture-based commands, including slap to snooze, flip your iPhone over to turn off alarms and shake to wake. While some of these features require your phone, with unlocked screen, to be placed face up next to your bed, plugged-in and charging, it's still an impressive app for ensuring an early start even for heavy sleepers. Along with a good range of built-in alarm sounds that get louder gradually, Wake allows users to select music from your iTunes library to wake to.

Read more: tinyhearts.com

Price: 79p
Download: App Store

Wake N Shake Alarm Clock requires users to shake iPhone, iPad or iPod touch until such time as the alarm stops ringing. With no snooze button or ability to turn down the alarm, the  intensity of the shake can be adjusted so you don't accidentally throw your iDevice across the bedroom. While this is a welcome option, the longer you shake the more likely you are to actually get up. On the social side, the apps adds the ability to compete with friends, earn achievements and keep shake statistics. Additionally, multiple alarms, strobe light and extended shake levels are all available via Top In-App Purchases.

Read more: checkthis.com/wakenshake4

Price: Free
Download: App Store

The market for alarm clock apps is pretty crowded, and there are many advanced offerings that can do everything. But sometimes, you just want something that does the job. This is where Wave Alarm Clock comes onto the scene. Free to download, the clock offers an easy-to-use interface and different ways of snoozing alarms. You can tap the screen with your hand, place the iPhone on it screen or shake the phone. There are 10 alarm sounds to choose from too, and you have the option to wake up to music from your music library.

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