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Living with short-term or chronic insomnia can be challenging. It can affect your physical and mental health in ways that extend far beyond waking up feeling groggy. But a resource for getting more restful sleep may be right in the palm of your hand.
We chose this year’s best insomnia apps for Android and iPhone devices based on their quality, reliability, and user reviews. See how learning about your own sleep patterns may be the key to deeper, more restful sleep.
iPhone rating: 4.7 stars
Android rating: 4.5 stars
Price: Free with optional in-app purchases
Sleep Cycle monitors your sleep patterns and offers detailed statistics and daily sleep graphs so you can get a better understanding of what’s going on when you hit the hay – or what may be interfering with a good night’s sleep. The app also features an intelligent alarm clock designed to gently wake you up when you’re in the lightest sleep phase.
Android rating: 4.5 stars
Price: Free with optional in-app purchases
Six nature-based relaxing tracks on this Android-only app will help you start your personal audio therapy. Choose from high-quality water sounds, nature sounds, animal sounds, white noise, and more, all designed to help you relax and sleep.
Android rating: 4.5 stars
Price: Free with optional in-app purchases
This Android app is designed to track your sleep cycle and measure its quality in terms of duration, deficit, deep sleep percentage, snoring, efficiency, and irregularity. These insights into your sleep patterns can help you make adjustments for a better night’s sleep. The app is compatible with multiple wearable devices, including Pebble, Wear OS, Galaxy Gear, Garmin, and Mi Band.
Android rating: 4.6 stars
Apple rating: Coming in 2021
Price: Free with optional in-app purchases
Sleepa features a great collection of high-definition sounds that can be mixed into relaxing ambiances with a timer designed to automatically stop the app. This app now features an enhanced in-app alarm clock feature, which gives users the ability to create gentle alarm notifications. Choose from 32 sounds in four groups — rain, nature, city, and meditation — plus three kinds of white noise, and the lesser-known pink and brown noise frequencies. Start relaxing into sleep today.
iPhone rating: 4.8 stars
Android rating: 4.6 stars
Price: Free with optional in-app purchases
Choose sounds and melodies to customize and mix on Sleep Melodies to lull yourself to sleep, or try Sleep Moves. These sleep-inducing programs feature guided exercises with a pillow to help you enjoy restful sleep, and they’ve been approved by health and sleep professionals. The app’s five-day programs and single sessions can help you achieve deep sleep, better sleep, stress and anxiety relief, more effective napping, and more.
iPhone rating: 4.3 stars
Price: Free with optional in-app purchases
Pillow is a smart-sleep assistant for iPhone users. The app analyzes your sleep cycles automatically through your Apple Watch, or you can just keep your phone nearby when you sleep. Features include a smart alarm clock to wake you during the lightest sleep stage, sleep trend tracking, sleep aid sounds, and personalized insights and tips for better quality rest.
Android rating: 4.6 stars
Price: Free with optional in-app purchases
Sleep Sounds does exactly what it says. The app features high-quality, soothing sounds for better, uninterrupted sleep. Pick from 12 customizable nature sounds, and choose your timer duration so the app turns off automatically after you’ve drifted off.
iPhone rating: 4.7 stars
Price: Free with optional in-app purchases
This collection of sleep-inducing stories and meditations is designed to help you beat insomnia so you can fall asleep quickly. The app’s slumber episodes put you into a state of deep calm, making it easy to drift off. You can also adjust the nature sounds and background effects to create the perfect ambiance for restful sleep all night long.
iPhone rating: 4.8 stars
Android rating: 4.7 stars
Price: Free
Sometimes, you just can’t find the right sound to help you get to sleep. So make your own! The White Noise Lite app allows you to create your own combination of sounds. You can even record and loop your own original sounds to play later on the app when you need that exact sound to help soothe your insomnia.
iPhone rating: 4.8 stars
Price: Free with in-app purchases
Falling asleep is a close cousin to staying focused: when you let your mind wander too much at night, you can keep yourself from relaxing and falling asleep. The Tide app combines these two skills (yes, falling asleep quickly can sometimes feel like a skill!) by giving you tools like timers, breathing exercises, pre-recorded sounds, and meditation practices to relax your body and help you focus on sleeping when you need to.
Android rating: 4.7 stars
Price: Free with in-app purchases
Ambient noise is proven to be one of the best ways to soothe yourself to sleep, because it helps create a relaxing environment that gives you just the right decibel level to drown out your thoughts. Nature Sounds gives you plenty of options to fall asleep to, including ocean waves, waterfalls, and rain. The app also features a timer so that you can save your data and battery life after you’ve long since fallen asleep.
iPhone rating: 4.2 stars
Price: Free with in-app purchases
Sleep++ is designed for use with the Apple Watch, which features highly accurate heart monitoring and movement sensors that give you an automated feed of how long and how well you’ve slept. You can also control your sleep timer manually so that you can develop mindful, positive sleep habits.
iPhone rating: 4.4 stars
Price: $1.99
Like the Sleep++ app, it works with your Apple Watch to sync your sleep data. You can also adjust the sensitivity and sensors of your watch so that the tracking data is more accurate. You can add notes and hashtags to your sleep patterns in order to identify where you may need to improve your sleep behavior or take action to sleep better.
If you want to nominate an app for this list, email us at nominations@healthline.com.