Sleep is directly related to our resilience to illness and our ability to recover from physical and mental stress. Getting a full night of rest is one of the best ways to transition into a better headspace. It’s no secret how fragile every aspect of sleep is, and we get inundated with advice on what pillow, alarm clock, white noise machine, sleep aids, and which binaural beats will let us sleep better.
We know the frustrations that come when we don’t get enough sleep, wake up throughout the night, ride the snooze button train all morning, deal with the snores of a loved one, and generally just don’t log enough sleep time. Serious fatigue makes everything harder.
There are so many sleep apps, stress management tools, sleep trackers and sleep tracking apps, and smart alarms, that at the end of the day, when all we need is sleep, the last thing we want to do is scan our phones to find a tool to fall asleep fast. To learn more about how this affects our sleep cycles, head to this sleep cycle blog post.
When the Apollo team was surveyed about the best sleep apps and tools they like to pair with Apollo for a good night’s sleep, one thing became abundantly clear: our team loves sleep. We’re excited to share our top sleep apps, tools, and app purchases that, when paired with Apollo, will combat chronic stress and rock your world (in a really sleepy, not rock-and-roll type of way 😉).
Note, none of these brands are paying for this content, these are just recommendations from within our diverse community. We all gravitate towards different solutions, so we suggest perusing a few free solutions first, and see what works for you!
1. Oura Ring
You may already know that we have a sleep study in progress with Apollo users that wear the Oura Ring users right now (we’re excited to share the results soon!). Oura Ring is a biometric and sleep tracking device worn on your finger. Apollo Neuro co-founders, Kathryn and Dr. Dave, wear their Oura Rings to monitor deep sleep and gauge the caliber of recovery, how HRV is trending, and to examine the quality of sleep while letting Apollo do its job – falling asleep faster and staying asleep. You can gauge your quality sleep through sleep graphs, understanding your sleep stages, and where you’re getting your lightest sleep.
2.Thunderspace
Are you a fan of nature sounds and sleep sounds? Thunderspace houses rain and thunder sounds recorded by Emmy-award winning Gordon Hempton. Jonathan, Product Designer at Apollo, may take the crown on the best sleep routine, and Thunderspace comes in high on his list of sleep apps and tools. Paired with Apollo, Jonathan recommends the Dream Quest track to log some heavy z’s. He sleeps with Apollo every night, switching between Relax and Unwind and Sleep and Renew for the ultimate night of deep sleep.
3. Qualia Night
Looking for a supplement to pair with Apollo for the ultimate one-two punch for optimized sleep? Wake up refreshed and enhance your body’s ability to regenerate after a night of sleep, we like the sounds of that. Qualia Night is non-sedative, and this formula gives your body what it needs to have a relaxing evening and deep rejuvenating sleep. When your body repairs fully at night you feel more energetic, focused, healthy and resilient. Wake up feeling recharged and refreshed, and try your first month for $39.50.
4. Waking Up
Waking Up is an app loved by many (including master lifehacker Tim Ferriss) for its attention not only to the practice of meditation, but the theory behind it as it was founded by a neuroscientist and philosopher, Sam Harris. Sam Harris’s calm and soothing voice walks you through guided meditations as well as educational sessions that ground your experience in the ‘why’, not only the ‘how’ for a better wake up.
5. Calm
Calm (available for Android or Apple) is one of the most popular meditation apps and sleep apps on the market – for good reason. Try Calm with your Apollo on Meditation and Mindfulness, and even for those that aren’t the meditating type, we think they may be soon. Soothing sounds, guided meditations, relaxing sound effects, and you’ll sleep well in no time. Calm is a great way to dip your toes into guided meditations as you drift off into a deep sleep — and we recommend trying it on your apple watch if you have one!
6. NuCalm
Some customers have asked us how Apollo pairs with NuCalm. While NuCalm isn’t intended explicitly for nighttime sleep, it helps with intense rapid relaxation and is great for power naps. Justin, who heads up Apollo’s customer support team, uses NuCalm and swears by it: “it’s basically like getting 4-8 hours of sleep in a 30-60 minute meditation. It totally works, I LOVE IT.” Need we say more? Be warned, NuCalm is not cheap, but they recently switched to a more accessible subscription model, costing $49/mo. Which begs the question… what is the cost of deep sleep?
7. Sleep Cycle
Sleep Cycle is an app that tracks your sleep patterns to help you wake up without a conventional alarm clock — think of Sleep Cycle as a smart alarm clock. The app helps better understand your sleep cycles for a restful sleep and not-so-painful wake-up.
One additional tool that our team hasn’t personally tried but we’ve heard great things about, is Pzizz – a popular sleep, nap, and focus tool. If you’ve tried it with or without Apollo, let us know what you think!
