Title: Smart Alarm
Category: Health & Fitness
Price: 2.99 AUD
Availability: iOS/Android
Description
One of the best alarm apps available, it includes a variety of wake up sounds which are quite pleasant and do not make you want to throw your phone across the room in the morning (can also use own music). The reason this alarm is special is due to the fact as is uses the inbuilt accelerometer and gyroscope in the phone, which you place on the corner of your bed to monitor your sleep stage (light, REM, awake). Furthermore, it has the option to record noises which it detects during the sleep cycle such as talking in your sleep (muttering the organic compound names the night before your chemistry test?) or disturbances which might wake you up. You can then view any recordings and graphs of your sleep status the next day and monitor how many hours of good rest you are getting over periods of time as well as averages etc(Figures 2 & 3). If there are any notable disturbances recorded, that may have woken you up you can figure out what they are and try to stop or at worst avoid them.
Another benefit of the app’s capability of detecting your current sleep stage is the ability to wake you up at the optimal time (when are nearing the end of a REM cycle). I.e. you set your alarm for 7:00am but the app detects you are coming out of a REM sleep stage at 6:53am it will sound the alarm then. However, this can all be configured to the user’s preference.
Furthermore, the app includes the ability to set ‘chill-out’ music for a set duration when you start the alarm. This feature coupled with the app’s free downloadable sound packs can be a great way to fall asleep when you need to drown out some background noise.