Trouble sleeping after Daylight Saving Time? These apps can help your sleep schedule
What the Tech / Daylight Saving Time
BY JAMEY TUCKER, Consumer Technology Reporter
For many of us, the alarm clock always seems to go off too early. And this weekend it may feel even worse.
Daylight Saving Time begins Sunday, when we “spring forward” and move our clocks ahead one hour. That shift can disrupt sleep schedules and make waking up even more difficult.
If you struggle to fall asleep or get out of bed in the morning, there are apps designed to help with both.
An App That Helps You Fall Asleep
Sleep apps have become extremely popular, and a quick search in the app stores reveals hundreds of options.
One of the most popular is BetterSleep.
Like many sleep apps, BetterSleep includes a library of calming sounds designed to help people relax and drift off to sleep. But the app goes a step further by letting users mix different sounds together to create their own custom sleep soundtrack.
You might start with rain or a thunderstorm and add other sounds such as ocean waves, forest ambience, a purring cat, or something called green noise. You can adjust the volume of each sound to create the mix that works best for you.
BetterSleep can also track sleep patterns overnight and record sounds while you sleep, including snoring. That information can help users better understand their sleep habits. If you’ve never tried relaxing background sounds to help you fall asleep, apps like BetterSleep can be worth exploring.
An Alarm Clock That Won’t Let You Hit Snooze
Falling asleep is one challenge. Getting out of bed is another.
If your current alarm clock app isn’t strong enough to get you moving in the morning, there’s one that takes a very different approach.
The app is called Alarmy, and it’s designed to make sure you actually get out of bed. Before setting the alarm, you assign yourself a task. That task might be walking into another room and scanning a barcode, solving a puzzle, or even taking a picture of a specific object in your house.
When the alarm goes off, it won’t stop until you complete the task.
That means you can’t simply reach over and hit the snooze button. You either get up and finish the challenge or listen to the alarm keep ringing.
It may sound a little extreme, but for people who repeatedly hit snooze and end up running late, Alarmy can be surprisingly effective.
The Bottom Line
Apps like BetterSleep can help create a relaxing environment to make falling asleep easier, while Alarmy is designed to make sure you actually wake up and start your day.
Both apps are available for iPhone and Android. They require subscriptions for full features but offer free trials so users can try them before committing.
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