So...I was checking out the App Store page the other day...looking for apps that I might want to try out. I noticed something...

Out of the 6 apps on the Top Charts I am currently running 3 of them...AutoSleep, WaterMinder, and HeartWatch. Not only am I running them...I am using them daily...heavily. Over the course of the next 3 weeks I plan to write about each of these 3 apps...including some of what the app provides the user. I thought it might also be interesting to take some time to think about what each of these apps affords me. With that said, here are my thoughts about AutoSleep.

AutoSleep: A Sleep Tracking app... A little more than a year ago I found myself getting up in the middle of the night unable to sleep. I was stressed out about things going on at work and anxious about the stress I was experiencing. I wanted to see if there was an app that would help me better understand my sleep (or should I say lack of sleep) behavior. I understood that whatever I found was NOT going to help me get rid of the stress and anxiety I was experiencing. I hoped that some mental silence may come from the data a sleep app could provide.

Currently Apple has yet to integrate native sleep tracking on any of its platforms. I’m hopeful that it will come at some point but for now, if you want to track your sleep you have to seek out a third party app. For me, AutoSleep is the app of choice. Before I go on I have to just put out there that if you are not currently tracking your sleep...you may want to consider it. I have learned a lot about myself through tracking my sleep and I’ll share some of those insights in just a bit. Right now...I’d like to provide a brief, 50,000 foot view of what the app provides you.

Here’s a picture of what you see when you open the app...

What you are seeing is the Clock View. From the top, the seven circles represent what your sleep has been like over the course of a 7 day week based on 4 metrics. Underneath that weekly view, in the left most corner, you see the amount of sleep, in hours and minutes, you got on the date above. Beneath that the app provides a colored clock view with the 4 metrics on the inside. The clock view shows you the time you went to bed, the time you woke up and...through the color code, whether or not the amount of sleep is in line with what you tell the app you want to get nightly. Red=not enough. Yellow=almost enough. Green=you met your goal. Dark rectangular blocks within the circle indicate moments where your sleep was deep. More on that in a bit. If you were restless at all there will be grey breaks in the colored clock band.

The 4 metrics include...

The Sleep Circle (located at “12 o’clock”). This view gives you the total amount of time you slept...again...with the same color coding scheme mentioned above.

The Quality Circle (located at “9 o’clock”). This view gives you an idea as to how much of your total sleep time was...for lack of a better word...quality.

The Deep Circle (located at “3 o’clock”). This view lets you know how much of that total time and quality time was spent in deep sleep...my favorite part of sleep!

The bpm Circle (located at “6 o’clock”). This view gives you an idea of how well your heart rate dip was while sleeping.

There is so much more to each of these metrics and the rest of this app than what I’m describing here. Each of the metrics I’ve outlined here allows you to dive much deeper to view so much more data. I will leave it to you to explore that data if and when you decide to try this app out.

How has this app helped me?

As I stated above, it has NOT helped me get rid of the stress and anxiety. That’s not why I sought it out. However, over the course of more than a year with this app I have come to see the importance, first and foremost, of getting enough sleep. The app has validated (through the data) what I instinctively have come to understand when I get up...that being whether or not I had a good night’s sleep. It’s helped me figure out when I should go to bed if I want the amount of sleep (quality and deep) I feel that I personally need. I have found that on nights that I meet my quality and deep sleep goals...my bpm are really good, I’m well rested, and ready to take on the day...including the things that stress me out and make me anxious! My new found (and continued) awareness of my sleep is helping me cultivate a bit of mental silence.

Next week I will be writing about WaterMinder...an app that helps me track my water intake.