The Nike+ for … sleeping

There’s a pretty cool iPhone app that I’ve been trying out for a few days nights which seems to capture the imagination of everyone I talk/Twitter/Facebook to.

It’s called Sleep Cycle and it purports to analyse and track your sleep patterns and then wake you at the optimum time in the morning (ie at the lightest sleep phase. You can check it out here (or purchase directly from iTunes for £0.59).

You set it up by placing your iPhone on the mattress (next to the pillow but not covered by it), and then the app uses the accelerometer to measure tiny movements in the mattress as you toss, turn and generally shift around.

Here’s my sleep snapshot from 3 nights ago:

I woke up feeling pretty awful, certain that it had been a bad night’s sleep, and yes, the Sleep Cycle confirmed this. Things got better the next two nights as you can see below. Although I am certainly still conscious and slightly uncomfortable about it quietly monitoring me all night .. and plugged into power :(. yes, the Sleep Cycle confirmed this. Things got better the next two nights as you can see below. Although I am certainly still conscious and slightly uncomfortable about it quietly monitoring me all night .. and plugged into power :(.

I was suspicious of it’s accuracy, but… the app does indeed seem to work as promised. The wake up feature is quite nifty too. You set your alarm for the latest time you can wake up, and then the app chooses the most appropriate time in the 30 minutes leading up to this time – that is, when you’re sleeping lightly – to set off the alarm. And you can choose from a range of quite soothing options. The first two nights my alarm went off at the latest possible time however this morning it did wake me up a little early which was great because I was probably gearing up to dive back into deep sleep.

What’s missing from this app is a half-decent design (though the UX is very solid) to provide a little more personality and character. The potential to combine this with some more interactive and beautiful data visualisations is huge. And then, of more substance, is the need for customised analysis of your sleep pattern along with remedies and suggestions for better sleep. One hopes that’s on the way.

The fascination people have for this app when I tell them is quite something (every iPhone owner I have told about it has bought it on my idle recommendation). I think that people get so excited because of the mystery of sleep and dreaming and the to-date invisibility of sleep patterns. It is such an unknown and intriguing realm for most of us

Although having seen some sleep patterns of my colleagues, I am starting to feel much better about my own quality of sleep! (C’mon guys, feel free to insert yours at the end of the post).

So if you want a device+application+service that covers your sleep performance, and which is also shareable via email and Facebook (clever), then Sleep Cycle is a very fun experiment. In a nod to the agency obsession of hyping ideas as the next big thing in digital, I am happy to label this type of app as the “Nike+ of sleep”.