Sleep Cycle app

I've been using the Sleep Cycle app on my iPhone for a couple of years. One thing it reports is your sleep quality every night. I had decided recently that it (the sleep quality portion of the app) was not reliable at all and stopped paying attention to it. However, I noticed today that the sleep quality percentage correlates really well to AHI. As my AHI has gone down, my sleep quality score has gone up. It's pretty consistent in this regard, also reflecting a high AHI with a low sleep quality score. So, I'm thinking it's actually surprisingly accurate. Do any of you guys use it, and what do you think of it?

Hmmmm, wondering how a phone app would measure sleep quality? What parameters does it use? Not too long ago I used a Snore App (Snore Lab I think it was called) which produced graphs showing snore levels (mild, loud, epic), gave a daily snore score, and recorded the whole humiliating episode so I could play it back.

It uses the phones accelerometer, which bases the score on your movement (very unscientific explanation). Like I said, I completely discredited it, but am starting to think maybe it works.

I use the app as an alarm clock. You give it a window of time to wake you up, and it rings when you're in the lightest level of sleep within that window. It really helps with grogginess. It was just the sleep quality part that I thought was inaccurate. But after comparing it with my AHI for the past 3 weeks, it correlates very closely. You're right I don't need that aspect of the app, just find it interesting. The last few mornings I've woken up, seen my sleep quality on the app, then made a prediction of what my AHI was. Then checked my AHI, and my predictions were basically spot on.

Well, being as I have to wake up at 5am for work and I am not at all a morning person, there's no choice!

xxyzx wrote:

Rainmom17 wrote:I use the app as an alarm clock. You give it a window of time to wake you up, and it rings when you're in the lightest level of sleep within that window. It really helps with grogginess. It was just the sleep quality part that I thought was inaccurate. But after comparing it with my AHI for the past 3 weeks, it correlates very closely. You're right I don't need that aspect of the app, just find it interesting. The last few mornings I've woken up, seen my sleep quality on the app, then made a prediction of what my AHI was. Then checked my AHI, and my predictions were basically spot on.

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i prefer to wake up naturally when my body says to do it

i dont want the coffee machine starting when it thinks i will want coffee
and i dont want some ap waking me up when it thinks i had enough sleep

XXYX That's YOU, doesn't mean anyone else prefers it that way. Most of us were taught as children, that to keep saying I,MY or ME when speaking was indeed very rude and self centered. You did it seven times ... I'm not at all surprised, since you don't even know the rudimentary rules of punctuation and spelling (or anything else for that matter).

I invested in a Zeo, and it was quite accurate; but my sleep is so boring, it sits there gathering dust.

Hmmm, the alarm clock feature that helps with grogginess sounds like a total plus, especially if wake time for work varies and is sometimes very early, when dark. During business travel, the laptop with SH stays home, so there are a few days to wait to get SH data. This app could be fun for those times and really helpful to wake in different time zones.

Thank you for sharing!! This alarm could really help my travel.

Esme wrote:Hmmmm, wondering how a phone app would measure sleep quality? What parameters does it use? Not too long ago I used a Snore App (Snore Lab I think it was called) which produced graphs showing snore levels (mild, loud, epic), gave a daily snore score, and recorded the whole humiliating episode so I could play it back.

It probable checks to see how many times you died that night. Jim

xxyzx wrote:

Rainmom17 wrote:I use the app as an alarm clock. You give it a window of time to wake you up, and it rings when you're in the lightest level of sleep within that window. It really helps with grogginess. It was just the sleep quality part that I thought was inaccurate. But after comparing it with my AHI for the past 3 weeks, it correlates very closely. You're right I don't need that aspect of the app, just find it interesting. The last few mornings I've woken up, seen my sleep quality on the app, then made a prediction of what my AHI was. Then checked my AHI, and my predictions were basically spot on.

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i prefer to wake up naturally when my body says to do it

i dont want the coffee machine starting when it thinks i will want coffee
and i dont want some ap waking me up when it thinks i had enough sleep

Unfortunately, not everyone has the luxury of waking up only when their body naturally says to do so. Many have jobs and other obligations that make that impossible for a lot of people. Plus, many people wake up many times during the night, so the body often wakes people up when it still needs more sleep. Sometimes the frequent awakenings can be figured out and fixed, other times they can't.

For this app, seems you have to keep the phone in the bed and it measures how much movement there is to determine when you're in lighter or deeper sleep.

I wish they still made the Zeo. I believe that used a headband to determine when you're in different sleep cycles, how much time spent in each, etc., waking you within a set time frame where you're in lighter sleep.

Rainmom17 wrote:Well, being as I have to wake up at 5am for work and I am not at all a morning person, there's no choice!

That's called a Alarm Clock or clock radio, I used to set two, when I had to do the nightly grind. I used to have a normal day job, but I had to change to feed the Cubs.

After a while my internal clock rolled over and I became a Night Owl, now retired, my clock is stuck in Owl mode. I let my body decide when I wake up, unless I have to do something else. Jim

xxyzx wrote:

Rainmom17 wrote:Well, being as I have to wake up at 5am for work and I am not at all a morning person, there's no choice!

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the choice is to go to bed two hours earlier
then wake up naturally
and if the alarm still wakes you up
then go to bed 3 hours earlier

you may prefer to move that start time back in half hour increments slowly
but get to bed earlier so the bleeping alarm doesnt mess up your sleep
if it goes off at the wrong point in the cycle you lose a lot of the value of sleeping that night

By now, you should have noticed that anything from xxyzx is meaningless drivel. Not everyone has the luxury of going to bed "2 hours earlier." Sleep Cycle is not a bad app, and if the phone is kept close to the pillow, not a bad sleep tracker, although there are others that are better, including many "fitness" trackers such as Fitbit. As an alarm clock, it is fine.

phuqueutoo wrote:

xxyzx wrote:

Rainmom17 wrote:Well, being as I have to wake up at 5am for work and I am not at all a morning person, there's no choice!

===

the choice is to go to bed two hours earlier
then wake up naturally
and if the alarm still wakes you up
then go to bed 3 hours earlier

you may prefer to move that start time back in half hour increments slowly
but get to bed earlier so the bleeping alarm doesnt mess up your sleep
if it goes off at the wrong point in the cycle you lose a lot of the value of sleeping that night

... Not everyone has the luxury of going to bed "2 hours earlier." Sleep Cycle is not a bad app, and if the phone is kept close to the pillow, not a bad sleep tracker, although there are others that are better, including many "fitness" trackers such as Fitbit. As an alarm clock, it is fine.

Totally agree. Few people have the luxury of moving their bedtime and awake time around any and every which way trying to find the wake time where they "naturally" wake up. Life for most of us doesn't work that way. Working a night shift, for example. Having kids in the household. IMO, using an alarm that can wake a person in a lighter stage of sleep I believe is a great way to go. I just don't know how reliable they are at this point in affordable technology. (Although I hear Zeo wasn't bad.)

WearyOne wrote: just don't know how reliable they are at this point in affordable technology. (Although I hear Zeo wasn't bad.)

I don't know how reliable a phone app might be in terms of measuring sleep quality or sleep anything for that matter.
It can't be touching a person to measure movement which might be one thing that could be used but even then it doesn't necessarily mean much. Some people move around a lot during sleep and it's normal for them. I have often wondered what one of those apps might report if I just lay in bed with my back to it and stayed perfectly still but was wide awake. I am thinking it would be pretty easy to fool a phone app like it is to fool the FitBit with movement. I had a FitBit (died a while back) and it told me I did 7,732 steps one day when I mowed the yard on my riding lawn mower. So I know they can be fooled.

The Zeo wasn't bad in terms of accuracy but even with it's sensors on the face it wasn't perfect and they admitted it.

The new FitBit that measures heart rate and supposedly sleep....the jury is still out on that one but it is worn on the wrist so there is movement measuring as well as heart rate which supposedly can give them a good shot at reporting sleep stages.
RobySue has one and says it seems reasonably accurate based on what she sees in terms of breathing/flow rate if she zooms in on the detailed reports at times where she knows she is awake vs times where she is reasonably sure she is asleep.

I am toying with the idea of getting one of those FitBits that measures heart rate and sleep...just toying with the idea right now since I used my mad money to buy the AirSense 10 for Her AutoSet.
At this point though it just isn't all that important for me to maybe know my sleep stages....I already know that I wake up a lot as it is and I don't need anything to tell me that I do. Now if I ever can get the reason for my known wake ups fixed so that I don't wake up so much then maybe I might be more inclined to dig deeper into the FitBit stuff for sleep stages.

But for those people who like to play with these apps on their phone or whatever...hurts nothing to play with them and we already have the phone so doesn't cost anything either.