Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock review

If you’re looking for something besides your normal obnoxious alarm clock to get you out of bed in the morning, then the worldwide best-selling Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock app for iPhone and iPod Touch is what you need. This isn’t your average alarm clock. This is a bio-alarm clock that uses the accelerometer in the iPhone and iPod Touch to measure the user’s sleep cycle throughout the night as they cycle from deep to light sleep. The app wakes the user up during their lightest sleep during a 30-minute wake-up phase window, leaving the user feeling rested no matter how many hours they’ve slept.

To use, place the Apple device at the corner of the bed next to the user’s head (but not under the pillow), to allow the app to monitor movement throughout the night to determine what phases of the sleep cycle the user is in. This app measures everything about a night’s sleep and does a good job of informing the user how their sleep cycle works. It records bedtime and wake up time, total hours of sleep and the average number of hours slept over the course of the nights the app is used. The instructions are quick and easy to comprehend even for the most basic of user and the instructional photos foolproof anyone getting it wrong about where the Apple device should be placed. To further make sure placement is correct, a Placement Test confirms that the device is positioned properly and gives the user an idea of how movements are registered by indicating them with a sound.

The graphics are simple, clear, and nothing very noteworthy except for the statistics chart of last night’s sleep which is informative and easy to read for anybody. The user has their choice from eight soothing and melodic alarm clock sounds, the selection of their own iPod song, or a standard alarm clock sound to wake up to. Like a normal alarm clock, the user can choose snooze time between 1 to 20 minutes, or it’s recommended to use the app’s ‘Intelligent’ snooze option for optimum snooze time unique to the user. When the sound is played during the snooze and alarm clock phase, it plays softly enough so that it doesn’t obnoxiously wake the user up, but loud enough that it will do the job (note: it’s recommended to turn the volume on the app up all the way, otherwise you may not hear the alarm go off).

One word of caution: do not make the mistake of exiting out of the app before you place in on your bed before sleep. This will close out the app and the alarm clock. The Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock app from Maciek Drejak Labs, for only 99 cents, is a must-have for people who hate feeling groggy when they wake up in the morning.