I tried a sleep tracking app during my most sleep-challenged time of year – here's what I found out

While I've been writing about sleep for the last three years or so, I've never really felt the need to pay that much attention to my own sleep requirements beyond trying to ensure that I have the best mattress for my needs. Because I generally work as a freelancer and don't have to worry about getting up early to head to an office, I go to bed more or less when I want and get up when I'm good and ready. Feel free to hate me.

So when T3 asked me in December if I'd fancy trying out Sleep Cycle, an app that promises to track and analyse your sleep and help to wake you up feeling properly rested, I wasn't sure if it would be for me. But then I gave it a little more thought and realised that I was staring down the barrel of a month of serious sleep disruption: Christmas and New Year, followed in mid-January by a week performing in a production of 'Cinderella' as one of the Ugly Sisters. Maybe, I figured, a little sleep assistance could be what I needed. Here's what I discovered.

About Sleep Cycle

Sleep Cycle features sleep tracking and a smart alarm clock that promises to wake you up at the least traumatic time, as well as sleep aids to help you drift off including music, soundscapes, bedtime stories and relaxing guides, and sleep programmes to assist you in creating a healthier sleep regime.

For me, the sleep tracking and smart alarm clock are the most interesting features. Simply leave your phone charging by your bedside, and Sleep Cycle uses its microphone as a motion detector to deduce when you're asleep and how deeply you're asleep; it'll also track details such as snoring, breathing disruptions and your respiratory rate, and in the morning your sleep journal presents you with a detailed rundown of just how well you slept.

As an adjunct to that, Sleep Cycle's smart alarm clock should give you a gentle wake-up: you provide it with a wake-up window of up to half an hour, and it'll try to rouse you when you're in the lightest sleep state.

Getting started

The Sleep Cycle app was quick and easy to set up on my iPhone, and after a quick scout around its features I was ready to set it up by my bed. Because I was keen to see how the smart alarm worked, I tried it out on the first night with a half-hour wakeup window at a reasonable hour the next morning. I was a little concerned that the knowledge that my sleep was being judged by my phone would prevent me sleeping well, and according to my sleep journal for that night it took me 36 minutes to fall asleep; however after that it seems I slept really well, with a 93% sleep quality rating, 1h 18m in deep sleep and 2h 49m in dream sleep. That's not bad going.

The smart alarm turned out to be an interesting feature. I'm all for the idea of it waking me up when I'm in light sleep; conversely I hate being woken up earlier than I need to be, which is what happened to me that very first time, resulting in me hitting snooze a couple of times, which is something I wouldn't normally do (and which is really easy to; just picking up your phone and giving it a little shake will kick the snooze function in). The app's sleep journal made for enlightening reading, though; did I really spend two hours snoring?

My sleep quality dipped the next night, which I put down to the fact that my partner would be returning the next day with her mum, who was staying with us for Christmas, and the knowledge that I had a load of housework to get done before they arrived. It was down again the next two nights, most likely because I was readjusting to sharing a bed after the luxury of having it all to myself for a little while. From Christmas night onwards, though, things improved, with my sleep quality going up throughout the week.

New Year and into January

New Year's Eve, naturally, proved to be a low-quality sleep night with an overall score of 67%, but after that my sleeping prowess seemed to step up a notch: a few nights later I clocked up my first 100% score. I'm not entirely sure how that happened, as the graph shows I was awake at numerous points in the night, but who am I to argue with the percentage?

(Interestingly, the night before writing this all up I felt like I got a good night's sleep, but Sleep Cycle said no, I'd had a terrible night with a score of just 44%. The only thing I can put this down to is that it recorded a lot of ambient noise throughout the night, which was probably Storm Éowyn that I completely slept through. I suspect this highlights the limitations of using a microphone to judge sleep quality, but as on the whole Sleep Cycle appears to do a good job, I can overlook the occasional glitch.)

Post New Year my stats were pretty stable, with a fairly regular bedtime and waking up time and consistently good sleep scores, so there's not really much to say about them. But show week was fast approaching, and that's when everything was likely to go haywire.

The ultimate challenge: show week

Panto is hard work and guaranteed to rob me of sleep. Between getting everything set up in the theatre, a technical and a dress rehearsal, and the actual performances, show week meant that the only night I got to bed before 1AM was when we had Wednesday night off before our opening night. Even though I was usually home from the theatre between 11PM and 12AM, I needed time to eat and wind down, and after the long tech rehearsal that went on until midnight, I didn't get to bed until 3AM.

While there was no great need for me to get up early that week (except on the Friday when my parents were coming to see 'Cinderella' and I had to prepare for their arrival), I didn't want to risk going fully nocturnal, so Sleep Cycle's smart alarm was a lifesaver, getting me up at a decent hour, and while my sleep quality was down compared with previous week, I at least wasn't a complete wreck by the time the show finished. (It went really well, thanks for asking.)

Sleep Cycle: conclusion

Speaking as someone who's largely pretty sceptical about the value of sleep tracking, I got on rather well with Sleep Cycle. I found the tracking features fascinating and the smart alarm, when I needed it, useful, and I'll more than likely continue using it, even if I don't make use of some of its premium features such as its sleep aids and sleep tips. The app's available for free, with a free trial of its premium features and content; I could probably live without them, but at around £35 for a year's subscription it's not going to break the bank.

My big takeaway is that actually, when I'm not spending my evenings on stage, I have quite a good sleep routine: I tend to go to bed and wake up around the same time most days, and that's a key factor in sleeping well. Sleep Cycle tells me I'm getting significantly better sleep quality than the UK average, and that's fine by me.