This sleep tracking app uses motion detection to wake you up – but this is my favourite feature

In an effort to get a better night’s sleep, many people have invested in the best sleep trackers to learn more about their sleep habits and find ways to improve. But if you don’t want to wear a tracker to bed, Sleepwave might be a good solution for you, as it offers plenty of sleep tracking data without you having to wear or sleep anything.

Most sleep trackers will either sit around your wrist in the form of a watch or slide underneath your mattress. But Sleepwave is different as it’s an app on your smartphone that offers sleep tracking data, analysis and can even wake you up, by sitting on your bedside table.

Described as a smart alarm and sleep tracking app, Sleepwave uses contactless motion sensing technology to detect different aspects of your sleep. For example, it can detect breathing rates and different sleep phases, as well as sense body movement using inaudible sound waves from your phone being beside your bed.

The motion sensing is extremely interesting, as not only does it use this to compile sleep data, but the Sleepwave app can also decide from your movements and alarm settings when to wake you up. This wake up process or smart alarm is triggered within a 15 minute window of when it detects movement. It does this to help wake you up more naturally and when you’re starting to feel more alert.

In the Sleepwave app, it records your duration of sleep, and compares it with previous days and weeks. It’ll also track when you’re awake and other sleep stages, like REM, core and deep sleep, and gives you an overall rating. It’s worth mentioning that this tracking is only available on a premium app subscription, but more on that below.

The app offers gentle sounds to wake you up gradually, and sleep sounds to help you fall asleep – but my favourite feature is the dream journal. Within the app, you can keep track of your dreams and even spot patterns alongside your sleep statistics. For example, if you experience vivid dreams, you might notice that this tends to happen in a night where you experience deeper or REM sleep.

I’ve covered sleep for a while now on T3 and have tried many different sleep tracking devices, including the best smart rings. I like the concept of Sleepwave, particularly as you don’t have to wear or sleep on anything to use it, nor do you have to place your phone next to your head.

Having said that, I do wonder how effective the tracking is as Sleepwave mainly uses motion detection rather than tracking sensors. With sensors that come into contact with your body, these receive more accurate readings from your heartbeat and blood pressure, so I question how accurate Sleepwave is with its analytics – plus you’ll need to pay for a subscription to get the most out of this data.

But, Sleepwave offers a lot more than just sleep tracking, and it’s those features that interest me the most, like its dream journal, smart alarm clock and wake up and sleep sounds. Sleepwave is available to download on the Apple Store and Google Play. There’s no subscription required, but if you want in depth sleep analysis, you’ll have to pay for the premium version of the app which is £23.99 a year.