Buzz
There’s an abundance of expensive sleep technology available, along with supplements and products claiming to provide more daytime energy. However, for many of us, feeling constantly tired often just means we need to prioritize getting to bed earlier.
If you’re ready for some honest advice from a cartoon sheep, Shleep (available for free on iOS and Android) can help you identify which of your sleep habits need improvement and offer bite-sized lessons to help you improve them. While the company behind the app leans towards corporate solutions (such as monitoring employee sleep, which feels a little dystopian), the app itself is free and doesn’t overwhelm you.
Upon installing the app, you’ll complete a brief quiz about your sleep patterns on weekdays and weekends, whether you hit the snooze button, your daytime tiredness, and phone usage in bed. (The questions go deeper, but these are the key areas.) Based on your answers, you’ll receive a score and be assigned a set of short video lessons explaining why you should address a particular bad habit.
You’ll receive an assignment regardless of your score. I completed the quiz with a perfect score and was still advised to work on 'relaxation.' However, you can also explore other lesson sets such as overcoming the snooze button, avoiding 'sleep debt,' and keeping electronic devices out of the bedroom.
The app will prompt you multiple times a day to check in on your sleep and remind you of the bedtime routines you may have committed to. While these notifications can be easily turned off or adjusted, they’re not overly intrusive. If the app ultimately helps you stick to a bedtime, it could have long-term benefits for your well-being.
