Best Sleep App for Apple Watch 2022

Originally Published Nov 3, 2022

Hey sleepy head!
 
Your Apple Watch is just the thing to keep tabs on your sleep habits. No built-in sleep tracker? No problem! You're a download away from sleep apps that track literally everything.
 
We've put together a smashing list of the best sleep apps for Apple Watch for 2022 out there for sleep tracking, both simple and complex, so that you can make sure your sleep is better than ever.

The Low Down on Sleep Apps

 
If you're feeling extra restless lately, you're not alone – more than 5 million Americans have issues getting to sleep each night, according to a study from Iowa State University. Getting yourself into the right headspace to quiet your mind and drift off to lala-land isn't an easy task, and different resources work for different people.
 
As you know, with the right app, your Apple Watch can track your steps, heart rate, and calories burned.  But, did you know it can also detect sleep apnea, the duration of your REM cycle, how long it takes you to fall asleep and figure out if you have a snoring problem? Whether you want an easier wake up or help establishing a better sleep routine, a good night's sleep is a few clicks away.
 
Ahead, you'll find the best sleep apps for Apple Watch in 2022 to get you started.

SnoreLab

When you’re asleep, are you a room shaker or do you purr like a kitten? SnoreLab records, measures and tracks your snoring and helps you to discover effective ways to reduce it.
 
SnoreLab has monitored more than 50 million nights of sleep and has helped millions of people to better understand or even eliminate their snoring problem. Let SnoreLab run next to your bed while you sleep and in the morning you’ll discover your Snore Score, how loudly you snored, and even listen to some highlights!
 
SnoreLab lets you log and track other lifestyle factors so you can see how they impact your snoring. The sleep app can be useful in medical consultations when investigating sleep disorders such as sleep apnea.

Pillow

This sleep app for Apple Watch is all about the user experience. Pillow is an easy crowd favorite because of its intuitive and well-designed interface, and other great features such as a smart alarm clock. When it finds the lightest sleeping range possible, it wakes you up. Audio, like sleep talking and snoring,  can be recorded, as well.
 
The program has a beautiful bottom navigation bar that includes easy-to-read buttons, menus, and eye-catching graphs for data reading. Sleep trends, sleeping notes, mood tracker, sleep modes and sleep recommendations are some of the features. Again, Pillow exactly matches Apple Health and all of the information from the usual Apple app can be viewed and managed.

Sleep Space

Raise your hand if you’re feeling a little low energy! If you've noticed that your sleep habits are starting to affect your energy, SleepSpace could be just the sleep app you need. 

This inventive brand patented their own sleep technology to gather your heart rate, HRV, oxygenation levels, sound in the bedroom, and micro-motions to find your sleep stages and improve your sleep quality.

They take this health data to build your circadian chart and weekly analysis, providing you invaluable feedback for how to maximise both day and nighttime habits.

Sleep++

Another great straightforward sleep app for Apple Watch, Sleep++ is perfect for basic sleep tracking. It has one fantastic feature called data visualisation, or charting, that aims to capture one thing – sleep quality.
 
The app provides you with daily and average sleep times, how many hours were restful sleep, and the number of minutes you were awake. It also gives you a sleep duration score so you can track changes over time.
 
It’s considered a more basic app without features available on other sleep tracker apps such as smart alarms or light and sound monitoring – but sometimes less is more, right?

Better Sleep

A sleep app won't do you any good if you don’t have trouble falling asleep, so if you consider yourself an insomniac, download Better Sleep.
 
This app tracks your sleeping habits then helps to create a personalised sleep experience for more restful nights and wakeful days. Perks include a sleep tracker, night time recorder, soothing sounds, music, guided meditations, bedtime stories and more to help you fall asleep – and stay asleep. This app is available in six languages and has over 50 million downloads.

NightWare

 
NightWare is an app for people who suffer from PTSD-related nightmares, and it uses the Apple Watch motion and heart rate sensors to detect when you’re having a nightmare. Once it senses you’re experiencing a nightmare it sends a low intensity vibration to rouse you without waking you up – ending the nightmare without breaking your sleep. If that doesn’t work, it increases until you’re back in a gentler sleep mode.
 
The app generates data that’s stored and sent securely for review by your healthcare professional. While the makers are currently focusing on ex-military personnel, they hope to expand its availability in the near future.

NapBot

The latest version of the popular NapBot sleep tracking app includes a particularly interesting feature: sleep apnea detection. Sleep apnea is a sleep disorder that means your breathing pauses or becomes very shallow more frequently than other people, and it can seriously disrupt your sleep – which means you’ll be more tired the next day.
 
NapBot is one of the best sleep apps for Apple Watch in 2022 because it can detect apnea via the respiratory rate measurement on your watch, which is enabled whenever the sleep focus mode is on. It also monitors environmental audio so you can see if external factors are contributing to poor sleep, and as you’d expect it provides the usual analysis of your sleep states.
 
The core app is free but you can upgrade to the paid version that gives you two extra features: Sleep History and Sleep Trends, both of which enable you to see the big picture of your sleep habits and the effects of any lifestyle changes.

Streamlets

 
Streamlets is a simple and effective sleep app that uses the Community Radio Browser service. This app enables you to stream over 26,000 radio stations from around the world to your Apple Watch and listen to them on your Watch’s speaker or on your Bluetooth headphones – and it works without requiring a companion iPhone app.

While the sound quality isn’t perfect, the selection here is huge, and there’s a great mix of completely obscure stations as well as big names such as the BBC and Capital FM. Many users love that it can run in the background, so you can use it as the soundtrack while you do something else. It also integrates with the Workouts app to help motivate or distract you while you get fit.

Apple Watch Sleep App

If you don’t need anything fancy, Apple has a built-in sleeping app that shouldn't be dismissed.
 
With the Sleep app on Apple Watch, you can create bedtime schedules to help you meet your sleep goals. Wear your watch to bed, and when you wake up, open the app to learn how much sleep you got and see your sleep trends over the past 14 days. You can also create multiple schedules—for example, one for weekdays and another for weekends
 
Sleep Focus is one popular feature, which limits distractions before you go to bed by filtering out notifications and phone calls, and protecting your sleep after you’re in bed.
 
It’s considerably simpler than any other sleep app on this list, so it may be lacking if you’re used to all the bells and whistles. But, we included it here because some love a nice straightforward app.

So, which is the best sleep app for Apple Watch in 2022 that’s the right fit for you? Prioritising self-care by creating some better sleep habits is always a good idea.
 
For more ideas on creating a surefire sleep routine our experts at Physio Inq would love to help. Book an appointment today!

Written on behalf of Physio Inq