Best sleep cycle app for apple watch

With each iteration of watchOS, Apple is doubling down on the health features of the Apple Watch. watchOS 7 officially brings the long-overdue native sleep tracking capabilities to the Apple Watch for the first time. However, it’s basic features leave plenty of space for third-party sleep apps.

The App Store is filled with plenty of such apps. Among them, we have identified the 6 best sleep tracking apps for Apple Watch. But before we talk about them, let’s talk in detail about the capabilities of Apple Watch’s native Sleep app and compare it with the rest.

1. Apple Watch Sleep app
2. Sleep++
3. Pillow
4. AutoSleep 
5. Sleep Watch by Bodymatter
6. NapBot
7. Sleep Pulse 3

1. Apple Watch Sleep app

Apple has tied up the new Sleep app on the Apple Watch to the iPhone’s Wind down and Wake Up for a pleasant experience.

This native app enables the Sleep mode and smartly hides the extractions such as watch face. It only displays the time and the alarm for the next day. With Sleep Mode, the watch also disables features like raise-to-wake.

All the measured data gets perfectly integrates with the Health app on the iPhone. You only need to set up the sleep cycle once. The watch will automatically log the data based on it and display it in the Health app.

However, you must enable the Wind Down feature and create a schedule for your sleep cycle. I liked most the app’s battery notification. It notifies you if the battery reaches 30% before your regular sleep time. Thus, reminding you to charge it well before sleeping.

Although a nice option as it doesn’t require an additional download, it is pretty basic. It only shows sleep time, and a few heart rate ranges during sleep. That’s where third-party apps come into play!

Keep reading to check our favorites!

Price: Free

2. Sleep++

Sleep tracking capabilities of the Apple Health app are basic at best. Here is where the third-party apps jump in. As the name suggests, Sleep++ takes the sleep tracking to the next level with all the possible tidbits. 

The app makes full use of the motion and health monitoring of the Apple Watch to measure your sleep duration and its quality. The data helps you understand how well you sleep during certain hours and how you can improve upon the routine for better results. 

What I love about Sleep++ is its data visualization. It’s nicely detailed inside the main app. You won’t have a hard time figuring out your sleep quality through the night. 

The app sends a concise report of how long you slept and how restful you were during the last night. 

Price: Free (In-app purchase starts at $1.99)

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3. Pillow: Sleep Cycle Tracker

Pillow has one of the best user interfaces among all the sleep tracking apps for Apple Watch. The app features a nice bottom menu bar with big buttons, menus, and eye-popping sleep graphs to read the data. 

The company touts the app as the smart sleep assistant that helps you analyze the sleep cycle using the Apple Watch. 

My favorite function is the smart alarm clock. Over time, the app reads your sleep data and only wakes you up when it finds the lightest possible sleep range. One can also record audio such as sleep snoring (who does that!) and sleep talking. 

Pillow syncs perfectly fine with Apple Health, and you can view and manage all the data from Apple’s default app as well. Other features include Sleep trends, Sleep notes, mood tracker, nap modes, sleep tips, and more.

Read our full review on Pillow.

Price: Free (In-app purchase starts at $4.99)

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4. AutoSleep Track Sleep on Watch

Probably the most popular and best sleep tracker for the Apple Watch out there! As the name suggests, AutoSleep doesn’t need any manual input from the users. Simply open the app, give relevant permissions, and AutoSleep will track your sleep using the Apple Watch. 

The company claims to deliver a clean experience without any ads, analytics tracking, 3rd party code, and more. 

All you need to do is wear your watch before going to bed. AutoSleep will kick in to track sleep data and send you a notification in the morning. To measure sleep quality, AutoSleep tracks restlessness, time awake, bpm, sleep quality, deep sleep, and heart rate and delivers a comprehensive nightly analysis. 

I especially adored its “readiness” score that foretells how ready you are to face the day merely based on your night’s sleep. Smart indeed!

Price: $3.99 

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5. Sleep Watch by Bodymatter

Sleep Watch is yet another capable third-party app to track sleep using the Apple Watch. The company claims to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to measure, track, and improve sleep quality. 

I like the default dark blue theme that the app uses. It’s easy to view and read at night. Sometimes, it feels like the app is trying to throw too much information at the user, which can be overwhelming for some. 

Other features include daily briefings, last night’s sleep details, auto sleep, heart rate tracking, sleep disruption tracking, and more. 

Price: Free (In-app purchase starts at $3.99) 

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6. NapBot – Sleep and Nap Tracker

NapBot takes advantage of Machine Learning to detect and understand your sleep. Based on the collected data, it delivers a detailed sleep phases analysis by calculating deep and light phases. 

The app also analyzes the environmental sounds and creates a report on how it affects the overall sleep quality. 

However, the free version is limited. To use NapBot at its full potential, you will have to purchase its Pro version. It includes goodies such as detailed sleep history and trends. 

Price: Free (In-app purchase starts at $3.99)

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7. Sleep Pulse 3

At first glance, you might mistake Sleep Pulse 3 for Apple Health. It’s strikingly similar to the default health app on the iPhone. The app tracks your sleep with Apple Watch, Motion, and Heart sensor to deliver the complete picture. 

The biggest highlight of the app is Nap tracking with ‘Power Nap’ and sleep talk recording with its ‘Sleep Talk’ feature. It’s one of the few apps from the App Store to support such a feature.

I’m a fan of Sleep Pulse 3 UI. I appreciate how the developer has smartly used different colors to highlight certain areas and parts of the sleep. 

But my biggest gripe with the app is manual adjustments from the user side to start tracking. It won’t automatically do it when you fall asleep. I hope the developers are working on its automation!

Price: Free (In-app purchase starts at $3.99)

Download

Go through the apps list above and start tracking your sleep hours using the Apple Watch. The majority should sync perfectly fine with Apple’s default solution. If you want an advanced solution, opt for Pillow or Sleep++ to dig deep into sleeping habits.

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