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For the next two days, the 'unlock' program for Sleep on Android is on sale. It's a program that monitors your sleep, either using your phone's sensors or a wearable.
What I particularly love about it is that the alarm system is, by default, 'wake me at the best time no more than 30 minutes before this time'. If it detects that you're in light sleep during this time, it will trigger the alarm. The idea is that you'll be feeling more refreshed than if it had waited for the last possible moment, when you might be more deeply asleep.
It sounds odd - getting less sleep means feeling better on waking - but it does actually work for me.
It bases its opinion on the depth of sleep via using your device's accelerometer. You leave the phone on the mattress when you want to sleep and it can detect whether you're still (deep sleep) or moving around a lot (light sleep). A little graph is shown to you in the morning and - again - this really accurate for me. If I'm feeling urgh on waking, when I look at this it turns out that I haven't had several significant periods of deep sleep.
How accurate this is depends on your mattress type and how well it transmits vibration. A sprung mattress will work well, a memory foam (what the documentation calls 'slow foam') one won't. If you've sunk money (and yourself!) into one of those, you'll need to attach something to yourself, whether it's an armband for your phone or a supported other device, to get much use from it.
It will also do a pile of other things, including make you do some maths or scan something to prove that you're awake or out of bed before the alarm stops.
sleep.urbandroid.org has the full manual.
I've been using it for about three years now. Late last year, I got a Mi Fit Band 2 because it's supported (via another app) by this. As well as being attached to me rather than picking up other occupants of the bed, it also uses less battery..
.. even more so now I run it on a spare phone (original Moto E) that can do about eight nights' tracking before needing to be recharged.
What I particularly love about it is that the alarm system is, by default, 'wake me at the best time no more than 30 minutes before this time'. If it detects that you're in light sleep during this time, it will trigger the alarm. The idea is that you'll be feeling more refreshed than if it had waited for the last possible moment, when you might be more deeply asleep.
It sounds odd - getting less sleep means feeling better on waking - but it does actually work for me.
It bases its opinion on the depth of sleep via using your device's accelerometer. You leave the phone on the mattress when you want to sleep and it can detect whether you're still (deep sleep) or moving around a lot (light sleep). A little graph is shown to you in the morning and - again - this really accurate for me. If I'm feeling urgh on waking, when I look at this it turns out that I haven't had several significant periods of deep sleep.
How accurate this is depends on your mattress type and how well it transmits vibration. A sprung mattress will work well, a memory foam (what the documentation calls 'slow foam') one won't. If you've sunk money (and yourself!) into one of those, you'll need to attach something to yourself, whether it's an armband for your phone or a supported other device, to get much use from it.
It will also do a pile of other things, including make you do some maths or scan something to prove that you're awake or out of bed before the alarm stops.
sleep.urbandroid.org has the full manual.
I've been using it for about three years now. Late last year, I got a Mi Fit Band 2 because it's supported (via another app) by this. As well as being attached to me rather than picking up other occupants of the bed, it also uses less battery..
.. even more so now I run it on a spare phone (original Moto E) that can do about eight nights' tracking before needing to be recharged.