Sleep deprivation is a worldwide problem of our time. Although the recommended amount of sleep is 8 hours daily for adults and about 10 hours for school-aged children, an average grown-up barely sleeps 6 hours a day. As for teenagers, various social pressures conspire against the proper amount of daily rest. This can lead to exhaustion, impair memory and cognitive abilities, and affect overall well-being. Luckily, technology is not only able to interfere with our sleep (we all indulge ourselves to social networks and YouTube video-hopping late at night), but also to offer us a remedy.
Sleep as Android
This is the most versatile and multi-functional application of its kind, that tracks everything you need to know about your sleep. The most important and usable feature, however, is sleeping patterns tracking – based on your movements and other data analysis, the app chooses to wake you up during the optimal sleep phase, which makes the awakening process easier and less stressful. Besides, the alarm is gentle and customizable. The app also keeps sleep deficit stats and offers sleep advice. On top of that, it can help with detecting some alarming symptoms of sleeping disorders, such as sleep apnea or sleep talking.
Twilight
If you have a hard time falling asleep or your children get too excited while using their phone or tablet before the bedtime, the probable cause may be the harsh blue light coming from the screen. This cold-hued glow, to put it simply, reminds our brain of the daylight and keeps us awake. Even the calm activities such as reading from the tablet screen can delay your going to sleep by an hour. Twilight solves the problem by adjusting your screen to the time of day and reducing blue light emission at night. When the app “thinks” that the sun is already down (it collects data about your GPS location), it dims the screen and applies warm orange and red filters, to imitate the sunset colors and prepare our brain for going to sleep.
Nature Sounds Relax and Sleep
Sometimes all we need to peacefully fall asleep is slowing our mind down a bit. Our days are full of stirring sounds – traffic, door slamming, furniture rolling, dogs barking, and sirens wailing. The app imitates the sounds of natural environment – birds singing, rustling of the grass, ocean waves, the wind, rain and thunder – whatever makes you comfortable and relaxed. There are many “white noise” machines and ambient music generators created to accompany us in the arms of Morpheus, however, this one offers only pure nature sounds and no music, which has the most wholesome effect on the psyche. It’s good for various purposes: to lull you to sleep, to help you relax when you feel stressed or tense, or even to wake you up in the mildest and most placid way possible, as it allows to use tracks from the app as the alarm and ringtones.
Pumpic
The most common reason why children have troubles falling asleep nowadays is their keenness on gadgets and digital. Sleeping is boring, whereas online life is buzzing 24/7 – they play games, they chat with friends, they share everything that happens to them during the day through the social networks. If you feel that maybe your child is growing dependent on their phone and that online activities interfere with their bedtime, you may opt to block the most distracting apps altogether. Pumpic has the variety of monitoring and blocking features that will help you to keep the cyber life of your child within the reasonable limits.
Yoga for Insomnia
This app offers you a guided series of yoga poses emphasizing the right way of breathing. The experience aims specifically to help you in overcoming insomnia. Traditional hatha yoga has a wholesome effect on your body and sets the right mood for sailing away to sleep. If you have never done yoga before, you may want to try Core Yoga app first. Nevertheless, Yoga for Insomnia is quite suitable as well. Your children may try it also; however, it is strongly recommended that they do the exercises under your guidance.
Dream Journal
Dreams are the reflection of our psyche, our worries and wishes. Sometimes people have reoccurring unpleasant dreams and this can affect their sleep and general state. To clear your mind and put your dreams right, you can keep a dream journal. It also helps to train your memory and to keep your brain fit. Luckily, now there is an app for that too. In Dream Journal you can track reoccurring patterns and elicit key moments that need interpretation. Though it is a very intimate process, you may choose to share your dreams with the community by posting them on the Dream Wall and read the dreams of other people from all over the world.
These apps will not solve all your sleep-related problems, but will definitely help you and your children to keep a proper regimen, cope with stress and avoid distractions after bedtime. The rest is up to you. Sleep tight and have nice dreams!
talkhealth Blog
Do you know a seriously ill child or young person who is defying the odds? Or a health professional that goes above and beyond for the children in their care? This is your chance to recognise their achievements and give them a night they will never forget.