Sleep-helping apps are useless

If anything, technology use impairs sleep and is not recommended before bed. Furthermore, there is no reliable scientific evidence.

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Insomnia is both a global problem (16 percent of the adult population suffers from it, and one in three people experience periodic symptoms) and a great opportunity to develop new products and generate revenue. Among these are apps, which promise miracles: they're supposed to help people fall asleep and improve their sleep quality, preventing them from waking up constantly. But in reality, they're useless. 

The most common mechanism by which these apps work is to reduce mental activity, precisely to promote good quality sleep. 

When you are stressed or “hyper-awake,” your brain stays in alert mode with a number of negative effects: 

  • continuous thoughts
  • anxiety
  • clock check
  • physical tension

The apps, based on the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia) include:

  • guided meditations
  • slow breathing
  • calm music
  • white noise
  • monotonous stories (“sleep stories”).

All to lower the activity of the sympathetic nervous system (“fight or flight”).

Other apps, also very popular, use different tools to monitor sleep and understand where and when critical points occur. 

Some apps use:

  • phone's accelerometer
  • SmartWatch
  • microphone
  • heartbeat

They are used to calculate:

  • when you sleep
  • movements
  • snoring
  • sleep stages

However, there are two problems with apps that help you fall asleep more easily and sleep better, and when added together, they make them useless.

The first is that these solutions require the use of technology: precisely the kind of technology that doctors advise against before falling asleep. This is why we ask you not to use smartphones and computers in bed; not to text or chat before falling asleep; and not to do it as soon as you wake up. The greatest harm of technology is that it misleads the mind. circadian rhythm and to inhibit la melatonin, essential for sleeping. 

Second, there's no scientific evidence to support the usefulness of sleep apps; if anything, the majority of studies point in the opposite direction. Indeed, researchers emphasize the number of unreliable mini-studies that have been conducted to support the spread of sleep apps. A meta-analysis of 2020 examined 1.200 publications, concluding that only 19 can be considered reliable, and these are those that demonstrate the very limited, bordering on placebo, effects of sleep apps.

Among the most requested apps there is sleepio: the most studied and clinically validated. It requires daily commitment and works more like a "therapy program" than a relaxation app.

  • CNT-i-Coach: developed with US clinical institutions. Less elegant but very practical.
  • Sleep Reset, with the classic CBT approach.
  • Calm down: Specializing in sleep stories, relaxation, sounds, and meditations.
  • Headspace: to start with meditation and short routines.
  • Insight Timer: a sort of huge library on sleep and possible solutions against insomnia.

As for costs, they vary quite a bit from one app to another, but a weighted average provides this price range for monthly or annual subscriptions:

  • about €5–10 per month if you pay annually
  • about €10–20 per month if you pay month to month

The advice, before venturing into the universe of sleep apps, is to try the natural remedies that we indicate here and to try these foods considered capable of promoting sleep. 

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