The best apps to help you fall asleep

Woman Sleeping - best apps to help you fall asleep

While falling asleep at night comes easy to some, it can be a struggle for others. You may still have thoughts about your day running through your mind, feel stressed or full of anxiety, or simply have trouble relaxing when it’s time for bed.

These types of situations are the perfect times to use technology to your advantage. Here are the best apps to help you fall asleep.

Calm

Calm app on iPhone

Calm is an app that offers stories and sounds for sleep time along with music, nature sounds, plus mediation and breathing sessions.

Calm notable features:

  • Listen to sounds with moving photos without any purchases to relax during your day.
  • Select Sleep Stories for kids, naps, fiction, and non-fiction.
  • Choose from different background scenes and adjust the in-app volume.
  • Set a timer to play sounds outside the app.

Calm offers terrific options for helping you fall asleep, but includes much more for focus, relaxation, anxiety, meditation, and an overall calming experience.

  • Availability: iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV, Android, and the web
  • Cost: Free with in-app purchases for Calm Premium and subscription plans to unlock the features. Calm is a nice try-before-you buy option.

Relax Melodies: Sleep Sounds

Relax Melodies on iPhone

Not everyone likes the same types of sounds to help them sleep and that’s where Relax Melodies: Sleep Sounds comes in. You create your own combination from tons of sounds and melodies for just the right mix.

Relax Melodies notable features:

  • Choose from sounds that include everything from nature to appliances to music to city sounds.
  • Adjust the volume for each individual sound within the combination to create the ideal effect.
  • Use the nightstand clock, bedtime reminder, and create alarms and timers.
  • Check out additional features including SleepMoves, Meditations, and Breathe for a little extra relaxation.

If mixing the sounds that soothe you the most is what you really need to help you relax and sleep at night, then Relax Melodies is the app for you.

  • Availability: iPhone, iPad, iMessage, Apple Watch, Apple TV, and Android
  • Cost: Free with in-app purchases for subscription plans to unlock the extra features.

White Noise Lite

White Noise Lite on iPhone

White Noise Lite is another wonderful app to help you sleep. With over 40 sounds you can listen to a light rain, a crackling campfire, ocean waves, and so much more.

White Noise Lite notable features:

  • Create mixes and playlists of your favorite sounds.
  • Set timers and alarms and use the bedside clock.
  • Create a sound of your own with the in-app recorder.
  • Use AirPlay to your Apple TV or HomePod.

White Noise Lite of course offers what you would guess, white noise. You can also listen to brown, pink, blue, and violet noise. But the additional sounds really add to the flexibility of the app.

  • Availability: iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Android, Windows, the web, and more platforms
  • Cost: Free with in-app purchases for upgrades to remove the ads and unlock additional features.

Rain Rain Sleep Sounds

Rain Rain Sleep Sounds on iPhone

Rain Rain Sleep Sounds, as the name implies, offers many types of rain sounds from calming drizzles to booming thunderstorms. But it doesn’t stop there. You can listen to the ocean, nature, transportation, appliances, and other sounds that soothe you.

Rain Rain Sleep Sounds notable features:

  • Mark your favorites for quick access.
  • Convenient timers for fade-out and bedtime.
  • Handy modes for a nightlight and big picture.
  • Use AirPlay to your Apple TV or HomePod.

If the sound of rain really is the one that helps you relax and sleep, then definitely give Rain Rain Sleep Sounds a try. But remember that the app does offer extra sounds and features that make it more than just a rain sound player.

  • Availability: iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, and Android
  • Cost: Free with in-app purchases for additional sound packs or the unlimited app version.

Pzizz – Sleep, Nap, Focus

Pzizz app on iPhone

For relaxing at bedtime, another good app to try is Pzizz. The app offers three sections for sleep, nap, and focus, each with sounds, music, a timer, or alarm.

Pzizz notable features:

  • Choose from nature sounds like distant thunder, a waterfall, or a mountain stream as well as melodies.
  • The Sleep and Nap features offer music and a voice with guided relaxation. You can use both or just one.
  • The Focus feature has low and high intensity sound effects for you to pick from.
  • Connect with HealthKit to track your mindful minutes.

Pzizz is a light and simple app to help you sleep, nap, or focus. It might just be the perfect way to end your day and awaken refreshed.

  • Availability: iPhone, iPad, and Android
  • Cost: Free with in-app purchases for a premium version and subscriptions for additional features.

Wrapping it up

Hopefully one of these apps is just what you’ve been looking for to help you relax and fall asleep. They each have something different to offer, but all accomplish the same goal.

Do you already use of these apps and love it? Or, do you use another one you’d like to recommend? Let us know in the comments below!

And, if you’re also looking for a sleep tracking tool, check out our list of apps to try.