Best Sleep Music Apps

BySean McKlveen
Sleep Music Apps

In principle, falling asleep ought to be the activity that requires the least amount of effort from our bodies on a daily basis. What exactly is the issue if you lie down, close your eyes, and go to sleep? However, things aren’t always as simple as they seem.

Whether it’s because we have trouble falling asleep, wake up frequently during the night, or suffer from a more severe form of insomnia, many of us aren’t getting the amount of sleep we require to maintain our health and mental acuity. Some people have turned to sleep aids like pills to help them get the rest they need each night, but there is another option available that is more holistic, and that is the use of sleep music apps.

These apps, which were developed with the assistance of professionals in the fields of sleep and meditation, may include a combination of ambient noises, musical compositions, bedtime stories, and nightly meditation exercises that are designed to help you not only fall asleep and stay asleep, but also have better quality sleep so that you wake up feeling well-rested. The apps were created with the help of sleep and meditation experts. Because there is nothing more discouraging than feeling fatigued the following day despite having gotten eight hours of sleep the night before.

In the following paragraphs, we have compiled a list of the top sleep music apps, which will enable you to stop staring at the ceiling in the wee hours of the morning so that you may become one of those people that just, you know, sleeps.

The Top Music Apps for Sleeping in 2022

  • Best Overall: Slumber
  • Best Free: Bettersleep
  • Headspace Is the Best Combination of Meditation and Music
  • Best Variety: Pzizz
  • Best For Kids: Sleepiest

Best Overall: Slumber

Pricing is as follows: free access for a limited period, $7.99 per month, $49.99 per year, or $249.99 for life.

Android and iOS are the platforms.

Why Did We Choose It? Slumber helps you get a better night’s rest by guiding you through a number of different auditory relaxation techniques. These techniques include listening to music or nature sounds, engaging in guided visualization, learning to control your breathing, experiencing autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR), and even practicing hypnosis.

Pros

  • Developed by specialists in the field of sleep
  • A wide variety of sleep practices are available to choose from
  • It is possible to customize the music.

Cons

  • A restricted offering is available in the free version

Slumber’s extensive library certainly does have something for everyone, since the app’s audio library features things like soundscapes, stories, music, and meditations among other things. The science-based strategies have been validated by the National Sleep Foundation, and they give you the freedom to select the strategy that is most effective for you, be it a story series, meditation, or even something as straightforward as music. It also enables you to add in background noise to play for up to 10 hours after your primary track has finished playing. This is helpful in the event that you haven’t yet been able to fall asleep, or if you need the additional white noise in the background to help you stay asleep. Every week, there are brand new stories and meditations that are uploaded, so there is always something new to find.

If you would rather restrict it to only music and sound effects, you may personalize the settings so that you not only have control over the sounds that you hear but also over how you mix and match those sounds to make the ideal combination for you and over which noises take precedence. You can find the reassuring noises that will ease and relax your mind into bed by selecting from a variety of options, such as rain, crackling fires, binaural beats (two tones played in alternating ears of headphones), and a flowing river. There are also things called soundscapes, which are pre-made combinations of sounds that produce an aural experience similar to that of strolling through a forest. The Sleep Music section is not comprised of any sound effects; rather, it is solely comprised of musical compositions that are intended to assist you in achieving a state of relaxation.

You are able to use the app for free up to a certain point, but in order to obtain access to the complete experience, you will need to pay a monthly price. You have the choice to pay $7.99 per month for a month-to-month subscription, $49.99 per year for a yearly subscription, or go all in with a lifetime subscription for $249.99.

Best Free Version: Bettersleep

Access to a restricted portion of the site is free of charge; premium membership is $59.99 per year.

Android and iOS are the platforms.

Why Did We Go With It? Using this intuitive app, you can create your own personalized sleep tracks, and the app also enables you to connect guided meditations with your ideal sleep mix.

Pros

  • Capable of being tailored to individual needs
  • A vast collection of sonic assets

Cons

  • There is a smaller selection of melodies available than there are sound effects.

Up until November 2021, Bettersleep was formerly marketed under the name Relax Melodies; the only thing that has changed is the brand name. The app does not need to be changed, and pricing and login credentials remain the same; all that needs to be done is update the app to reflect the new name.

Bettersleep is an exception to the rule that free apps have a relatively limited catalog of alternatives, as it provides a large variety of sounds in a variety of genres, ranging from nature and animals to melodies and brain waves. The software is available for download on the Apple App Store and Google Play.

Because its user interface is straightforward and straightforward, it enables you to visually create your music and mix your sounds together. You are able to adjust the volume of each individual sound to meet your requirements, and the application also enables you to favorite your creations. If you would rather have your tracks already mixed, you can browse through a selection of mixes that have been generated by the staff or submitted by other users and are ready for you to use. There are also stories, melodies, and meditations; however, the free version provides a collection that is not quite as varied, so your options are somewhat restricted in this category.

Even while the free version provides a substantial amount of content, the premium edition, which requires a one-time payment of $59.99 to access, provides even more content than the free version does.

Headspace Is the Best Combination of Meditation and Music

Access is free for a limited time but costs $12.99 per month or $69.99 per year.

Android and iOS are the platforms.

Why We Chose It: Headspace is the ideal combination of mindfulness and a sleep aid, allowing you to switch between meditation and relaxation based on your preferences and the demands of the moment.

Pros

  • It is simple to use.
  • Immersive experience
  • A holistic approach to the health benefits of sleep

Cons

  • If you want the vast bulk of your sleep needs met, you will have to pay.

Although Headspace is best known as an app for meditation, it also features a fairly incredible function that plays music to help users go asleep. It applies the same strategy to lowering stress levels and calming down your mind and body, and then applies that strategy to your sleeping patterns. The primary objective of the Headspace app is to help users develop better “sleep hygiene,” which entails establishing a pattern of behavior that not only facilitates a more rapid transition into slumber but also enhances the overall quality of their slumber.

The sleep function is simple to locate and even simpler to use. It comes with a library of content that includes not just music but also soundscapes and sleep radio, which allows you to listen to your preferred music for a longer period of time. The timer option is particularly useful because it enables you to tailor the length of your play to any duration between 10 and 500 minutes, depending on your preferences.

There is also more targeted content that focuses on situational aspects, such as “SOS” content for when you are woken up in the middle of the night and need help getting back to sleep. Apparently, the brain requires a different kind of experience when it is trying to fall asleep for the first time than it does when it is trying to get back to sleep after waking up.

There is a free version of Headspace, however it has very limited content related to sleep and it is not recommended for use. Upgrading to a paid subscription, which costs $12.99 per month or $69.99 per year, is required in order to access all of the features and perks that are available. Although it is expensive, it grants you access to a big content library consisting of sleep and meditation programs and features that can help you deal with a variety of issues, such as stress caused by work, feelings of loneliness, and worry.

It takes care of your mental health and the amounts of stress that you experience during the day, which can assist impact your ability to have a decent night’s sleep when it’s time to go to bed.

Best Variety: Pzizz

Access is available for free with restrictions, or for $9.99 per month or $69.99 per year.

Android and iOS are the platforms.

Why Did We Go With It? Pzizz uses a science-backed psychoacoustic method, and it provides a number of different techniques to assist you in falling asleep that are tailored to your particular requirements. Additionally, it utilizes an algorithm that makes small tweaks to improve your experience each time you use it.

Pros

  • A selection of different voices from which to pick
  • An algorithm for personalization
  • Programmable stopwatch
  • Offline use

Cons

  • You are unable to personalize the tracks of your sleep music.
  • The navigation of it can be difficult at times

The science of psychoacoustics, which is the field of psychology dedicated to the study of how people perceive sound and how it affects them physiologically, serves as the foundation for Pzizz. The app makes use of studies on how noises affect sleep and uses that to help design their “dreamscapes,” which are mixtures of music, voiceovers, and sound effects. This is done to ensure that the “dreamscapes” have clinically established benefits for your sleep habits.

Pzizz does an excellent job of customizing your experience for you based on its algorithm, which provides a little different soundtrack each time you use it. This is one of the most impressive aspects of the user experience that Pzizz offers. Even while your brain will continue to link the noises with sleep, this will prevent your mind from becoming overly accustomed with the dreamscape and hence blocking it out subconsciously. The algorithm will also use your preferences to produce recommendations over time based on the sounds you like and dislike. These suggestions will be made in response to your likes and dislikes.

The voiceover feature is another one of the app’s distinguishing characteristics because it grants the user a greater degree of control than any other app currently available. Not only can you adjust the volume of the voice independently from the volume of the music, but you can also choose from a number of different voice variations and apply a 3D effect. You can choose to ignore the narrations entirely if you would rather have your sleep tracks be silent than have them vary automatically each time you use them, but if you do choose to utilize them, they will be different each time. You can set your timings to any duration, and the dreamscape will adjust itself to meet that time. This completes the personalization options available to you. If you want to use Pzizz for its sleeping functionality, this will come in extremely helpful for you. Additionally, it possesses an in-app alarm, which means that you do not need to set an alarm outside of the app itself.

The app is available for free, but it only includes two dreamscapes and two narrations. If you want to unlock the full library of dreamscapes and narrations, as well as a focus module for daytime clarity and other premium features including curated alarm sounds, you will need to pay either $9.99 per month or $69.99 for an annual subscription.

Best For Kids: Sleepiest

Pricing is as follows: $9.99 per month or $49.99 per year

iOS is the platform.

Why We Chose It: Sleepiest is oriented toward helping make bedtime simpler for children by exposing them to healthy sleep habits via bedtime stories, white noise, and calming music. Sleepiest was designed to help make bedtime easier for children.

Pros

  • Provides children with the resources necessary to develop healthy sleeping habits
  • It should be simple for them to navigate

Cons

  • It is necessary for you to place a device in the bedroom of your child
  • Expensive

Adults aren’t the only ones who struggle to get enough sleep. According to the findings of a study that was published in the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, between 25 and 50 percent of preschoolers and up to 40 percent of teenagers encounter challenges that are related to their sleep. 1 Although it is not designed expressly for children, Sleepiest is kid-friendly and full of bedtime stories, calming noises, and music that will help put youngsters to sleep. It features parental controls that prevent children from navigating to other apps or websites while they are using it, but it also gives them the freedom to explore the app on their own to find the sounds and stories that help them go asleep.

You have the option of selecting from the following four categories: Sounds, Composer, Meditate, and Stories. Composer enables children to build their own tunes utilizing those sounds for a personalized track, while the Sounds section of the app provides calming music and background noises like rain and birds. In the Stories section, you’ll find a collection of narrated stories that range from well-known classics like “Sleeping Beauty” to some less well-known and more contemporary works. The Meditate section features guided meditations and strategies for relaxation. You also have the option, within the parental controls, to create a timer that will automatically turn off the audio after a predetermined period of time.

Your level of confidence in letting a gadget inside your child’s bedroom during the night will determine whether or not you should utilize the app. Although the parental settings and Guided Access on an iPhone allow you to restrict what kids can do with the app and guarantee that they remain within the app, some parents may not want to add that distraction to their children’s lives. The cost is somewhat high as well, coming in at $9.99 for a monthly subscription or $49.99 for an annual one. However, it does support family sharing, which means that up to six members of a family can make use of it.

Final Verdict

Slumber was designed by specialists with the sole intention of assisting you in falling asleep using a variety of techniques that have been the subject of scientific investigation. It also gives you the ability to customize the experience to find the method that is best suited to meet your individual requirements. Spend the extra money on the pro edition if you want a genuinely immersive voyage into sleep wellness and correction treatments. The free version offers a sampling of possibilities that may be appealing to people with modest sleep disorders. Pzizz and Headspace both provide a sizable collection of pre-made sleep programs that have been tried and tested by the companies’ staff as well as the communities they serve and have received overwhelmingly positive feedback. If you are less interested in exploration and would rather have your sleep program chosen for you, you can take advantage of either service.

Questions That Are Typically Asked

How Do Sleep Music Apps Actually Function?

These sleep music applications offer content that may be downloaded to your phone or streamed to your phone with the intention of assisting you in falling asleep more quickly and having higher quality REM sleep. They can either be devoted exclusively to sleep or be included as a component of more comprehensive apps for mindfulness and meditation. They often include a combination of music, noises, narration, and stories, all of which may either be personalized by you using a set of options and created by you from scratch, or they can be selected from a database of pre-made tracks that you can choose from.

How much do apps that play sleep music cost?

The majority of the apps that can be downloaded provide access to some form of free material, whether in the form of a limited trial period or a limited selection of sounds and features. You will need to subscribe to the service in order to have access to the premium content; the subscription can be paid for on a monthly, annually, or in some cases, lifetime basis. Prices might range anywhere from $7.99 to $12.99 per month or $49.99 to $69.99 per year for these.

Are There Any Sleep Music Apps That Actually Work?

There have been a lot of studies done regarding how important it is to maintain healthy sleeping habits and how engaging in soothing activities like meditation before going to bed can assist support better sleep. [Case in point:] [Case in point:] [C The role that sleep-assistance apps play in this, on the other hand, has received relatively little research to date. Anecdotal evidence is abundant, with hundreds of five-star reviews for each of the apps listed on this list, despite the fact that there is currently a dearth of clinical proof about the effectiveness of sleep music apps.

What Kind of Music Helps You Fall Asleep the Quickest?

The strategy that works well for one individual may not be optimal for another. One study indicated that music was a good sleep aid for many of the subjects, but also discovered that the subjects’ specific listening selections varied greatly. The majority of apps allow users to select from a variety of musical genres in addition to other types of background sounds, such as white noise or rain.

Is There a Totally Free App That Helps You Sleep?

The vast majority of apps come with some sort of free content. It is dependent on the app as to how comprehensive the free version is. The one and only app on our list, Sleepiest, does not have a version that is available for free download. Bettersleep, which is our top recommendation for a free version, makes a vast collection of sounds freely available to its users. If you want to reduce the amount of money you spend, the best thing you can do is test out as many different apps as you can to find out which ones offer the free sounds that are most suitable to your tastes.