Apps for sleep

In my last few posts I talked about alcohol, drugs and diet. Reducing alcohol consumption to one or two standards can assist in getting the right kind of sleep. Eating early and regularly is important and stopping smoking or cutting down is important as nicotine is a stimulant. 

When the head hits the pillow though sometimes it can be hard to turn off the mind as it consistently generates thought after thought after thought. One way to help turn off these thoughts is to listen to guided meditation. WTF? Smells like patchouli and probably has the word holistic in it right? Well that’s what I thought anyway until I gave it a go, and the best way to do that is for free with a smart phone app. I downloaded an app called ‘relax and listen’ which is a guided meditation app with 3 options.

  1. Voice only
  2. Voice with music (haven’t tried the music)
  3. Voice with nature sounds

Once downloaded plug the phone into the charger and put your earphones in. Adjust the volume and listen to the instructions. Despite being a meditation skeptic I was quite pleased with the results and have drifted off to sleep within 15 minutes which is pretty rare for me. It doesn’t work all the time but when it does I find I wake up feeling like I have had a real good solid sleep.

The one problem I have found though is that you get used to the things that are said and if you find anything annoying it just gets worse and worse the more you listen to it. I like the female voice though and have tried other apps with no success so search around for a voice that you like and give it a go.

Overall this app gets 4/5 stars from me!

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Comments 1

  1. Thank you for reviewing our Relax & Rest app, and especially for being open to trying guided meditation. So often people do think of patchouli, as you say, but meditation doesn’t have to involve incense, sitting in uncomfortable positions, chanting and so on!

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