There are now loads of iOS apps that can help you sleep better – and, in the recently released iOS 10, Apple has baked some of their functionality into the stock Clock app with a new feature, Bedtime, which can nudge you towards routinely getting your recommended amount of slumber.
Upon opening iOS 10’s Clock app for the first time, whether you’ve bought a new device or updated an old one, you will be prompted to set up Bedtime. After specifying details including at what regular time you’d like to wake up and how many nightly hours of sleep you require, Bedtime will notify you near the time you need to get to bed to catch those required hours of sleep.
Writing for The Huffington Post, sleep expert Mathias Basner has noted that “an alarm clock that tells us when to go to bed” has not had mainstream availability until Bedtime’s introduction in iOS 10. However, now, Bedtime should at least encourage the practice of retiring early to get the minimum 7 hours of nightly sleep that the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends for adults, Basner adds.
It’s worth noting that neither Bedtime nor Apple’s Health app can thoroughly track or record phases of deep or light sleep throughout the night – unlike the well-regarded Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock app. Still, fed by Bedtime, the Health app can show you times you went to bed or woke up and the durations you spent in bed – functionality that, in the free-to-download Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock, lies behind a paywall.