Resolved "Sleep Cycle App is Fake" ?!

Based on those reviews, I would say yes...

I don't have it but I too was mildly interested until I read reviews saying it was nonsense.

It's only 59p (99cents), why don't you download it and let us know?

Ya it's fake, I bought it soon after it first came out and all it does is wakes you up about 25 minutes before your set time.

Shame...

anyone know if Absalt EasyWakeup is also a fake?

Here is the real thing:

http://www.sleeptracker.com/


Is is a watch that does measure your sleep cycle.

Philflow said:

I have a hard time believing it's fake. There are thousands of positive reviews.

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It seemed pretty real when I used it.

In theory it would be possible to differentiate some stages of sleep from others. For instance, in some stages of sleep motor signals are blocked and therefore the muscle do not move ('sleep paralysis'). Movements and noise during sleep would be relatively easy to pick up with the iPhone's sensors, and would probably allow a fairly crude measure of sleep state. On the other hand if one had a noisy abode or one that shakes (e.g., near train tracks) the app would not be able to tell the difference between signals made by you and signals from other sources.

Sleep Cycle needs one, sometimes two, nights to calibrate to your accelerometer. Usually the calibration is not needed but on some (very few) devices the accelerometer is too sensitive and can detect movement when there was none during the first one or two nights. If you place your iPhone/iPod in bed, according to the instructions, then this is not a problem.

When calibrated, Sleep Cycle is extremely sensitive to movement. It can detect the slightest vibrations. For example, you walking past the iPhone/iPad or a car/truck passing by on the street outside.

When you place your iPhone/iPad on a flat surface then Sleep Cycle detects very little movement. It then assumes that the users movements are very difficult to detect and goes into a mode where every movement is treated very seriously (and creates a big spike in the graph).

If you still feel Sleep Cycle creates inaccurate graphs, you can contact the developer. They analyze your data and check if you have discovered an issue with the Sleep Cycle movement-detecting code.

I have just been using the sleep cycle app for 10 nights. I was impressed 5 nights ago when after a very disturbed sleep the graphs confirmed this the following morning.

However last night I was awake twice, 2.5 hours apart and each time recorded the time when I was awake. Yet the graphs this morning suggest I slept the whole night through.

I am disillusioned and wonder is the whole thing a scam????

RebeccaL said:

Here is the real thing:

http://www.sleeptracker.com/


Is is a watch that does measure your sleep cycle.

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are there other alternatives on the market?

Thanks for your suggestion Quotenfrau but I have been advised that the watch has produced the same misleading information as the phone app. In my case I was awake twice and wrote down the precise times, 2.30 and 5.00 am

The sleep cycle showed me as being in a deep sleep at these times. What a con job

My Test

I bought this App a few days ago and was happy with it till I read this thread. So I spent all day today testing it. When I put it on a table it showed a sleep/wake pattern, BUT, when I put it on my mattress and left it for 4 hours it showed deep sleep (no movement) for the entire four hours.
I believe that when you lay it on a table it picks up every external vibration and interprets it as waking. The mattress seems to absorb external vibrations and therefore the mattress result is more accurate, which is probably why the instructions say specifically to lay it on your mattress
I'm going to continue using it!

Philflow said:

Because I don't have an Iphone/Ipod yet

This app made me consider buying one.

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Philflow said:

I got the Ipod Touch G4 now and the Sleep Cycle app.

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You seriously considered an iPhone, and actually got an iPod touch just for this 99¢ sleep app?

MacDawg said:

You seriously considered an iPhone, and actually got an iPod touch just for this 99¢ sleep app?

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That post:

Apr 14, 2011, 10:15 AM

MacDawg said:

You seriously considered an iPhone, and actually got an iPod touch just for this 99¢ sleep app?

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I suppose if you've never had problems sleeping, then that would seem an extravagant expense, but at some point, you'll do or buy anything to get nice, restful, recharging sleep.

So while I'm not the person you're talking about, yes, I'd spend that kind of money to (potentially) fix a sleeping issue.

Philflow said:

I was very interested in the sleep cycle app but now I'm reading this in the reviews:

"The application is FAKE. If you place the phone on for instance a table over night instead it still shows statistics depicting a persons sleep. SO unless my apartment is haunted by ghosts I do not think the table moves around by itself.

http://www.148apps.com/reviews/sleep-cycle-alarm-clock/#ixzz1JVKIgBEv

I like most of us was intrigued my the technology, data and potential for feeling better in the morning. The problem is, this app is SNAKE OIL....it's a lie. When placed on a table far away from you it will create a nice movement graph as if you have gone through sleep cycles all night. It will also awaken you at a random time. And this is based on WHAT?

I loved this app for a while until I discovered its a huge joke... I left my phone far away from me on the floor as well as on a dresser two nights in a row and magically I have a sleep cycle graph! Don't waste your money.

http://itunes.apple.com/en/app/sleep-cycle-alarm-clock/id320606217?mt=8#

Is this true?

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[doublepost=1458830805][/doublepost]Clearly you never read the details of the app. I have been using it for about 4 years and it is extremely accurate.
The app can work either by movement placed in bed or by sounds placed on a night table. It is even sensitive enough to decipher between you or a partner sharing the same bed. I find the in bed movement to be more accurate. As far as waking you up at a random time there is a half hour grace period before your set wake up time that will be used to wake you up during a light stage of sleep. This is proven to give you greater awareness in the morning and will feel less sleepy or groggy than being woken up from a deep REM sleep. Please research before posting something stupid!

This app is entirely inaccurate. It consistently tracks me as sleeping when I am awake. For instance I was awake for three hours at one point, and I even turned on the light and read for an hour. According to the app I was asleep the whole time, half of that time in a deep sleep. I suppose the microphone cannot detect pages turning

This inaccuracy persisted every night I tried it (for a week), both on the microphone and the accelerometer setting. I often get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, and sleep cycle ALWAYS tracks that activity as just gently moving from a deep sleep to a mid sleep. I often lie wide awake and motionless in bed but am not asleep, but sleep cycle always tracks me as in a deep sleep which couldnt be further from reality. Without actually tracking brain waves or heart rates, tracking sleep with a microphone is a useless exercise.

Just an observation based on the above: according to my understanding the main use case of the app is to detect when would be a good time to wake you up when you are sleeping. For this use case, it doesn't matter whether or not it can detect that you are awake when you are actually awake. As an analogy, if you have an app that's supposed to record your route when driving, it might record a false route if you leave it on a table indoors – that doesn't mean the app is fake if it still records the route correctly when you are actually driving…

Of course, it is hard to test the real case of actually sleeping. I think a better test might be have some other device (ideally a wake-up light if you are using the microphone) to wake you up during the same time window when Sleep Cycle is supposed to wake you. If it detects that you woke up, I suppose Sleep Cycle's alarm should also go off. (Although even this is not testing the actual case of transition from deep sleep to lighter sleep…)


Note that I am not saying that the app works correctly – I have no idea whether it does. I'm just saying that testing it while awake does not prove it doesn't work while sleeping.

i actually think it is working pretty well. i am a pretty light sleeper who usually wakes up like 30 minutes before my alarm even goes off and the app tracks me as being awake. i also wake up at least once during the night and i also can see this pretty clearly on the graph

Any more thoughts on this App? I bought it, and have been using it for about two weeks ago. I was pretty happy with it, but then I noticed that it was telling me I was asleep when I knew I was wake, so now I am suspect as to how accurate it is, and when else it is giving me erroneous results.