RISE: Sleep Tracker

I don’t normally leave written reviews, just the stars. However, I have a major problem with sleeping when most people do. It seems like my body has always done its best when I sleep most of the day and stay up most of the night. I met a night nurse once who helped me realize that some people just function better this way and there’s nothing wrong with this, and it’s silly to expect each and every person to only sleep from 9pm-6am and be busy from 9am-5pm while winding down from 5pm-9pm every evening. So I download rise hoping to stop feeling guilty for staying up most of the evening having productive windows when I wake up around 1pm-3pm and then again from 6pm-9pm. Since I seem to only sleep my best during 5/6am-12pm window, I’m always missing out on “the day” as my parents would say. Now rise is so accurate, they used motion from my phone for 200 nights to find my rhythm and now it tells me when melatonin is highest and to close my eyes to fall asleep, when to schedule my heaviest projects so that I have peak energy during that time also. This is the first time in my life I understand my energy levels and can use it to maximize my productivity and feel less guilty about when I sleep and when I feel tired. Thanks Rise!

I really enjoy this app, but I’m not convinced it’s worth the price. I cancelled before the automatic $60 one and signed up for the $36 one, which is sketchy to not have that as the default to be honest, because I don’t know if there is any difference. I use my Fitbit to track my sleep and just import the data, which works really well and eliminates some of the problems I saw other people were having. It really is quite a simple app though. My Fitbit is doing most of the heavy lifting and it just does the calculations. I wish it had more features like telling me my ideal wake up time (which it only does on the widget which is annoying) instead of an obscure “wake zone” that gives me no time reference. I’m finding myself using other apps to fill in the gaps that this one is missing like ideal wake up time, sleep quality, habit tracker, etc. If this app had all those things I could see it being worth $60 a year, but I feel even $36 is pushing it for what you get. My Fitbit subscription was $70 a year and does everything else except measure sleep debt. So it doesn’t really add up in my mind. That being said, I am happy I bought a subscription, I really like knowing my sleep debt, I just wish the app developers were more transparent with the pricing and that it had a couple more features.

I got this app and so far I love it. I realized that my teenage daughter needs this more than I do. Unfortunately the school system has zero compassion for the science that says that pre-teens and teens experience a biology shift that causes them to experience later sleep onset and wake times, plus the need for more hours compared to adults (9-11 hours!). All of this, plus a new and thriving social life outside of family wreaks havoc on their sleep schedule. She missed a class from oversleeping and was so stressed and frustrated over her erratic sleep habits she came to me and asked for help, which in all honesty really surprised me! I had literally just started on this app when she did this and couldn’t believe I didn’t think of it for her first. She’s using it now (still on her trial) and we’re willing to see how it does, if it helps, even though it’s for adult sleep needs. She likes the interface and the gamification of reducing her sleep debt. She also suggested the ability to edit her “wind down” activity such as “Pack backpack” and “Set next the next day’s school outfit”. She also suggested “spending time with pets” which I thought was actually brilliant given the calming benefits of petting our critters. If this app helps my teenager feel rested and more motivated to get to bed at a decent hour than shut up and take my money!