⏰ Time For Some Pillow Talk

Once a night, on average, you will lay down your weary head, and some strange things happen:

You lose consciousness, hallucinate vividly while being paralysed for your own safety, and then promptly forget most of what just happened.

Then you get up and carry on as though nothing happened.

But strange as it is, that’s our brain’s way of doing regular maintenance. And as people industry say:

This definitely goes for your body too, and the brain is the most resource-intensive organ of the human body. So, that’s a lot of maintenance!

But…

TODAY’S TITBIT

How Much Sleep In Enough?

• “You need 8 hours sleep!” ~ Popular wisdom

• “You need 7–9 hours sleep!” ~ Popular wisdom 2.0 (wiggle-room edition)

• “You need 7.5 hours sleep!” ~ Somebody added up the sleep phase cycles

• “You need 6 hours sleep!” ~ Sigma Grindset™ enthusiasts

• “You need 4 hours sleep!” ~ Margaret Thatcher (died of a stroke)

• “You need 2* hours sleep!” ~ Polyphasic sleep fans

*Wait, does that last one really work?! Oh, the things we could do in 22 hours a day!

The answer is more complex than a quick yes or no, so we’ll cover that in a future edition of 10almonds! For today…

How did you score?

Wish it could be easier to actually get the correct amount of good-quality sleep? Help is at hand in our main feature for today…

RESOURCE THURSDAYS

We Sleep On The Job So You Don’t Have To: How Sleep Apps Measure Up, Head-To-Head!

We found that sleep monitoring, measuring, and scheduling apps varied from platform to platform (and some require wearables likes smartwatches), so we’re doing this in categories:

Available on iOS only:

Pillow vs Sleep++

Pillow: $6.99/month or $39.99/year (that “free” they mention is a one-week trial) / measures all kinds of sleep / checks your heart-rate too / auto-records sleep-talking, gives feedback on your sleep with suggestions for improvement / can be a little glitchy / works best with an Apple Watch

Sleep++: free / very simple user interface / measures restful/restless sleep / simple sleep reports

Our winner: Sleep++! While Pillow offers some extra details about your sleep phases, that’s only if you have an Apple watch. Sleep++ has most of the important functions, for free.

Check out their pages for yourself: Pillow / Sleep++

Available on Android only:

Sleep as Android vs PrimeNap

Sleep as Android: $3.99/month or $19.99/life, in-depth sleep monitoring even without any wearable (it uses inaudible sonar, via your phone’s speaker and microphone), smart wake-up function (set your alarm for a certain time, and it’ll wake you at the end of the sleep phase that finishes nearest to your alarm time, so that you awaken refreshed, not startled mid-sleep-cycle) / sleep debt chart / optional anti-snooze puzzles / records sleep-talking, snoring, etc / bedtime reminders / lucid dreaming function

PrimeNap: $3.99/life (that “free” they mention is a free trial) / smart alarms (similar to the above) / detailed sleep quality charts / interface not the most user-friendly

Our winner: Sleep as Android! While $3.99 is a more than fair price for what PrimeNap offers, we find Sleep as Android’s extra features and ease of use to be worth the extra.

Check out their pages for yourself: Sleep as Android / PrimeNap

Available On Both:

SleepScore vs SleepCycle

SleepScore: $9.99/month or $59.99/year / has most of the same features as Sleep as Android / extra feature: monitors sleep conditions (ambient light etc) / needs to be manually started and stopped / while it works on both platforms, it can be glitchy on non-iOS devices

SleepCycle: $29.99/year / no wearables needed / does need to be manually started and stopped / basic sleep graphs / overlay of audio recordings with sleep graphs

Our winner: while our research found these to be both popularly ranked amongst the comparison websites, we haven’t had much hands-on experience with them, so we’ll leave you to decide. Or, if they’ve already tested them out, reply and tell us your experience!

Check out their pages for yourself though: SleepScore / SleepCycle

So, to recap…

Our winner for Android: Sleep As Android (though PrimeNap is very respectable too)

Our winner for iOS: Sleep++ (though Pillow is very respectable if you have an Apple watch)

ONE-MINUTE BOOK REVIEW

Lucid Dreaming - by Stephen LaBerge Ph.D.

For any unfamiliar: lucid dreaming means being aware that one is dreaming, while dreaming, and exercising a degree of control over the dream. Superficially, this is fun. But if one really wants to go deeper into it, it can be a lot more:

Dr. Stephen LaBerge takes a science-based approach to lucid dreaming, and in this work provides not only step-by-step instructions of several ways of inducing lucid dreaming, but also, opens the reader’s mind to things that can be done there beyond the merely recreational:

In lucid dreams, he argues and illustrates, it’s possible to talk to parts of one’s own subconscious (Inception, anyone? Yes, this book came first) and get quite an amount of self-therapy done. And that hobby you wish you had more time to practice? The possibilities just became limitless. And who wouldn’t want that?

Grab Your Bedtime Reading From Amazon Now!

Have a restful day,

The 10almonds Team

DISCLAIMER: None of this is medical advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not medical advice or a solicitation to buy any supplements or medications, or to make any medical decisions. Always be careful. Always consult a professional. Additionally, we may earn a commission on some products/services that we link to; but they’re all items that we believe in :)