20 Best Meditation Apps For Sleep To Help You Sleep Faster

Sleeping is a crucial aspect of our lives. It helps us rest and refresh our minds and bodies, and also energizes us well enough through the night to handle the challenges of the following day. Although, sleep doesn’t come to us easily as often as we would like

Sometimes we sleep easily but other times it takes longer due to various factors including stress. Luckily, technology has improvised ways for us to manage that sleep problem without having to struggle a lot.

Here are 20 meditation apps for sleep that can help us create favorable inner and outer environments for us to drift off to sleep fast, have restful sleep throughout the night, and wake up feeling fresh.

20 Meditation Apps For Sleep

1. Calm

Calm is a meditation app that comes with self-improvement resources to help deal with various areas such as stress, anxiety, sleep, meditation, and many more. It is among the top 10 best meditation apps across the world and has been recommended by many health experts.

It offers soothing music, guided meditation and even breathing exercises. There is a lot for beginners in meditation to benefit from although even advanced meditators have not been forgotten as there is a wealth of meditation sessions, talks from experts and nature sounds for them to work with.

The sessions in the Calm app vary in length, going from 3 minutes to around 25 minutes, so you can choose how long you want to listen to them based on your schedule. When it comes to sleep, there is a section dedicated to sleep stories that both children and adults can listen to and fall asleep.

Various celebrities such as Cillian Murphy, Matthew McConaughey, Jerome Flynn, Harry styles, Laura Dern, and Keith Urban to name a few, have been featured in this section as illustrators.

White noise and nature sounds have also been included to help block out distracting noise and make the environment favorable for us to sleep.

Calm offers 7 days free trial after which you need a subscription to unlock all the exciting features that include more sleep stories, sleep meditation sessions, and more. The subscription fee varies depending on various factors. Please check how much it costs in your country when you want to upgrade.

2. Headspace

Headspace is another well-known app that offers great resources for self-development. It teaches meditation and mindfulness, and beginners to mindfulness can get themselves started with the mindfulness course offered in the app.

When it comes to sleep, Headspace has relaxing sounds, exercises, and guided meditation dedicated to improving sleep quality and experience. There are also a variety of meditation courses that target various areas including sleep that you can take advantage of.

Moreover, there are sleep sessions and stories that are more like bedtime stories that adults can use to fall asleep fast, which vary from 45 minutes to 55 minutes. These sessions encourage you to visualize scenarios that bring a calming effect that can help you sleep.

And every night a new story is added to the app.

Headspace gives 7 days free trial after which you have the option to upgrade to a monthly or yearly subscription. Here is a detailed review of Headspace that goes into detail about the app and the provisions you get.

3. Insight Timer

Insight Timer is a meditation app that gives you some awesome features for meditation. To begin with, there are more than 45,000 guided meditations at your disposal and they can be accessed for free. On top of that, there are meditation sessions and talks provided by well-known meditation and self-improvement experts including Tara Brach, Jack Cornfield, Sharon Salzberg, and others.

You get the chance to connect with other like-minded people through group discussions and communities created within the app. The best part is that you can meditate with them in real-time like you are in one meditation room, except it’s virtually. You can even follow your favorite expert to get any resources added to the app that has been prepared by them.

There are statistics offered by the app to help you know how far you’ve come since you began using the app.

For sleep, there are meditation sessions offered that are based on sleep and you can easily find them by searching the word “sleep”. There is actually a topic called Sleep deeply which reveals to you an array of sleep meditations and healing meditations that use deep sleep techniques tracks and music that can help you get to slumberland seamlessly.

Sessions in Insight Timer range from 5 minutes to 30 minutes.

You can use the app for free but you can also upgrade to a subscription to get access to more resources.

4. Buddhify

Buddhify is an app that keeps the modern lifestyle in mind on behalf of the user. We know how hard it is to find time for ourselves with all the things we have on our plate. That is why Buddhify offers something that is in line with this kind of life.

You get a variety of meditation sessions designed for various aspects including stress, traveling, and even sleep. There are teachers to walk you through the meditation sessions offered there.

Meditation sessions there range from 3 minutes to about 40 minutes and you get over 200 meditation sessions with the app for you to work with at any time of your day. Buddhify requires you to pay a one-time fee to get access to the app’s features and you also get other resources you may need to buy to benefit from.

5. Ten Percent (10%) Happier

Ten percent happier is a meditation app that stems from the book “Ten Percent Happier” by Dan Harris. Dan Harris, a journalist, decided to pursue meditation despite his skepticism about it after suffering a heart attack live on air.

The app also encourages other people just like him, who don’t really think meditation offers any useful benefits and who also think doing meditation is too much of a hassle. 10% happier app teaches people how to meditate in an easy, interesting, and engaging way that you will love as a beginner.

The app offers meditation sessions for various areas of our lives including sleep led by spiritual teachers like Sebene Selassie and Joseph Goldstein. The sessions have a duration that varies from 3 minutes to 35 minutes. They are designed for busy people and you can use them while you are on your way to work or during your very short break at work.

On top of that, they have great support where you can chat with meditation experts and ask them anything related to meditation to get reliable answers and guidance. You can even follow your favorite expert or teacher to get more meditation content from them. You are normally asked deep questions about meditation that show how much the people behind the app care about your relationship with meditation and how much they are committed to better it.

They even track your progress and keep count of the days you’ve remained mindful.

You get 7 days to test drive the app after which you can choose to get the premium monthly or yearly subscription or choose to work with the free version, which offers good but limited resources.

6. Aura

Aura is an app that’s described as the “Spotify” of the meditation arena. It uses Artificial Intelligence to help give you a personalized recommendation of the meditation tracks, stories, nature sounds, music, and life coaching that align with your desires and needs.

You get playlists that are well-themed with a particular area of life and even have a mix that consists of tracks specifically designed for that area. For instance, you get a number of tracks for sleep that plays continuously to help you catch some sleep fast.

When you download the app, you are asked to choose two topics you want to work on in your life, and it could be anything including sleep. After that, you are directed to the resource library where you get a wealth of resources for you to leverage.

You get to have meditation sessions recommended based on the moods you choose. You also get a mood tracker, a gratitude journal, and even a group of both teachers and users to enhance your overall experience of meditation and interact with other people who are chasing the same goals as you.

The app has a great free version that most people find useful. However, if you wish to access everything, including offline access and full mood tracking, you can get the premium version that can be accessed monthly or yearly.

7. Relax Melodies

This app is mainly for people who want help with sleep. It provides vast guided meditation sessions, music, bedtime stories, sounds, breathing exercises, and white noise. You as the user can even make your own personalized favorite tracks and soothing mix to listen to for various goals.

The good thing about this app is that it is well suited for sleep purposes since it allows you to set a reminder for when to use the app. Also, you can use the timer that’s provided there to quit the app after a certain period, which will help you fall asleep without having to worry about leaving the app on, and using your phone battery when you’re not using the app.

You get 7 days free trial with Relax Melodies and you have the option to upgrade your account through the annual subscription fee.

8. Pzizz

Pzizz is a more sleep-focused app that aims to optimize your sleeping experience. There are 3 main categories in the app, nap, focus, and sleep.

The nap category comes with music and voice instructions to help you get a good nap. The focus category, on the other hand, has sounds to help you get into the flow state. The sleep category is designed to help you have a deep refreshing sleep.

There is something in the app called Dreamscapes that contain a playlist of music narrations and sounds for sleeping. The app also tracks your usage and takes note of the resources you like and gives you more of that while reducing the ones you don’t like.

There is also a timer and an alarm that helps you determine how long you want your sessions to be and also help you wake up in the morning, respectively.

You can access the app for free and get a couple of provisions. You can also choose to get the paid version by first testing it for 7 days and then getting a subscription which you’ll pay for per month or per year.

9. Relax and Sleep Well Hypnosis

This is a hypnosis-based app for sleeping. Ideally, you get hypnosis recording that will help reshape your sleeping habits and patterns and you get guided through the sessions by Glenn Harold, who is a hypnotherapist.

The sessions are accompanied by background sound effects to help you get into a state of relaxation and sleep well.

There are two versions, the paid and the free one. The free one offers you four recordings, and of them is a 29-minute long session for hypnotherapy. To get access to everything the app offers you’ll need a paid subscription.

10. Slumber

Just as the name suggests, Slumber works to put you to relaxing sleep. You get meditation sessions, nature sounds as well as relaxing sounds of various things like Jacuzzi, background sounds, bedtime stories, and sleep-inducing tracks.

The bedtime stories come in form of a series and there are 6 so far, at the time of writing this article. Something good about this app is that allows you to combine different sounds and create unique experiences for yourself that you feel create a good sleeping environment.

After listening to the main tracks offered, you can get the app to play background sounds for 10 hours nonstop to help you immerse yourself fully into the environment, get into the mood and fall asleep easily.

The free version of Slumber lets you enjoy more than 10 episodes with new ones being added every so often. The paid version gives you access to everything and you also receive new meditations and sleep stories every week.

Plus you can get this app using iOS devices only.

11. Sleepiest

Sleepiest is a sleep app that features a wide variety of calming stories, bedtime stories, auditory meditation techniques to help you relax, be peaceful and calm, and have soothing sleeping sounds.

There are more than 25 guided meditation sessions based which include mindfulness-based meditation to help remain in the present moment and easily get to sleep. On top of that, there are more than 150 sleeping sounds which include nature sounds like rain sounds, swaying oak trees, and white noise, and zen monk chants.

The bedtime stories can also be used to help get the kids to bed and into slumberland. You can also mark the stories you find interesting as favorites in case you want to go back to them in the near future. You can also play soothing background music to help you be at ease and pave way for sleeping.

Going by what the people behind the app say, if you make an effort of using the app for 5 days and beyond, you may notice improved sleep with an estimated 32 minutes of increased restful sleep every night, on top of how long you normally sleep.

The free version of Sleepiest has something substantial to offer but if you want unlimited access you will have to pay a monthly or yearly subscription.

The app can only be found on iOS devices.

12. Moshi

Moshi is a cartoon-based app for self-improvement that gives visual appeal to kids and adults who generally love cartoons. The best way to understand what the app is all about is to think of an online version of the illustrated books we used to read in bed before sleeping, back in the day.

The app offers sleeping tracks and stories and other resources for people dealing with anxiety and other problems. The stories go for as long as 15 to 20 minutes which is a good duration to get kids to sleep.

New tracks are constantly being added to the app and most feature celebrities like Goldie Hawn. You can also download most of the resources and use them while you’re offline.

When it comes to cost, you can choose to work with the free version that’s good but limited or unlock everything by paying a yearly subscription.

13. Smiling Minds

Smiling Minds is a very interactive app created by a non-profit organization going by the same name as the app. And since it’s a non-profit app, everything is free within the app. In the app, you get lots of meditation sessions that have been categorized into Stress management, Sleep, Mindful Foundations, and Digital Detox.

Many of the sessions here range from 5 to 10 minutes. Although, if you are an advanced meditator, you can go for the 45 minutes sessions and if you want to use sessions on the go, you can use the 2 to 5 minutes sessions.

Actually, the app encourages you to spill mindfulness over to your whole day through programs such as Where Did My Food Come From, Go Offline, and Journaling Exercise.

14. Mesmerize

Mesmerize is an app that works heavily with visualization to help you ease into meditation in a mentally interactive way with the aim of dealing with various issues including anxiety, addiction, sleep, pain and so much more.

It uses guided imagery to paint diverse pictures in your mind that help you relax, find peace, serenity, and calmness. You have the ability to customize your meditation sessions to improve your overall experience and benefits.

The app gives 3 days of free access after which you need a yearly subscription to keep using it.

15. Meditation Nest

Meditation Nest is an app that offers short meditations you can use as a beginner, or when you are on the move or when you have a busy schedule. It helps you spend the little time you have for your break to improve yourself.

The app comes with various resources including sounds that help you sleep quicker and longer, get into a deep relaxation state, overcome anxiety, and focus among others.

To use the app, you can take advantage of the 3 days free access and thereafter upgrade to a monthly subscription. And it is only available on iOS App Store.

16. Stop, Breathe, Think

Stop, Breathe Think. This sounds like a summary of how to live our best lives. Well, it is and the app makes the advice practical by providing meditation sessions to help you do just that. One thing that sets this app from the rest is the check-in provision that lets you describe how you are feeling honestly and then you get meditation sessions that help you feel better and more balanced.

You get more than a hundred meditation sessions for various areas of life which have been recorded in both Spanish and English. These meditation sessions provide you the environment and mental space to take a breather, calm yourself down and have a more productive day regardless of the situation you are in or what you are going through at the moment.

There is a sleep section with more than 20 meditation sessions focused on enhancing the quality of your sleep. 4 of the sessions are free but the rest you have to pay to access them.

There are 2 versions of the app, as with most similar apps, the free and the paid version. You get almost half of the meditation sessions in the free version but if you want the full package, you will want to get a yearly subscription.

A portion of your fees has been dedicated to a good cause of teaching kids mindfulness so it feels good knowing you are paying for an app to improve your life as well as touch the heart of a kid somewhere.

17. MyLife Meditation

MyLife Meditation is an app that’s well-known for its user-focused experience. They are mainly about how you are feeling in the moment and how best they can help you feel much better. They offer you the chance to describe how you are feeling where you are supposed to explain your emotions as accurately as possible.

Based on your input, they find exercises, practices, and meditation sessions that are good for dealing with the negative emotions you may be experiencing. The practice may vary from yoga poses, meditation sessions, acupuncture videos, and more to help deal with your problem.

They also have different sections that handle various angles of self-development including the “Learn to Meditate” section that goes deep into detail about mindfulness and meditation.

The app also has reminders, daily check-ins, and progress tracking to ensure you make steady progress.

There is a free version with limited access and a monthly as well as a yearly package for full access.

18. Expectful

This app was made with expectant people and anyone with fertility-related concerns in mind. The app aims to provide meditation sessions to expectant women and walk them through their pregnancy period in the best way possible by offering them support and mindfulness programs to help them through that period.

The app has stories, sleep trackers, soundscapes, and meditation sessions, among other resources to ensure you have enough support, information, and a smooth experience. There are also interviews with people who have been there, giving their stories and offering life-changing tips.

Moreover, there are psychologists and other experts who also offer insights into this area of life.

To access the app’s goodies you need to pay a monthly subscription.

19. The Tapping Solution

This app takes “the road less traveled” approach when it comes to self-improvement. Instead of offering the conventional meditation methods, it works with a technique called Tapping or Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT).

This technique employs different aspects of acupressure, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), and exposure therapy to deal with the many problems we may have ranging from anxiety, stress, sleep, PTSD, and more.

It also goes a step further and accommodates people struggling with health issues such as endometriosis, chronic pain, arthritis, cancer, and fibromyalgia.

The app has a diversified portfolio as it covers family, finance, politics, shame, work, grief and so much more.

To use it you have to pay a monthly or yearly fee.

20. Reflectly

This is an app that uses journaling as a form of self-help and a way to reduce thoughts that distract us, and keep us from enjoying life and even having restful sleep. It can really help you reduce stressful and anxious thoughts and feelings that might keep you awake the whole night.

It uses guided questions that help you understand your thoughts and feelings based on the experiences you have had in the recent past. You get the chance to deeply think about your day, how it was, the challenges you encountered, or the good things you experienced too.

This form of journaling helps you gain ground on certain issues that may be affecting you, understand your life better and even be grateful for the things you have, few or little as they may be.

The app uses very simple language to inquire about your day and then saves the answers you give as stories that are added to your account. Your account is viewed as the journal and these daily stories are what makes it whole.

The app offers a free trial after which you will need a 3-month subscription or a yearly subscription to keep using it.

Conclusion

In summary, there are many great mobile applications that we can make use of to reduce mental chatter, stress, anxiety, among other factors, that keep us from having good quality sleep.

All you should do to take advantage of these apps is to take your smartphone, go to your App Store, depending on the phone you are using, that is Android or Apple, and look up the apps we have checked out here.

Consider the resources each of the apps offers and determine which one best fits your needs. After that, download it, and add it to your daily night routine and work with it consistently to benefit from it.

Which of the apps do you feel is your favorite? Have you had any experience with any of the apps? Are there any other great similar apps you would recommend? Please let us know in the comments below.