Review Insights · App Store
Sleep Cycle - Tracker & Sounds
Sleep Cycle AB · 23,088 ratings · ★ 4.7
4.7
★★★★★
23,088 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 42 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"subscription"
14 negative reviews mention this · 33% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Issues yet to be fixed.. I have been using the sleep cycle app for years. And for the most part I enjoy it. However ever since I have been using it for over about 5 years now. Their heart rate monitor has never properly worked which means I cannot record accurate …" - U9TOWNNYC
2
"been"
12 negative reviews mention this · 29% of all complaints
★★★★★ "What Happened?!. I’ve been using this for years. I moved into a home with a window AC unit 5 months ago- hot climate so it’s been running every night since then. A few weeks ago, despite no changes at all (I wear an Apple Watch, pay annually, phone is in th…" - NiaScar
3
"sleep"
11 negative reviews mention this · 26% of all complaints
★★★★★ "What Happened?!. I’ve been using this for years. I moved into a home with a window AC unit 5 months ago- hot climate so it’s been running every night since then. A few weeks ago, despite no changes at all (I wear an Apple Watch, pay annually, phone is in th…" - NiaScar
4
"years"
10 negative reviews mention this · 24% of all complaints
★★★★★ "What Happened?!. I’ve been using this for years. I moved into a home with a window AC unit 5 months ago- hot climate so it’s been running every night since then. A few weeks ago, despite no changes at all (I wear an Apple Watch, pay annually, phone is in th…" - NiaScar
5
"night"
9 negative reviews mention this · 21% of all complaints
★★★★★ "What Happened?!. I’ve been using this for years. I moved into a home with a window AC unit 5 months ago- hot climate so it’s been running every night since then. A few weeks ago, despite no changes at all (I wear an Apple Watch, pay annually, phone is in th…" - NiaScar
6
"alarm"
9 negative reviews mention this · 21% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Issues yet to be fixed.. I have been using the sleep cycle app for years. And for the most part I enjoy it. However ever since I have been using it for over about 5 years now. Their heart rate monitor has never properly worked which means I cannot record accurate …" - U9TOWNNYC
7
"cannot"
8 negative reviews mention this · 19% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Issues yet to be fixed.. I have been using the sleep cycle app for years. And for the most part I enjoy it. However ever since I have been using it for over about 5 years now. Their heart rate monitor has never properly worked which means I cannot record accurate …" - U9TOWNNYC
8
"work"
8 negative reviews mention this · 19% of all complaints
★★★★★ "What Happened?!. I’ve been using this for years. I moved into a home with a window AC unit 5 months ago- hot climate so it’s been running every night since then. A few weeks ago, despite no changes at all (I wear an Apple Watch, pay annually, phone is in th…" - NiaScar
9
"since"
7 negative reviews mention this · 17% of all complaints
★★★★★ "What Happened?!. I’ve been using this for years. I moved into a home with a window AC unit 5 months ago- hot climate so it’s been running every night since then. A few weeks ago, despite no changes at all (I wear an Apple Watch, pay annually, phone is in th…" - NiaScar
10
"does"
7 negative reviews mention this · 17% of all complaints
★★★★★ "What Happened?!. I’ve been using this for years. I moved into a home with a window AC unit 5 months ago- hot climate so it’s been running every night since then. A few weeks ago, despite no changes at all (I wear an Apple Watch, pay annually, phone is in th…" - NiaScar
11
"free"
7 negative reviews mention this · 17% of all complaints
★★★★★ "No free option?. After setting up the app, I cannot do anything anymore since I am bombarded with a nonclosable screen telling me about the free trial for the premium version of the app. I don’t know if I want to try the premium version yet, first I want to…" - EM&Ms2004
12
"setting"
6 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "What Happened?!. I’ve been using this for years. I moved into a home with a window AC unit 5 months ago- hot climate so it’s been running every night since then. A few weeks ago, despite no changes at all (I wear an Apple Watch, pay annually, phone is in th…" - NiaScar
📋 All 42 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
Issues yet to be fixed.
I have been using the sleep cycle app for years. And for the most part I enjoy it. However ever since I have been using it for over about 5 years now. Their heart rate monitor has never properly worked which means I cannot record accurate information.
This has been going on for years and they have yet to fix it. You have to hold your finger over the flashlight and camera however when I do this it works and goes around a quarter of the circle saying calibrating and then completely stops.
Again this bug has been here for years. While the price of you suing the app has went up they have yet to fix the heart rate monitors since it’s never properly worked so I have been recording inaccurate info on my sleep
This app is grate if you want an alarm clock but nothing more. I can’t recommend a sleep monitoring app that still does not properly work and record all the info it asks you for. Very disappointing because I need my heart rate info for my doctor. It feels very lazy and with people wanting to cut subscriptions and delete apps I’m questioning more and more if I should consider another app all together that actually does everything it says it will.
I’m amazed how many years this bug has been there and they have refused to fix it.
*2026 update* heart rate monitor on the camera still does not work and they have yet to do anything about the faulty hold your fingers over the camera glitched that keeps stopping mid reading. Still would not recommend seeing as they keep charging but haven’t fixed it after all these years. Very disappointing and why I quit using this app this year again.
This has been going on for years and they have yet to fix it. You have to hold your finger over the flashlight and camera however when I do this it works and goes around a quarter of the circle saying calibrating and then completely stops.
Again this bug has been here for years. While the price of you suing the app has went up they have yet to fix the heart rate monitors since it’s never properly worked so I have been recording inaccurate info on my sleep
This app is grate if you want an alarm clock but nothing more. I can’t recommend a sleep monitoring app that still does not properly work and record all the info it asks you for. Very disappointing because I need my heart rate info for my doctor. It feels very lazy and with people wanting to cut subscriptions and delete apps I’m questioning more and more if I should consider another app all together that actually does everything it says it will.
I’m amazed how many years this bug has been there and they have refused to fix it.
*2026 update* heart rate monitor on the camera still does not work and they have yet to do anything about the faulty hold your fingers over the camera glitched that keeps stopping mid reading. Still would not recommend seeing as they keep charging but haven’t fixed it after all these years. Very disappointing and why I quit using this app this year again.
Spammy trash. Relentless popups and banners
Looks like they hired some mrrn that turned the app from a decent one to spammy trash with relentless popups and banners.
Un happy‼️
I don’t know how this gets for five stars. Plane does not work. I have an iPhone Pro Max 16. Your sleep graph never works. Never lets me know how I slept.. I sure wish somebody would fix it because this app does not work.‼️‼️‼️.
Watching videos shows as sleep
According to this app, watching YouTube for two hours in the middle of the night counts as “sleep.” I was literally holding my phone and actively using it the entire time. If that qualifies as sleep, then this app has no real tracking capability at all.
No free option?
After setting up the app, I cannot do anything anymore since I am bombarded with a nonclosable screen telling me about the free trial for the premium version of the app. I don’t know if I want to try the premium version yet, first I want to try the normal version of the app but that doesn’t seem possible. If the app requires a subscription, that should be made more clear before downloading and setting up, this feels slimy and greatly annoying to me.
Opening “credits” are WAY too long
When you first open the app you’ll think it’s a glitch because the opening demo is SO freaking long. Super annoying. The rest of the app feels glitchy and clunky.
No more price increases!
You all just raised your annual subscription rate by 31% (from $40 to $58). That is completely absurd. Consumers will not stand for that. I just unsubscribed and urge others to do the same!
By the way, I was a longterm premium user with 2,925 nights logged!
By the way, I was a longterm premium user with 2,925 nights logged!
Every Update is Worse Than the Last
I’ve been using sleep cycle for 10+ years since I paid $1.99 for premium and locked in that annual price. It’s gotten worse and worse over the last several years. The new color scheme is terrible and the sleep graph has gotten far less accurate and much harder to interpret in the last 6 months.
Bad
Ahhh help bum bum
Why can’t I contact you
There’s no help
****i received your email to reach out but that’s the problem…. I can’t and I receive no help.
****i received your email to reach out but that’s the problem…. I can’t and I receive no help.
Hate now
Use to love this app, now they took away the snooze setting, like the way you can snooze and made it too easy to disable the alarm, I’ve used it for years. I’m deleting it.
This app lost a 5+ year customer today.
I wish Apple would allow us to decide which applications receive automatic update updates instead of an or nothing method. I bought this application before it was a subscription. Every update has increased how bloated it is, but last night was the final straw. When you were already sleepy and doing the very last thing most people do every night (setting your alarm) the last thing you need is some variable to change and have some woman start talking as soon as you set the alarm. To make it worse, there was no obvious way to change it, disable it or shut her off. I thought I had figured it out by pausing her, but turns out it disabled the alarm altogether, which made me late for work today.
If you wanna make a more complex app that has more feature features fine do it, but when people rely on a basic simple alarm, and you change that, you lose their trust. I’ll go back to the Apple alarm, which is just as effective as this. If it comes to reliability or features for an alarm clock, I’m gonna go for a reliability every time.
How sad it is to have seen this application deviate so far from its original ethos that attracted so many people. Now it’s “let’s see how many people will subscribe to this new feature that we forced down their throats and hid the ability to disable it somewhere in the settings when they’re at their most mentally exhausted.”
If you wanna make a more complex app that has more feature features fine do it, but when people rely on a basic simple alarm, and you change that, you lose their trust. I’ll go back to the Apple alarm, which is just as effective as this. If it comes to reliability or features for an alarm clock, I’m gonna go for a reliability every time.
How sad it is to have seen this application deviate so far from its original ethos that attracted so many people. Now it’s “let’s see how many people will subscribe to this new feature that we forced down their throats and hid the ability to disable it somewhere in the settings when they’re at their most mentally exhausted.”
Poor customer service
I trialed the product and it wasn’t for me. I forgot to cancel as I had a loss of a friend. The same day I was charged I notified them to cancel and kindly asked for a refund. They kept the full year payment and said they couldn’t help me. I advised I don’t need the service and they can terminate immediately. They said no.
Horrible
Horrible experience, terrible interface and when I requested a refund they never responded to my email. Don’t purchase this
The only feature I pay for is still broken
The Philips Hue integration is the main reason I pay for this app and it still remains broken. I’ve given many opportunities of app updates for this to be fixed and yet, it still does not work completely. I reached out to support and it has been crickets too.
My patience is running thin and I might just give up and cancel my subscription at this point rather than wait this out.
My patience is running thin and I might just give up and cancel my subscription at this point rather than wait this out.
Questionable sleep data, not worth subscription. Decent sleep alarm.
I’ve been using this app to track my sleep but I’m disappointed with its lack of accuracy. It recently records only 1-4 hours of sleep when I was actually in bed asleep for a lot longer. Example: Last night it says 1.5hours asleep when I actually slept for 7 hours. Though I appreciate the smart alarm with the 30 minute buffer to alert me in my most wakeful state, it needs significant improvement in data accuracy and reliability. Until that’s fixed I can’t recommend it. Hopefully developers address this.
Tldr; do NOT subscribe, use it for free. Not worth the extra in app purchase.
Edit (2026): does not wake me up at optimal time anymore. Cannot restore purchases I paid for 😒
Tldr; do NOT subscribe, use it for free. Not worth the extra in app purchase.
Edit (2026): does not wake me up at optimal time anymore. Cannot restore purchases I paid for 😒
Won't work and adds you to one year subscription
I was only trying it out but it added me to one year subscription. And refund requests get denied without giving a reason.
So I have a app which doesn't work with a year subscription
So I have a app which doesn't work with a year subscription
I pay, so I shouldn’t get ads
I’ve been a paying customer for almost a decade. And now there’s a non-dismissible ad for their sleep apnea study that I couldn’t care less about. Make it go away or lose a customer.
Ads with a paid subscription
I am so disappointed that this app has ads now. Instead setting my alarm and drifting off to sleep, I was accosted by an ad on the main screen. I pay $20 for a subscription and I still get ads. That’s insane. I am now looking for a new app.
Sleep Cycle disables Siri with no warning
This app turns off Siri without any warning. If you use Siri to check your blood glucose or some other vitals in the middle of the night, or worse, you need to call 911 - you cannot, because the Sleep Cycle app disabled Siri functionality without any warning. I got a response from the app developer full of tech babble but no acknowledgement of this problem. I am surprised Apple allowed this in the app store without warnings, especially to users of accessibility features.
The more disappointed
the alarm doesn't work sometimes. i've used this app since it's launching however the service quality getting worse.
Force you to subscribe
I tried to use the free subscription. But once I entered my initial information it said let’s begin-they a forced paywall came up. Chat GPT told me to delete and reinstall and the forced paywall sometimes goes away. It came back.i am not giving payment information to an app before I ever even try it!
The app might be good. ?? But I don’t trust the company’s sleazy practices.
The app might be good. ?? But I don’t trust the company’s sleazy practices.
Shady behavior
I downloaded this app and tried it for one night. I woke up in the middle of the night and the app began playing kids movies, but the larger issue was the fact that my phone was extremely hot and overheating from something due to the app. Deleted the app and ever since my youtube keeps showing that i’m watching random kids shows.
Spammed by ads
If you want to be spammed with ads, download this app.
What?
Can’t get the app to stay open for more than a second. What is this?
Ads and AI
Now has ads sent through badge notifications along with built in AI.
Insane price increase
I have used this app for years and gladly paid for premium. But 39.99 to 57.99??? Are you serious??? With no real changes to the app to even make it worth an almost $20 change? Ridiculous.
Refund support was very disappointing
I canceled the annual subscription almost immediately after being charged $62.77 and did not use the app’s services, not even during the free trial. When I reached out for help, I was sent back and forth between the developer and Apple without any real solution. This is a large amount of money to be charged for a service I will not be using. Very disappointing experience with how this situation was handled.
скачал на весь экран баннер с подпиской
скачал на весь экран баннер с подпиской убрать нельзя
It’s broken
There’s no point in having an app that doesn’t have any info. The screen is black and touching the icons on the bottom of the screen doesn’t do anything. Cannot start it. Super disappointing.
Alarm stopped working
I have been using this app for several years with little to no issue. All of a sudden it’s decided to cut itself off during the night or refuse to sound my alarm. For over a week I have not been awakened by the app for one of those two reasons, which means I am about to cancel my subscription. It would be great if there were a way to contact someone for help. I cannot NOT have my alarm working!
Used to use
This worked well enough when I used to use it a few years ago. I was going to redownload it now and saw that it uses AI, which was very disappointing. I will be choosing a different app.
LOCKED ME OUT BEHIND A PAYWALL
I have been using this app for the better part of a decade. I have never paid for it and it has always been free. When rearranging my icons, I accidentally deleted the app so I promptly re-downloaded it and logged back in. I was shocked to discover that, although I was logging back into my same account which I previously used 60 seconds ago, I was now being forced to buy a subscription and would not be allowed entry. I’d like to thank the developers for making this app truly awful and kicking out a user of a decade. Great work dev team.
What Happened?!
I’ve been using this for years. I moved into a home with a window AC unit 5 months ago- hot climate so it’s been running every night since then. A few weeks ago, despite no changes at all (I wear an Apple Watch, pay annually, phone is in the same position, AC unit on the same setting in the same window, etc) the tracking suddenly went downhill. My boyfriend works late and always comes to bed while I’m asleep, and it used to recognize that (I liked knowing what time he got home so I don’t wake him too early). Usually I’ll briefly wake up. I also haven’t gotten any recordings at all, which is strange considering he usually turns the TV on. I’ll sometimes wake up to use the bathroom or check my phone (picking it up), and it claims I slept through the night. How does it not notice me picking up and unlocking my phone?! Please fix this!! I used to love this expensive app, but I will cancel if these issues don’t get fixed.
Question about volume
I love this app. As I age my hearing makes it very hard to hear the alarm in this app. Any suggestions, please.
Good app, but they're taking away free features
For a long time after adding new stats, they let you view your respiratory rate, coughing, and ambient noise while you were asleep... but suddenly one day, they took away all of those free stats and put them behind their subscription.
This app started out great when I first used it many years ago, and now I'm willing to abandon it if I find a better, free sleep tracking app.
This app started out great when I first used it many years ago, and now I'm willing to abandon it if I find a better, free sleep tracking app.
Still took payment
I got the app- cut it off because I didn’t really care for it that well / and it still charged my card after i unsubscribed- really want my money back honestly
Trying to phase out grandfathered users?
Purchased this app probably a decade ago before it became a subscription. Now it seems like the app is breaking in weird places, perhaps in an attempt to force many premium monthly. For example, it’s been months since I’ve been able to even view my sleep score. When I go to the journal it takes me back to 2020 instead of today’s date with really no way to view my score for the day. Which makes the app pointless but perhaps that’s the point.
Good app, awful support
This app is decent at its basics, as long as you don't expect miracles. It's simply not possible for it to figure out every possible scenario for every user, but in my experience it does well most of the time.
Its support, however, is another story. For some reason I cannot understand, this app has a play button for its "aleep aid" in its lock screen widget. Apparently they think everyone needs to turn that on right from the lock screen.
I have lost count of how many times I've woken up in the middle of the night, tapped the screen to see the time, and being barely awake, tapped that play button by accident, waking my partner up.
There is no way to turn this off, because again, apparently they think everyone absolutely needs to have access to this at all times.
I've then contacted them to ask for a toggle to be added. First they told me there is no way to turn it off (which I had already stated in my first message). I said I knew that already, I was asking if it could be added.
"No."
The conversation ended with me saying that even though I've been paying for this app for over 14 years, if I had that situation happen again, I would get rid of it.
It happened again.
Goodbye.
Its support, however, is another story. For some reason I cannot understand, this app has a play button for its "aleep aid" in its lock screen widget. Apparently they think everyone needs to turn that on right from the lock screen.
I have lost count of how many times I've woken up in the middle of the night, tapped the screen to see the time, and being barely awake, tapped that play button by accident, waking my partner up.
There is no way to turn this off, because again, apparently they think everyone absolutely needs to have access to this at all times.
I've then contacted them to ask for a toggle to be added. First they told me there is no way to turn it off (which I had already stated in my first message). I said I knew that already, I was asking if it could be added.
"No."
The conversation ended with me saying that even though I've been paying for this app for over 14 years, if I had that situation happen again, I would get rid of it.
It happened again.
Goodbye.
AVOID: CANNOT ACCURATELY DETECT SLEEP PATTERNS
Tl;DR: app does cannot document time to fall asleep, time awake, or sleep stages accurately. The app, in Luma, even stated so. Gave 2 stars bc it does record snoring, has ok sleeping music, and has an alarm.
Context: I sleep alone and have my phone next to me on my bed, as instructed by Luma chat.
I’ve been using this app for the last week and at first I thought it was really cool.
Then I noticed that it wasn’t actually documenting when I was lying wide awake for 30 minutes. Last night it said I fell asleep after 1 minute, but that’s false. This was consistent over all nights.
I woke up one night and checked the time and then checked the app in the morning and it didn’t get recorded.
So, this had me really thinking, how I can trust any other sound detection metric based on breathing if it can’t even detect me being awake for a full 30+ mins tossing and turning?
I discussed this with Luma and this is what it said:
“ the app misses a 30-minute “awake but still” period, it can also mis-time awakenings and mislabel stages. That is a real limitation of inference-based tracking.
A helpful way to think about trustworthiness:
Most reliable: bedtime, wake time, time in bed
(anchored by when tracking starts/stops).
Less reliable: exact awake minutes and stage splits
(deep/REM/light), especially when you lie still while awake.”
But the thing was I was tossing and turning and it didn’t get picked up.
The whole point of this app is for detailed sleep analysis but it obv can’t do that.
Theres free apps, and also iOS shortcuts that you can build, that does everything that does work for this app and they’re free.
Context: I sleep alone and have my phone next to me on my bed, as instructed by Luma chat.
I’ve been using this app for the last week and at first I thought it was really cool.
Then I noticed that it wasn’t actually documenting when I was lying wide awake for 30 minutes. Last night it said I fell asleep after 1 minute, but that’s false. This was consistent over all nights.
I woke up one night and checked the time and then checked the app in the morning and it didn’t get recorded.
So, this had me really thinking, how I can trust any other sound detection metric based on breathing if it can’t even detect me being awake for a full 30+ mins tossing and turning?
I discussed this with Luma and this is what it said:
“ the app misses a 30-minute “awake but still” period, it can also mis-time awakenings and mislabel stages. That is a real limitation of inference-based tracking.
A helpful way to think about trustworthiness:
Most reliable: bedtime, wake time, time in bed
(anchored by when tracking starts/stops).
Less reliable: exact awake minutes and stage splits
(deep/REM/light), especially when you lie still while awake.”
But the thing was I was tossing and turning and it didn’t get picked up.
The whole point of this app is for detailed sleep analysis but it obv can’t do that.
Theres free apps, and also iOS shortcuts that you can build, that does everything that does work for this app and they’re free.
Spammy & app takes over critical functionality
When the app is active you lose Siri functionality. Very critical for me to have the ability to say “hey Siri, call 911“ or just change the temperature setting without getting out of bed etc. and no easy way to do that
Nice base functionality - but overall value has been lost with price increases :(
I have been using this for years but just cancelled my subscription when I got the notification that the cost for Premium is going up by 149%. 😳 It’s a great app but I am not paying that much more for AI features I don’t use and celebrity narrations. It’s a shame as I really like the base functionality of this app but it seems they are bloating it with a lot of new features and hiking up the price to cover them. 149% increase in a year is crazy.
Sentiment summary
93%
Positive (4-5★)
3%
Neutral (3★)
4%
Negative (1-2★)