Created by Rise Science, the RISE app debuted on app stores this week with a free seven-day trial. As someone who loves their sleep, but is often exhausted during the day, I thought I’d give the app a try to see if I could understand why I feel a certain way and improve my energy levels. After a few days of using it, the RISE app has given me the tools to be more productive and more energetic throughout the day.
Sleep Meets High-Tech
The RISE app was developed using the two-process model of sleep regulation, which posits that circadian rhythm and sleep debt (the cumulative effect of not getting enough sleep) are leading factors in determining how a person feels and functions. By analyzing these two factors using behavioral data from your smartphone, the RISE app shows a daily timeline of peaks and dips in energy unique to every individual. Additional features include educational articles on sleep and energy management, as well as habit reminders, including the best time to work out, stop drinking caffeine, or limit blue light, all catered and timed to your unique circadian rhythm. The app works like this: it uses your phone’s motion data, detecting when you stop touching your device at night and translating that into a sleep prediction. To make this even more accurate, you can edit how long it usually takes you to fall asleep after putting your phone down. After a full night of sleep, the app calculates how well you slept based on how many hours you got and if you were tossing and turning at all (which you have to add in yourself). In the morning, it gives you a full picture of how your day will look, including how long you’ll be groggy, when you’ll be most productive, and when you’ll experience a dip in energy. So, for example, the app showed that peak energy yesterday was between 11 a.m.-12 p.m., so I saw that, and instead of taking a short break from work, I powered through a little longer and got a lot more done than expected. You also can add habits or routines to your day, such as carving out time for social media or wind-down activities, like reading that book on your nightstand. The app adds these habits and routines at the ideal time based on that day’s energy levels. This feature is especially impressive to me since I’ve been trying to add tiny routines into my day, and now I can at the time I’ll actually be more likely to do them.
Is It Worth It?
I’ll definitely keep using this app to better understand my sleep patterns and how they affect my day-to-day routines. The fact that I can know and be prepared for when I’m going to be productive versus having an energy slump is a big game-changer for this freelance writer. The app also provides you with much of the same information as the smart ring, known as the Oura Ring, but unless you’re willing to spend $300 and wear a metal band on your finger, the RISE app is an excellent alternative at only $60 a year. Overall, the app is super informative and has a ton of science-backed features, though it can be a little hard to navigate at first. Spend time after downloading the app to learn the ins and outs of the app setup, since all the information can be a bit overwhelming. Also, the app promises to send push notifications to remind you of your habits, but I never received those. That could be my own phone’s fault, but still it would have been nice to be reminded, rather than having to remind myself to look at the app. I think the RISE app will help all of us get back into a routine after the past year, and become a necessary tool to track our overall health. Go check it out.
