Tracking sleep is useful, but we don’t all want to wear a smartwatch, ring, or headband to bed. Luckily, there’s RISE.
RISE is an app that tracks your sleep and — most importantly — gives you in-depth insights and advice based on your own biology to help you get better sleep and more energy.
Below, we’ll cover more on the non-wearable sleep trackers out there and how RISE can help you master nights, and therefore, your days.
Yes, there are several types of sleep trackers you don’t have to wear. You can use apps like the RISE app and Sleep Cycle, bed-based sensors like the Beautyrest, sleepme, or Withings sleep mats and the EightSleep mattress cover, or room sensors like the Somnofy or the Google Nest Hub.
We think sleep-tracking apps are worth considering because:
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You can track your sleep without a smartwatch or ring by using a non-wearable sleep tracker. Each product tracks your sleep differently, but many use microphones, to track snoring or talking, or accelerometers, to track movement.
As an example, here’s how the RISE app can track your sleep. You’ve got four options:
If you forget to start mattress or sound sleep tracking or your wearable runs out of battery life, don’t fret, RISE will use phone motion tracking, so you never lose a night of sleep data.
Keep reading to find out what sleep data the RISE app tracks and helps you improve, and why our users think RISE is the best non-wearable sleep tracker out there.
Looking for the best non-watch sleep trackers or best Oura Ring alternatives for sleep tracking specifically? We dive into those here.
RISE tracks your sleep debt and gives you daily personalized guidance to help you pay it back to get more energy.
Sleep debt is the amount of sleep you owe your body. If you don’t meet your sleep need — the genetically determined amount of sleep you need each night — you’ll start building up sleep debt.
You can see your sleep debt each day (and other RISE data) in the app, on a widget on your iPhone home screen, iPad, or on your Apple Watch, if you use one.
RISE tracks your sleep debt by comparing your sleep duration to how much sleep you need.
The app doesn’t use generic guidelines, though. Sleep guidelines are designed to be just that: guidelines. They’re purposefully broad (like the seven-to-nine-hour recommended window for adults) to account for the wide range of sleep needs. But in reality, some people need more or less sleep than this, and even this two-hour window isn’t broad enough. Plus, these guidelines are based on how much sleep people get, not what they need, so they can be even more misleading.
To find out how much sleep needs vary, we looked at 1.95 million RISE users aged 24 and over and found sleep needs ranged from five hours to 11 hours 30 minutes.
Instead of generic guidelines, RISE uses a year’s worth of your phone use data and sleep science algorithms to work out your unique sleep need.
It then works as a sleep calculator, tracking your sleep each night. You can also add any naps you take.
From here, RISE calculates your sleep debt over your last 14 nights. The app’s algorithm places 15% of the weight on last night's sleep, as this impacts how you feel today the most, and 85% on the remaining 13 nights. More recent nights have more weight.
You’ll get one easy-to-understand sleep debt number to focus on.
You can learn more about sleep debt here, including how RISE can help you pay it back.
RISE users on iOS 1.202 and above can view their sleep debt here.
We’ve covered more on sleep debt tracking apps here, including why RISE is the most accurate.
Tracking your sleep is interesting, but the real magic happens when you do something with this data. RISE doesn’t just work out your sleep debt, it gives you personalized recommendations to help you lower it. Lowering your sleep debt will improve everything from your productivity at work to your appearance, your brain fog to your weight loss efforts.
Eliminating sleep debt entirely may not be achievable for many of us, but reducing it as much as possible can help you feel and perform your best.
RISE helps you lower your sleep debt by:
The RISE app doesn’t track sleep quality.
Many wearable and non-wearable sleep trackers give you a sleep score based on multiple metrics and the company’s own scoring system. RISE tracks and helps you lower your sleep debt, the most important metric going for those who want more energy and better days.
There’s no consensus definition for sleep quality, among sleep scientists or the everyday sleeper. And unlike sleep debt, it may not make that much of a difference to how you feel each day.
You can self-rate your sleep quality in RISE, though. Research (like this study from 2023) suggests how you feel about your sleep can make a difference to your well-being and energy during the day, so how you feel about your sleep may give you more insight into your daily energy levels than what a sleep monitor tells you about sleep quality.
Learn more about sleep tracking and why sleep quality is a particularly useful metric here.
The RISE app doesn’t track sleep cycles or the amount of time spent in different sleep stages.
You can’t control how much time you spend in different stages of sleep, so why stress about it? That’ll only make sleep harder to get.
And even if you could control it, 2022 research shows sleep trackers — both wearables and non-wearables — can’t accurately track sleep stages anyway. Even with polysomnography (a sleep study), accurate sleep staging is tricky. Experts only agree on test results about 80% of the time.
Focus on getting enough sleep for you and your brain will spend the right amount of time in each sleep stage.
We’ve covered why you shouldn’t worry about light sleep, deep sleep, and REM sleep too much here.
Your circadian rhythm is your internal body clock. How in sync you are with it is another huge factor determining how your days feel.
RISE uses your inferred light exposure, recent sleep times, and algorithms built on the SAFTE model, which was developed by the US Department of Transportation and the Department of Defense, to predict your circadian rhythm each day.
You’ll see the exact time your energy is expected to rise and fall across the day.
With this data, you can:
We cover more about how RISE predicts your circadian rhythm here.
RISE users on iOS 1.202 and above can see their circadian rhythm on the Energy screen here.
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The RISE app costs $69.99 a year, which works out at $5.83 a month.
You can try RISE for free for seven days. You’ll find out your sleep need, how much sleep debt you have, and see your energy predictions across the day. Plus, you’ll have several days to see how timed sleep hygiene reminders and relaxing sleep content can improve your sleep and energy before the free trial ends.
Don’t just take our word for it. Users say RISE’s sleep coaching has helped improve their energy, wellness, and productivity:
The best sleep trackers track metrics that make the biggest difference to your days: sleep debt and circadian rhythm. RISE tracks these metrics and gives you personalized recommendations to help you get a good night’s sleep and more daily energy.
You can get all this data without wearing a wristband, watch, or ring by using the RISE app on your phone, or you can pair RISE with a wearable device to further inform your sleep data.
RISE works fast too — 80% of users feel the benefits within five days.
Learn more about Rise for sales teams.
RISE makes it easy to improve your sleep and daily energy to reach your potential
RISE makes it easy to improve your sleep and daily energy to reach your potential