@darrenux I have been using Sleep Cycle for over a year now and really like it!

@nikunj @darrenux I've used Sleep Cycle for 3+ years. I get the most out of it on nights where I'm sleeping 6 hours or less. I feel rested with Sleep Cycle, vs. going without and being drained all day.

@stttories @nikunj @darrenux that's interesting, I've also tried a few (including SC) and always been disappointed. A bit of a reflection on myself more than the tool, perhaps, as I like more feedback/interaction than a phone can supply. Curious to see how the Orb does.

@riaface You've just solved a mystery for me on why my stats are so weird :D

@riaface I've used @sleepcycle for awhile and it's great. I married with kids, who've been known to jump into bed at the middle of the night, and it still only seems to pick up my movements. It's between my head and the corner of the bed.

@riaface It's definitely something that we tried and tested a lot. Pillow will operate better if you place it in your corner and not between you and your bed partner. If, by any chance, both of you are using the app, you can safely lay it in opposite corners and it will work just fine. In general, Pillow will register the motions and sounds that occur closer to the device, so in most cases the accuracy will not be affected. We’d love to hear from you if you give it a go. Thanks everyone for the up votes and Aj Mihalic especially for sharing our app on Product Hunt, which btw is great!

@baronetto Thanks Panos, I'll check it out and let you know how I get on!

@maroun That's awesome, a huge fail IMO for most of these apps and why I delete them after a month or so. Downloaded and checking out tonight. Thanks for pointing out the REM tidbit. Huge problem with consumer "science" products, they simplify the actual science and these markers begin to lose meaning because of it. Hard problem to solve, as they have to simplify in some ways. Give/Take.

Hello @SoleneMa, First of all thank you for your kind words. I'm really glad you liked Pillow and you wrote about it. The night chart you are referring to is something we have spent countless hours discussing and researching, since it's one of the most important views of the app. There are many good reasons why we ended up using this type of visual representation and I'll explain why: Sleep Stages and how the human brain works: When we set out to build Pillow we initially started working on a version that used a curve like the one on Sleep Cycle and similar applications. As we did more research based on scientific literature and advice from sleep experts, we saw that when we sleep, our brain and bodies fall into very specific sleep stages which are grouped into these 4 main categories: Awake, REM, Light Sleep, Deep Sleep. The transition from one stage to the other happens almost instantly so there is actually no smooth transition between those states as indicated by the sleep curve in apps like Sleep cycle. This is why Hypnograms (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyp...), which are the graphs sleep scientists use to visualise the stages of sleep, don't have smooth curves and look more like the chart we use in Pillow. Adding sound to the equation: Part of our research also indicated that sound is a very important factor when it comes to calculating sleep quality. Pillow monitors both movements and sounds during your sleep, such as breathing patterns, snoring . This allows us to calculate sleep quality with even greater accuracy and determine in which of the four sleep stages you were in (not just three used by other apps), combining both movement and sound data. And this was quite challenging. In fact most sleep applications don't record sound at all, or don't use it for the calculation of sleep quality, which basically means that the chart they display is just the reading from the accelerometer over time. Displaying what matters the most: We also chose to colour each of the sleep stages so that it's easier to understand how much time you spent on each stage during the night. Line charts like the ones on Sleep Cycle are more focused on visualising the transitions between a set of values, but when it comes to sleep, these values don't have smooth transitions. In addition, it is important to quantify those values visually since their percentage plays a significant role in the measurement of sleep quality. This is why we also added a ring chart at the bottom detailing the percentage of each stage. Onwards: So to conclude, in Pillow we chose a chart that might be a little harder to read at first, but it is significantly more accurate, as it focuses on visualising both the transition and the duration of the sleep stages taking into account sound and motion data. That said, we are indeed looking into ways to make this chart, easier to read and make it even more interactive. I really hope that you give Pillow another try and thank you for taking the the to bring this up. We plan to discuss this in more detail on a series of posts about sleep health and the science behind it. best regards, Panos Spiliotis Neybox Interactive

@baronetto Thanks for this awesome answer. I'm so glad that Product Hunt brings such a great way to talk about product! I really appreciate that you take time to explain all this! It is very interesting and I now totally understand what's behind this chart. I have to be honest I think that you convinced me to switch back. Your knowledge and experience on the topic are very valuable to the field. Bringing science to consumers is passionating. I was previously working on an app for people who suffered from Arthritis and user's research was key to build the right product. That said, I think that there is a better way to provide a big picture of the user's sleep chart (especially as it occupies the first screen) and then go into the details with the 4 categories that you mentioned. The user is not using the app as a scientist to analyse by himself his night. It is the app's role. In order to bring to the user all the value that comes with this chart, you could for instance give him a good tip / result when you wake up with the app. The same thing that Nike Run gives you after a run - something human-readable! What I miss with Sleep Cycle: - Good analytics on a weekly and monthly periods. I want the app to tell me that my sleep quality has increased or decreased over such a period - Change the alarm song - I love the sound record features on Pillow but sometimes I feel it a bit creepy. Again, I'd like more than just the song. I want to know if I speak or if it's a song coming from outdoor. I realised thanks to Pillow that I was sleeping in a very noisy environment but I had to listen to 15 songs every Morning:) I'm sure you are working on this! Ok.. I will stop with my features requests for now!! Best of luck for the next iterations.

@SoleneMa Yes, Product Hunt is such a great place to discuss about products and I'm really glad that you are switching back! As you guessed, we are already working on various improvements regarding this chart and how we can make all these data even easier to understand. Regarding the things you mention about Sleep Cycle: - We already provide weekly, monthly, yearly and all time history of your sleep quality plus many more statistics. You can access this information by rotating your device horizontally. - In Pillow you can select among 18 carefully selected alarm songs and you can also use any song from your iTunes library. We'll be adding more in future updates. - If you find too many sound recordings every morning you can adjust the microphone sensitivity from the settings menu, to a lower setting. Again thank you for your feedback, it's always valuable. You can also visit our Support and Feedback Center where you can post new ideas and suggestions or vote for existing ones (https://pillow.uservoice.com). warmest regards, Panos