Several commercially available apps claim to do exactly this, and are widely used by patients with sleep complaints. A reliable, affordable and user-friendly smartphone-based app that can monitor sleep-wake cycles would be an invaluable addition to the arsenal at the disposal of practitioners of sleep medicine. Use of actigraphy, while a viable alternative, 7 – 9 is limited by the need for costly, specialized equipment and may be considered cumbersome by some patients. Long-term monitoring of sleep requires more practical methods. In-laboratory polysomnography (PSG) is the gold standard for sleep cycle analysis, but is labor intensive, expensive, often inaccessible, and clearly not a modality that can be used on a nightly basis. There are several apps that allow users to report and analyze their sleep quality and duration, 6 but such data are often intrinsically subjective. It is often helpful to sleep physicians and cognitive behavioral therapists who treat patients with insomnia, circadian rhythm disorders, and hypersomnolence to have objective data about sleep patterns in order to make diagnoses and treatment recommendations. 5 Most of them do not, however, record sleep stages. 2 The inexorable permeation of smartphones into the field of sleep medicine has resulted in the development of promising apps that screen for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) 3, 4 and periodic limb movements in sleep (PLMS). Sleep related concerns are commonplace as well, and given the burgeoning popularity and easy availability of inexpensive apps that purport to monitor multiple physiological parameters, it is not surprising that several apps have been designed to evaluate sleep quality. 1 Apps have been incorporated into the practice of medical specialties as diverse as diabetology and neurosurgery, and have found a role in activities ranging from interpretation of radiology imaging to smoking cessation counseling. As their technological capabilities continue to improve, both consumers and health-care personnel are constantly finding new and innovative uses for smartphone apps in the field of health and medicine.
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