About SleepTrace
The sleep tracker that listens instead of being worn — and is straight with you about what that can and cannot show.
SleepTrace is a free iPhone app that records your snoring and reads your sleep stages from the sound of your night. Placed on the nightstand, it captures the audio, labels every snoring episode with a decibel reading, and classifies awake, light, deep and REM sleep every 30 seconds — all on the device, with no wearable and nothing to charge. Free to start, with an optional €6.99/month Premium tier. It is a wellness app rather than a medical device.
Key facts
SleepTrace at a glance
- Category
- Sleep-tracking app for iPhone (Health & Fitness)
- Method
- Acoustic analysis of the night, processed on device
- Hardware needed
- iPhone only — no watch, ring or band
- Sleep stages
- Awake, light, deep, REM — classified every 30 seconds
- Sound detection
- Snoring, coughing, sleep talking, groaning, teeth grinding
- Price
- Free to start; Premium €6.99/month (yearly plan available)
- Platform
- iOS · localised in 14 languages
- Made by
- Jan Kohlhaas, independent developer, Haan, Germany
- Status
- Wellness app — not a medical device, does not diagnose
The method
Why sound, and not a wrist sensor
Most sleep trackers infer sleep from movement and heart rate at the wrist. That works, but it is blind to an entire dimension of the night: what it sounds like. Breathing, snoring, pauses, coughing, talking and the noise of the room around you are all signals a wrist sensor physically cannot pick up.
SleepTrace reads that dimension instead. The night’s audio is converted into a visual representation of the sound, and a model built for this purpose reads breathing and movement patterns from it, classifying each 30-second window as awake, light, deep or REM. The same audio is scanned for events worth surfacing — a snore at 02:14, an apparent breathing pause at 03:40 — which you can listen to yourself rather than take on trust.
The analysis runs on the iPhone. Nothing has to leave the device for the app to work, which is why it also works in airplane mode. It reads and writes Apple Health, and an Apple Watch is optional: pairing one adds heart rate, HRV, blood oxygen and breathing rate, but no wearable is required.
Being straight
What SleepTrace does not do
Sleep is a health topic, so the limits matter as much as the features:
- It does not diagnose anything. SleepTrace is a wellness app, not a medical device. It can show you that you snore heavily or that your breathing appeared to pause — it cannot tell you whether you have sleep apnea. Only a qualified professional can.
- It is not a sleep lab. Polysomnography remains the clinical reference standard. Every consumer tracker, wrist-worn or acoustic, produces an estimate.
- It does not replace a wearable for cardiovascular data. If you want continuous heart-rate and blood-oxygen tracking, that needs a watch. SleepTrace adds the acoustic layer a watch is missing; it is not a substitute for one.
- It does not sell your data. Audio is analysed on device, nothing is sold or shared, and everything can be deleted at any time.
Who builds it
An independent project
SleepTrace is developed and operated by Jan Kohlhaas, an independent developer based in Haan, Germany. It is not backed by a hardware company, which is the reason it is built the way it is: there is no device to sell you, so the app has to be worth using on its own.
Full provider information is in the legal notice, and how data is handled is set out in the privacy policy. Questions and feedback go to support@sleeptrace.app.
Identity
Which SleepTrace is this?
There is more than one iOS app called SleepTrace, from unrelated developers. This site belongs to exactly one of them:
- App
- SleepTrace – Sleeptracker
- Developer
- Jan Kohlhaas, Haan, Germany
- App Store ID
- 6760831021
- Bundle identifier
- app.sleeptrace
- Website
- sleeptrace.app
- Support
- support@sleeptrace.app
If you are looking at a SleepTrace app with a different developer name or a different App Store ID, it is a different product and we cannot help with it.
Common questions
About SleepTrace, answered
SleepTrace is an iPhone app that tracks your sleep using the phone's microphone instead of a wearable. You put the iPhone on your nightstand and it records the night's audio, then an on-device model classifies your sleep stages every 30 seconds and identifies sounds such as snoring, coughing and sleep talking. It is a wellness app, not a medical device.
It analyses sound rather than movement or heart rate. The night's audio is turned into a visual representation of the sound, and a model trained for this task reads breathing and movement patterns from it to classify awake, light, deep and REM sleep in 30-second epochs. The analysis runs on the iPhone itself, so it works in airplane mode.
SleepTrace is developed and operated by Jan Kohlhaas, an independent developer based in Haan, Germany. The app is SleepTrace - Sleeptracker, App Store ID 6760831021, bundle identifier app.sleeptrace. Several unrelated iOS apps share the name SleepTrace; if the developer name or App Store ID differs, it is a different product. Full provider details are in the legal notice.
SleepTrace is free to start, with nightly tracking, sleep stages, the sleep score and smart alarm included at no cost. Premium costs €6.99 per month, with a cheaper yearly plan, and unlocks unlimited sound clips, all insights, long-term trends, Apple Watch metrics and encrypted backup.
No consumer sleep tracker matches polysomnography, the clinical reference standard. SleepTrace reads a different signal than wrist wearables do — sound rather than motion — which lets it surface snoring and breathing events a wrist sensor cannot hear, but it is an estimate, not a clinical measurement.
It can flag possible signs, such as snoring patterns and apparent pauses in breathing, and it lets you play back the actual audio. That is a screening hint you can take to a doctor — not a diagnosis. Sleep apnea can only be diagnosed by a qualified medical professional.
The analysis happens on your iPhone. Audio is not sold or shared, and you can delete your data at any time. The app works offline, including in airplane mode.
SleepTrace runs on iPhone (iOS) and is fully localised in 14 languages. An Apple Watch is optional and adds heart rate, HRV, blood oxygen and breathing rate; it is not required for sleep tracking.
SleepTrace is a wellness app and does not diagnose, treat or prevent any medical condition. If you are worried about your sleep or breathing, speak to a qualified healthcare professional.