Sleep Cycle scores 4.7 in the App Store, but 14 of its 25 Trustpilot reviews give one star.
We read Sleep Cycle’s reviews in October 2026. The App Store shows 4.7 out of 5 from 30,921 ratings and Google Play 4.3 from 218,367. Trustpilot is harsher: 2.1 from 25 reviews, 56% of them one star (a small number, so treat it as a signal). Across all App Store ratings only 2.6% give one star, but people who write a review lean unhappy: among the 500 newest written App Store reviews, 164 (33%) give one star and 214 (43%) give one or two. The complaints that repeat are a subscription asked for before you can try the app, an alarm or tracker that stops working, and a sleep measurement people say is wrong.
Here is how Sleep Cycle is rated on the App Store, Google Play and Trustpilot.
The 500 newest written App Store reviews · read 20 October 2026
15 Dec 2025 to 18 Oct 2026; all 500 written in the 12 months before 20 October 2026. How they split by star:
How we counted: the 500 newest written US App Store reviews of Sleep Cycle, downloaded 20 October 2026 (they run from 15 December 2025 to 18 October 2026; all of them written in the 12 months before that). Ratings without text are not included. We read every one- and two-star review and every four- and five-star review and assigned its complaints or praise by meaning; a review can count under more than one, and borderline cases were decided one by one. Apple’s totals cover all US ratings, written or not, so they differ from the newest written reviews, which lean unhappy. Quotes are word for word, trimmed to the relevant sentence. The sample is the newest written reviews, so it does not represent every user. Trustpilot figures cover all reviews on the company page that day; Sleep Cycle’s 25 visible reviews span 2019 to 2026. Sleep Cycle is a trademark of its owner and is not affiliated with SleepTrace.
These are the three complaints Sleep Cycle reviewers repeat most.
The app asks for a subscription before you can try it, and the price is a sore point.
127 of the 214 one- and two-star App Store reviews (59%) are about the paywall, the price, a trial or a charge.
“You have to subscribe even for the free trial and then cancel it to even access anything in the app”
“They raised the app price almost 50% a year.”
“I was then charged £34.99 for a full annual subscription at the end of the 7-day trial period.”
The alarm or the tracker stops working.
34 of the 214 one- and two-star App Store reviews (16%) describe an alarm that did not ring, a night that did not track, or a lost session.
“The alarm stopped working! What happened?!!! No more audio alarm for 2 days so far.”
“The past few months, 80% of the nights it does not track properly and the alarm does not go off.”
The sleep measurement is wrong.
29 of the 214 one- and two-star App Store reviews (14%) say the sleep stages or times it shows are wrong or inconsistent. A smaller group, 11 (5%), say support could not be reached or did not reply.
“the sleep tracker is not working accurately. even though i slept in at 2am, it said i slept in at 11 or smth.”
“The app used to be much more accurate. Now it doesn't record awake times or any deep sleep.”
“This simply does not work”
This is what Sleep Cycle reviewers like.
A smart alarm that wakes you at a good moment.
Alarm and waking come up in 26% of the 223 four- and five-star App Store reviews.
“the smart wake up makes me feel more rested.”
Sleep data that feels accurate and useful.
Sleep data, graphs and statistics come up in 35% of the four- and five-star App Store reviews.
“I use it every night too track my sleep patterns. I find it accurate and super helpful.”
“Not bad at all, great to track your sleeping and provides much details!”
Lab studies of Sleep Cycle: weak on sleep stages, closer on snore counts.
Sleep Cycle’s own support page says the stages it shows are an estimate based mainly on breathing patterns, not a medical measurement, and that distance, background noise and sleeping position can distort them (support article). Three papers compared the app with polysomnography, the sleep-lab standard. They tested earlier app versions on small groups, so they say little about today’s release.
- Sleep versus awake and REM. At home, 21 healthy adults slept two nights with portable polysomnography and four phone apps. Sleep Cycle, in its accelerometer and microphone versions, was not reliable enough for sleep-wake detection, and none of the four apps could score REM sleep (Fino et al., Journal of Sleep Research 2020, PMID 31674096).
- Children. In 25 children aged 2 to 14, the app’s total sleep time and sleep latency did not correlate with polysomnography, and no lab sleep stage matched an app “stage” in a meaningful way (Patel et al., Sleep & Breathing 2017, PMID 27771844).
- Snoring. In 60 participants, the snore counts of Sleep Cycle Alarm, SnoreLab and a third app correlated significantly with the lab’s snore counts, and Sleep Cycle’s sleep quality score correlated with the log of the lab’s apnea-hypopnea index (Shiao et al., Nature and Science of Sleep 2024, PMID 38800087). That is a correlation in a research setting, not a diagnosis.
Sleep Cycle also publishes how its tracking works: the microphone version listens for breathing, movement and snoring with a patented sound analysis, and the accelerometer version reads movement only (Sleep Cycle, The technology that powers the app).
Sleep Cycle facts we checked on 2 November 2026.
| Price and trial | Free download, Premium by in-app purchase. No single price in the support pages; the US App Store entries read on 2 November ran from $2.99 to $57.99. sleepcycle.com advertises a 30-day trial (sleepcycle.com, App Store). |
|---|---|
| Free tier | Smart wake-up, sleep analysis, nightly sleep graph, snooze, sleep goal, limited Sleep Aid. Snore and sound detection, sleep programs and Who’s Snoring? are Premium (support). |
| How it tracks | Microphone (recommended), accelerometer, or Apple Watch. The microphone listens for movement, breathing, snoring and coughing; the accelerometer and the Watch record no sound (support). |
| Devices | iPhone and iPad with iOS or iPadOS 16.2 or later, Apple Watch with watchOS 9.0 or later, Apple Vision with visionOS 1.0 or later, and Android through Google Play (App Store, Google Play). |
| Battery | About 30% of the battery in one night on average, with a charger recommended (support). |
| Data | Health data stays on the device by default; recorded sounds stay on the phone unless you opt in to share them; Online backup (Premium) stores sleep data on Sleep Cycle’s servers, without recordings (privacy policy, support, support). |
Prices and plans change. These rows come from the pages linked in each cell, read on 2 November 2026.
Our verdict on Sleep Cycle.
Sleep Cycle is well liked for its smart alarm and its sleep data: 4.7 from 30,921 ratings in the App Store and 4.3 from 218,367 on Google Play.
The written reviews are much harsher. 33% of the 500 newest written App Store reviews give one star, and Trustpilot rates it 2.1 from 25 reviews. The complaints that repeat are a subscription before the trial, an alarm or tracker that fails, and a sleep measurement people call wrong.
If you want to try something else, our recommendation is SleepTrace.
SleepTrace is our own app, so weigh this section accordingly. It is a sleep tracker that uses the phone’s microphone: it records the night, estimates your sleep stages, and sorts sounds such as snoring, talking and coughing into clips you can play back. The analysis runs on the phone, and it works on iPhone and Android.
The free plan tracks every night and lets you play back 3 sound clips a month. Premium unlocks unlimited clips, all insights and trends for €6.99 a month after a 7-day free trial (US App Store: $6.99 a month or $39.99 a year).
What Sleep Cycle reviewers complain about, and what SleepTrace does about it:
| A subscription before you can try the app | The free plan tracks every night, and the pricing page says no credit card is needed to start. Premium is €6.99 a month after a 7-day free trial (US App Store: $6.99 a month or $39.99 a year), billed and cancelled in the App Store or Google Play. |
|---|---|
| An alarm or tracker that stops working | SleepTrace needs the app to stay open (the screen dims by itself) and the phone on its charger. No app can promise a night never fails, and SleepTrace is new, so there are too few reviews to show how often it does. |
| A sleep measurement that is wrong | SleepTrace estimates awake, light, deep and REM every 30 seconds from the sound of the night. It is an estimate from a phone on the nightstand, not a lab test. The methodology page says how it works and where it is weak. |
| Support that does not reply | Support is support@sleeptrace.app, and the website has a WhatsApp chat. |
Where Sleep Cycle is the better pick: it can tell two snorers apart, it has a large library of sleep sounds and programs, and it has been refined for over a decade. SleepTrace cannot separate two sleepers and launched in July 2026.
These are the questions people ask about Sleep Cycle reviews.
It adds up the public ratings on the App Store, Google Play and Trustpilot and counts the complaints and the praise in the 500 newest written App Store reviews, read on 20 and 21 October 2026. The product facts on this page (price, trial, free tier, tracking, battery, data) were checked again on 2 November 2026 against the App Store listing, Sleep Cycle’s support pages and PubMed. It is not a hands-on test of the app.
Sleep Cycle - Tracker & Sounds is a sleep tracker and smart alarm clock from Sleep Cycle AB, for iPhone and Android. It listens to the night through the phone’s microphone or reads movement with the accelerometer, estimates your sleep stages and wakes you inside a window you set. Snore and sound detection are Premium. The app is a free download with in-app purchases, and its own App Store text claims more than 40 million downloads (App Store listing, read 2 November 2026).
Yes. Sleep Cycle is a real app from Sleep Cycle AB with 30,921 ratings averaging 4.7 in the US App Store and 218,367 ratings averaging 4.3 on Google Play (read 21 October 2026). Trustpilot rates it 2.1 from 25 reviews, 56% of them one star. The written reviews are much harsher than the store average, and most of the harsh ones are about the subscription.
4.7 out of 5 from 30,921 ratings in the US App Store, 4.3 from 218,367 ratings on Google Play and 2.1 from 25 reviews on Trustpilot. Among all App Store ratings 2.6% give one star; among the 500 newest written App Store reviews, read 20 October 2026, 164 (33%) give one star and 160 (32%) give five.
The paywall, the price and the trial (127 of 214 one- and two-star App Store reviews, 59%), an alarm or tracker that stops working (34, 16%) and a sleep measurement that reviewers call wrong (29, 14%). Support that does not reply comes up less often: 11 (5%).
The alarm and waking up (which come up in 26% of the four- and five-star App Store reviews), the sleep data and graphs (35%), and insight into their habits (17%). One reviewer wrote that “the smart wake up makes me feel more rested.” (5 stars, 5 Oct 2026).
For most reviewers it does: 223 of the 500 newest written App Store reviews give four or five stars, and what they praise is the alarm and the sleep data. Against that, 34 of the 214 one- and two-star reviews (16%) describe an alarm or a night that did not track, and 29 (14%) call the measurement wrong. Sleep Cycle’s support says other apps playing audio and Bluetooth devices can block the microphone and flatline the graph (support article).
Not as a medical measurement. Sleep Cycle itself calls its sleep stages an estimate (support article), and lab comparisons are mixed: weak for sleep stages, closer for snore counts. The studies are summed up under lab studies above and tested earlier app versions on small groups.
Downloading is free; the cost is the Premium subscription, and Sleep Cycle’s support pages do not print a price. The US App Store listing shows in-app purchases without saying which one you will get: the ten entries shown on 2 November 2026 ran from $2.99 to $57.99, after $1.99 to $69.99 on 21 October, so the selection changes between reads and by country. Read the price on the purchase screen before you confirm.
Sleep Cycle does not name one amount in the pages we read, so the figure on the checkout screen is the one that counts. Reviewers describe the charge arriving when the trial ends, for example £34.99 for a full annual subscription after a 7-day trial (Trustpilot, 1 star, 20 January 2026). Sleep Cycle’s support says you are not charged if you cancel during the trial (support article).
You start Premium by tapping any locked feature or the statistics tab, and Apple or Google bills it (support article). Deleting the app does not cancel it: on iPhone, open Settings, tap your name, then Subscriptions; on Android, use Subscriptions in Google Play. Purchases made on sleepcycle.com are cancelled through the reseller named in the confirmation email (support article).
Yes, but the length depends on the offer. sleepcycle.com advertises a 30-day trial (read 2 November 2026), the App Store labels the Premium purchase “Free Trial” without a length, and a Trustpilot reviewer wrote about a 7-day trial. Reviewers also say the trial asks for a subscription before the app opens and that they could not find a way to skip it, so read the screen before you confirm and check your subscription settings afterwards.
Yes, the free features stay. Sleep Cycle’s support says you have to start the free trial first, and that after you cancel during the trial and it runs out, all free features remain available in the app (support article). That start-the-trial step is what many one-star reviews are about.
The free version has the smart wake-up, sleep analysis, the nightly sleep graph, a selection of alarm sounds, snooze, a sleep goal, Apple Health or Health Connect sync, data export and limited access to Sleep Aid. Snore detection, sound detection, sleep programs, Who’s Snoring?, partner link and the full statistics are Premium (Sleep Cycle support, updated June 2026).
Yes. The app is a free download from the App Store (iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch; 303.9 MB on the listing) and from Google Play, where it lists 10M+ downloads, both with in-app purchases (read 2 November 2026; App Store, Google Play).
That depends on what bothered you. SleepTrace has a free plan that tracks every night and Premium at €6.99 a month after a 7-day free trial (US App Store: $6.99 a month or $39.99 a year), on iPhone and Android. It cannot separate two snorers, and it launched in July 2026, so it has far fewer reviews than Sleep Cycle. See the Sleep Cycle alternatives.
Read these next to compare the other apps.
SleepTrace is our app, so read this page with that in mind. Sleep Cycle, ShutEye and SnoreLab are trademarks of their owners and are not affiliated with SleepTrace. SleepTrace is a wellness app, not a medical device.