Best Sleep Music Apps

With an audio library that includes soundscapes, stories, music, and meditations, Slumber truly has something for everyone. The app's science-based techniques are approved by the National Sleep Foundation and allow you to choose from a story series, guided meditations, or music.  

Slumber allows you to customize the settings to control the sounds you hear, and then mix and match them to create a perfect blend of noises. With options like rain showers, crackling flames, binaural beats (two tones played in alternating ears of headphones), and a flowing river, you can find soothing sounds to calm your mind into a slumber. You can also choose soundscapes (pre-made mixes of sounds) that create an auditory experience, like walking through a forest.

Limited access to the app is free, but to unlock the full experience, you’ll need to pay a subscription fee of $9.99 a month or $59.99 annually.

Free apps usually have a limited catalog of options, but Bettersleep is the exception, offering a wide variety of sounds in an array of categories, from nature and animals to melodies and brain waves. 

The app's interface is easy to navigate and lets you visually compose your track by blending sounds together. You can also control the intensity of each sound to your specifications and choose your favorite compositions, too. Lastly, Bettersleep lets you explore its endless selection of user-submitted and staff-created mixes.

Limited meditations, stories, and melodies are available on the free app, but for the full catalog, you'll need to unlock the premium version, which you can access for a fee of $59.99 a year.

Headspace is known primarily as a meditation app, but it also contains an amazing sleep music offering. The overall focus of the app is centered around “sleep hygiene,” or creating a routine that improves how fast you fall asleep, and also the quality of your sleep.

The sleep function is easy to use and contains a library of content, ranging from music to soundscapes to sleep radio with extended play. The timer function is also handy, allowing you to customize the length of your play. Targeted content focuses on situational aspects, including specific content for when you wake in the middle of the night and need help getting back to sleep.

Headspace's free version contains very little sleep content. In order to unlock the full benefits, you need to upgrade to the paid subscription at $12.99 a month or $69.99 annually. While pricey, the paid app gives you access to a vast content library of sleep and meditation programs that also help with work stress or feelings of loneliness and anxiety.

Pzizz's sleep app is based on the science of psychoacoustics (the branch of psychology dedicated to the perception of sound and its physiological effect). It uses research-backed techniques to build its “dreamscapes”—a combination of music, voiceovers, and sound effects.

The voiceover feature allows you to tune the voice volume separately from the music volume. Narrations automatically change each time you use the app, and you can omit them entirely if you prefer. You can set a timer to any length and the dreamscape will adapt to fit that timeframe. The app also has a built-in alarm.

Pzizz's free version only comes with two dreamscapes and two narrations. To unlock the full library, as well as other premium features, you’ll need to pay $9.99 a month or $69.99 a year for a subscription.

While not specifically geared toward children, Sleepiest is kid-friendly and loaded with bedtime stories, soothing noises, and music to help lull kids to sleep. The app includes parental controls to ensure kids can’t navigate out of the app when they are trying to sleep.

There are four categories to choose from: Sounds, Composer, Meditate, and Stories. Sounds features soothing music and background noises, like rain and birds, while Composer lets kids create their own melodies for a custom track. Meditate has guided meditations and relaxation techniques, while Stories is a collection of narrated kid-specific tales.

Using the app requires allowing a device into your child’s room at night. And while parental controls allow you to manage restrictions, some parents may not want the added distraction. That said, you must subscribe to this app in order to use it. Rates are $9.99 monthly or $49.99 for a yearly one.

With over 100 million users worldwide, Calm is an extremely popular mindfulness app dedicated to relaxation, meditation, and sleep. Its extensive library of sounds includes "sleep stories," exclusive music, nature sounds, soundscapes, and guided meditations.

Sleep stories are narrated by celebrities like Harry Styles and Regé-Jean Page. Music includes exclusive-to-the-app remixes by pop musicians, like Ariana Grande and Katie Perry. Calm’s numerous celeb appearances definitely make it a welcomed standout in the sleep app crowd.

Calm also conducts extensive research on their sounds so that your mindfulness experience is fully backed by scientific findings. But it’ll cost you, as the free version only offers a fraction of the content. A subscription fee of $14.99 monthly, $69.99 annually, or a one-time $399.99-lifetime pass will grant you full access.