Honest comparison
Where Headspace Sleep stops, Tock starts
Getting to sleep and getting out of bed are two different problems, and these two apps have each picked one. Headspace has no alarm and no tracking. Tock has no teacher.
In short
Headspace Sleep is the better choice if you want a voice walking you through a wind-down inside a proper course structure. Tock is the choice if you want the night measured from the phone and an alarm that moves into a lighter moment. Neither one covers the other.
- fall-asleep sounds
- 63fall-asleep soundsall of them wordless
- sounds layered at once
- 4sounds layered at oncesaved as your own mix
- languages
- 33languagesthe whole app, not just the menus
What Headspace Sleep does better
The sleep half of Headspace: sleepcasts, wind-down exercises and sleep music inside a broader meditation app.
- Its teaching is genuinely good, and the sleep content sits inside a course structure rather than a playlist
- Wind-down exercises with a voice guiding you, which some people need and Tock deliberately does not do
- Available on Android
Runs on iPhone, Android. Tock is iPhone only, on iOS 26 and later.
Headspace teaches, and it teaches well
Sleepcasts, wind-down exercises and sleep music sit inside a broader meditation app with an actual course structure, so the sleep content is ordered rather than just listed. For people who want to learn a skill instead of pressing play, that structure is the value.
It also runs on Android, which Tock does not.
Tock's wind-down is short, silent and gets out of the way
Six reorderable steps, Set the room, Loosen up, Let go of the day, Breathe, Set tomorrow aside and One good thing, then a 30 second drift. Short, Standard or Long. No voice unless you add sound yourself.
That is a real difference in kind. Some people need someone talking them down and Tock deliberately does not do that. If you are one of them, Headspace is the correct answer and this page is not going to argue you out of it.
The morning is where Tock is alone
Tock is built on AlarmKit, so it rings on silent, through a Focus, with the app closed. It watches the 30 minutes before your set time and rings early at a lighter moment, then asks for one of nine wake-up missions before it stops.
And it tells you what happened: a score, estimated stages, snores and sleep talking classified on device with clips you can play, plus a morning check-in. Headspace has no tracking to report on.
Sleep stages on phone-only nights are estimates. Measured stages need a wearable, which Tock reads through Apple Health.
| What we compared | Tock | Headspace Sleep |
|---|---|---|
| Guided wind-down | Silent by default, a few minutes | A voice walking you through (stronger here) |
| Structure | A coach you chat with | Courses, in order (stronger here) |
| Where it runs | iPhone only | iPhone and Android (stronger here) |
| Sound to fall asleep to | 63 wordless, generated (about the same) | Sleepcasts and sleep music (about the same) |
| The alarm | AlarmKit, rings on silent (stronger here) | No alarm |
| Tracking the night | Mic and accelerometer all night (stronger here) | None at all |
Which one you should actually pick
Pick Tock if
Pick Tock if the wind-down you want is short and wordless, and the part you actually need help with is the alarm and the morning after it.
Pick Headspace Sleep if
Pick Headspace Sleep if you want to be taught, if a voice is what settles you, or if you need it on Android. Its guided wind-downs are a thing Tock has chosen not to build.
Run both if
They stack cleanly. Headspace for the half hour before bed, Tock for the night and the wake-up.
Questions people ask
Does Tock have guided meditations?
No. The wind-down is six short steps with no narration, and the sound library has no voiceover anywhere in it. Headspace is the app for guided work.
Can Headspace wake me up in light sleep?
It has no alarm and no tracking, so no. That is the half of the night Tock handles.
Is Tock available on Android like Headspace?
No. Tock is iPhone only and needs iOS 26, because it is built on Apple frameworks that only exist there.
If Tock is not in the running
Plenty of people land here already choosing between two other apps. These go through those pairings without us in them.
Other comparisons
The same treatment, applied to the rest of the category.
- Tock vs CalmTock is not a Calm replacement and does not try to be. Calm has a narrated library with named voices and licensed music that a small team cannot match. Tock wakes you, tracks the night and tells you what happened. If falling asleep is your problem, Calm is the better buy.
- Tock vs PzizzKeep Pzizz if you nap, or if your mind needs words to hold onto while you fall asleep. Tock generates its sound too, but it has no voiceover and nothing for naps. What Tock adds is the alarm, the tracking and the morning report Pzizz does not attempt.
- Tock vs RiseChoose Rise if planning your day around energy peaks and a running sleep debt is what actually changes your behaviour. Choose Tock if you want the alarm itself to be smarter, the night recorded from the phone, and a coach that can talk about what it heard.
- Tock vs Sleep CycleSwitch to Tock if you want the alarm itself to be different: a system alarm that rings on silent and through a Focus, moved up to 30 minutes earlier into a lighter moment, with a task before it stops. Stay with Sleep Cycle if you have years of history in it, or if someone in the house is on Android.
Elsewhere on the site
A different corner of the same problem.
- BedtimesGoing to bed at 2:00amWhere to put the alarm after a 2:00am lights-out.
- Sleep by ageHow much sleep toddlers needThe American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends that children aged 1 to 2 years sleep 11 to 14 hours per 24 hours, including naps, on a regular basis. Most of that has consolidated into the night by the second birthday, with one daytime nap doing the rest.
- NapsThe 60 minute napA 60 minute nap includes a substantial amount of slow wave sleep, which is useful for recovery and for some kinds of memory, and it usually ends before the cycle completes. That means the benefit is real and the wake-up is often groggy, so it suits situations where the hour afterwards is flexible.
- Wake tonesMusic boxMusic box is Tock's slowest and most nostalgic wake tone, a thin bell-like melody that unwinds instead of alerting. It rings reliably through silent mode because Tock's alarms run on Apple's AlarmKit, but as a tone it is the weakest choice in the set for anyone who genuinely sleeps hard.
- Head to headAutoSleep vs Sleep CycleIf you already wear an Apple Watch to bed, AutoSleep reads a night that Sleep Cycle can only estimate from the room. If you don't own a Watch and don't want one, Sleep Cycle is the only one of the two that works, and it's your alarm as well.
- FeaturesSmart wakeSmart wake is a 30 minute window before your alarm in which Tock watches for a lighter moment in your sleep and rings as soon as it finds one. If it never finds one, your alarm goes off at the exact time you set.
The alarm is the part we actually rebuilt
Tock rings on silent and through a Focus because it is a system alarm, moves earlier when it finds a lighter moment, and asks for one small task before it stops.