Head to head
AutoSleep vs Sleep Cycle
Wrist against nightstand. That's the whole comparison, and it settles itself the moment you say whether there's a Watch on your arm or on the charger.
In short
If 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.
A Watch reads a different kind of night
AutoSleep works from an Apple Watch, so it can produce heart rate and readiness detail through the night that a phone on a nightstand simply cannot. There's no button to press, and the readouts are famously dense.
That accuracy has one condition attached: the Watch has to be on your wrist. Charge it overnight and AutoSleep has nothing.
Estimating from the room is the trade for wearing nothing
Sleep Cycle is the original phone-microphone tracker, and the appeal is that you don't have to wear or buy anything. It works from sound and movement in the room, which is enough to find patterns and time an alarm well.
What it gives you are estimates of the shape of your night, not measurements of your body. That's a fair trade, as long as nobody pretends otherwise.
It also runs on Android, so a household on two platforms can keep the same habit.
Only one of these is also your alarm
AutoSleep isn't an alarm clock, so whatever wakes you now carries on doing it. Sleep Cycle has a smart alarm window and rings inside it rather than on the dot, plus a large library of sleep aids for the falling-asleep half.
If you were hoping to replace two apps with one, that difference matters more than any accuracy argument.
Work out which side you are on before you spend anything
Watch already on your wrist most nights, and you like numbers: AutoSleep, bought once. No wearable, and you want the alarm sorted too: Sleep Cycle.
The only bad outcome is buying the Watch app for a Watch that lives on a charger.
| What we compared | AutoSleep | Sleep Cycle |
|---|---|---|
| What you need | An Apple Watch | The phone you own (stronger here) |
| How the night is read | Watch sensors, measured (stronger here) | Microphone, estimated |
| Heart rate detail | All night, from the wrist (stronger here) | Not from a microphone |
| Waking you up | Not an alarm clock | Smart alarm window (stronger here) |
| Android in the house | Apple only | Both platforms (stronger here) |
| Getting to sleep | Nothing on offer | A large library of aids (stronger here) |
| How much you are shown | Famously dense (about the same) | Lighter and more readable (about the same) |
| Years of your own history | As long as you've worn it (about the same) | Years, if you started early (about the same) |
Which one to actually install
Pick AutoSleep if
AutoSleep is the better read on the night if the Watch is already part of your routine. Hands-off, dense, bought once, and heart rate detail a phone on a nightstand can't produce.
Pick Sleep Cycle if
Sleep Cycle is the better fit if nothing is going on your wrist. It records from the nightstand, wakes you inside a window rather than on the dot, and brings a library of aids for the half of the problem that happens before you fall asleep.
Pick neither if
If you want the nightstand approach but a proper system alarm at the end of it, Tock sits there: built on AlarmKit so it rings on silent, through a Focus and with the app closed, tracking with the microphone and accelerometer, and classifying snores, coughs and sleep talking on device with the clips saved to play back. Phone-only stages are estimates, and Tock labels them that way. A 3-day trial, then from $39.99 a year.
Questions people ask
Which one is more accurate?
The Watch, without much argument. AutoSleep reads sensors on your body. Sleep Cycle infers from sound and movement in the room. That doesn't make the phone useless, it makes it an estimate.
Does AutoSleep have an alarm?
No. It isn't an alarm clock, so whatever wakes you now keeps doing it. Sleep Cycle is the one of the two with a smart alarm window.
Will Sleep Cycle work on my partner's Android phone?
Yes. It runs on both platforms, so a household can share the same habit. AutoSleep is Apple only.
What if my Watch is usually charging overnight?
Then AutoSleep has nothing to work with. Either change the charging habit or pick something that reads the room instead.
Where Tock sits against each of them
These pages are written the same way as this one, which means they state what AutoSleep and Sleep Cycle each do better than we do.
Related matchups
Other pairings involving one of these two.
- Alarmy vs Sleep CyclePick Alarmy if you sleep through alarms and need one you can't beat. Pick Sleep Cycle if you wake up on time but feel wrecked when you do, and you want a gentler window plus a record of the night.
- Apple Health Sleep vs AutoSleepIf you wear your Apple Watch to bed and want to know how long you slept, Apple's own tracking is free and already doing it. AutoSleep is for the person who wants that night pulled apart into far more detail than Apple would ever ship.
- Apple Health Sleep vs Sleep CycleIf you wear an Apple Watch to bed, Apple's built-in tracking is more accurate and costs nothing, so Sleep Cycle has to win on the alarm and the sound library instead. If you don't own a Watch, Sleep Cycle is the only one of the two that records anything.
- AutoSleep vs PillowAutoSleep suits the person who wants every number and no recurring bill. Pillow suits the person who wants the night caught automatically and presented calmly, then written properly into Apple Health.
- AutoSleep vs RiseAutoSleep is for the Apple Watch owner who wants the night in detail. Rise is for the person who has seen enough charts and wants to know why the afternoon keeps falling apart.
- AutoSleep vs SleepScoreIf an Apple Watch is already on your wrist at night, AutoSleep is the better tracker and it asks nothing of you. If you sleep bare-wristed and want to keep it that way, SleepScore is the only one of the two that can track you at all.
- Calm vs Sleep CycleIf the problem is lying awake with a busy head, Calm. If the problem is groggy mornings and having no idea what your nights look like, Sleep Cycle. Most people searching this have already decided which; they just have not said it out loud.
- Pillow vs Sleep CycleIf you wear an Apple Watch to bed, Pillow gives you measured stage data and starts itself. If you do not own a Watch, or half the house is on Android, Sleep Cycle is the sensible pick.
Elsewhere on the site
A different corner of the same problem.
- Sleep soundsPianoSlow piano gives your attention somewhere pleasant to go while you are letting go of the day, which is why it works so well as a wind-down. Every note also begins with a hammer hitting a string, and those sudden starts are exactly what keeps a light sleeper coming back up, so Tock fades it out rather than running it to your alarm.
- Tock for youStudentsYou go to bed at a different time every night, set an alarm you already know you will sleep through, and you cannot just turn the volume up because there is someone asleep two metres away.
- AlternativesTock 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.
- RoundupsThe best snoring apps, ranked by what they're forSnoreLab is the best dedicated snoring app: recording and scoring your snoring is its only job, and its remedy tracking is more deliberate than anything else here. Tock is the better pick if you want snoring in context, inside a night that also carries your sleep, your alarm and playable audio of what the room actually sounded like.
- Wake timesWaking up at 7:00amBedtimes by sleep cycle for a 7:00am alarm.
- BedtimesGoing to bed at 11:30pmWhere to put the alarm after a 11:30pm lights-out.
If neither of them is quite the alarm you wanted
Tock is built on Apple AlarmKit, so it rings on silent and through a Focus, moves earlier when it finds a lighter moment, and keeps ringing until you solve something.