Health & Fitness · iOS
BetterSleep: Relax and Sleep
by Ipnos Software Inc.
BetterSleep, formerly Relax Melodies, has been around since 2009 and carries real longevity credentials, including over 65 Apple App of the Day selections and 390,000 ratings averaging 4.74. The 300 MB package bundles sleep sounds, guided meditations, narrated stories, a sleep tracker, and a sleep recorder into one app. It feels like a genuine attempt to cover the full sleep cycle rather than just playing ambient noise until you drift off.
What the App Actually Delivers
The core experience revolves around layering sounds, accessing guided meditations, and listening to narrated sleep stories, all wrapped around a sleep tracker and a sleep recorder that captures audio from your night. That recorder angle is genuinely practical, giving you something concrete to review rather than just a step count. The tracker adds context to whether those sounds are actually doing anything for your rest over time.
Where Friction Shows Up
The app is free to download, but meaningful content sits behind in-app purchases. At 300 MB it is a heavy install for a sleep tool, and new users will need to sort out what is accessible without paying before committing. The rebrand from Relax Melodies also means longtime users had to re-learn a layout, which has drawn mixed reactions despite the updated design being cleaner overall.
Who Should Download It
People who want more than a white noise loop will find the combination of tracker, recorder, stories, and meditations genuinely useful in one place. It suits someone willing to invest in a subscription to unlock the full library. Casual users looking for a free ambient sound player may feel the paywall appears too quickly, but anyone serious about building consistent sleep habits has a well-maintained, frequently updated tool here.
Pros
- Combines sleep tracking, recording, sounds, and meditations in a single app
- Sleep recorder is a practical, less common feature that adds real diagnostic value
- Exceptionally long track record, active since 2009 with updates as recent as June 2025
- Nearly half a million ratings at 4.74 suggests broad, sustained user satisfaction
- Frequent updates indicate the developer is actively maintaining the product
Cons
- 300 MB is a large footprint for a primarily audio-focused app
- Free tier is limited and the paywall arrives early in the experience
- Rebrand from Relax Melodies caused a learning curve for existing users
- Claimed statistics like the 91 percent satisfaction figure come from the developer and cannot be independently verified
- Content library depth is hard to evaluate without committing to a subscription first