CONT
SLEEP is a deep, steady noise with a soft, distant river. For about 15 minutes a breeze rises and falls six times a minute, slowing toward five, so you can breathe along: the slow pace that helped people with insomnia fall asleep faster in a 2015 study. Over 30 minutes the tone darkens and the level eases down 3 dB. After that nothing changes, because sudden changes in sound are what tend to wake people. It dissolves over the last five minutes of the timer. It starts on 1h, a cautious default: a 2026 sleep-lab study of healthy adults found that all-night pink noise shortened REM sleep. Choose 8h only if you need it to cover noise, and consider earplugs, which protected sleep best in that study.
MEDITATE is a singing bowl session modeled on a 2023 randomized trial, with bowls at the trial’s four pitches (about 99, 220, 465 and 927 Hz). One bowl opens the session. Then the small, high bowls lead and the larger, lower bowls join over the first few minutes, the order the trial used. Each bowl keeps ringing as the next one sounds, as real bowls do, and nothing else plays. When the timer ends, the bowl sounds three times and the session fades to silence.
CALM is five minutes of cyclic sighing, guided by slow ocean waves. Breathe in as a wave rises (IN), take a short second sip of air as it crests (SIP), then breathe out slowly as it washes back (OUT). The readout shows each step and the needle follows the wave. Then the waves return to their own slow rhythm and carry on.
Programs keep your VOLUME. The other knobs keep working too. TONE shifts the noise from deep to bright, as in the presets, and in SLEEP and MEDITATE it also darkens or brightens the river, breeze and bowls. NOISE, RAIN, SURF and DRONE set their own layers; in CALM, SURF is the waves themselves. Choosing a preset leaves the program and recalls that preset, volume included. While a timer is fading out, changing the timer or choosing a program or preset brings the sound back up.
The programs follow the research, but the studies tested real bowls and breathing exercises, not this app. Singing bowls: in a 2023 randomized trial with 50 anxious adults, a music therapist’s 50-minute session with four bowls raised heart-rate variability (a sign of relaxation) more than progressive muscle relaxation or sitting quietly, and its drop in anxiety was the largest. In a 2014 study, 12 minutes of a singing bowl before a guided relaxation lowered heart rate and systolic blood pressure more than 12 minutes of silence. A 2025 review of 19 studies calls the evidence promising but preliminary: the trials were small, and listeners always knew which session they had. Breathing: slow breathing calms the body, and five minutes a day of cyclic sighing, with its long exhale, lifted mood more than mindfulness meditation in a 2023 Stanford trial. Sleep: SLEEP keeps the sound steady, with no sudden changes, and gives a slow breathing pace at bedtime. Everything is synthesized live, so nothing loops: the bowls are modeled on the way metal bowls ring, and the waves, river and breeze are shaped noise. No program uses binaural beats or so-called healing frequencies, because the evidence for them is inconsistent; MEDITATE’s pitches simply match the bowls the trial used.
Studies: singing bowl trial (2023) · singing bowl vs. silence (2014) · singing bowl review (2025) · cyclic sighing (2023) · paced breathing and insomnia (2015) · pink noise, earplugs and sleep (2026) · binaural beats review (2023)
The NOISE bed is steady broadband sound that masks disruptive noise; TONE shifts it from deep/brown to balanced/pink. RAIN and SURF add slow, predictable natural texture with no sudden transients. DRONE is a quiet low tone used purely for comfort, with no entrainment, binaural, or “miracle frequency” claims.
If you’re sensitive to sound, start with Sensory‑Simple (one steady sound) and add layers only if they help. Layered sound can become overstimulating. Presets and programs glide into each other over about two seconds instead of switching abruptly. If your device is set to reduce motion, the needle stays still, and CALM still shows each breathing step in words.
Set the volume so the sound is almost forgettable, especially overnight. Low volume and amber light are easier on sleep. Playback is built to continue when you switch apps or lock the phone and to show up in your lock‑screen controls, though some phones and browsers may still stop it. Pausing there holds your place, including the program and the timer, and Play picks up where you left off. If an iPhone stops answering lock‑screen Play after a long pause, open STILLPOINT and tap POWER. POWER itself still fades out gently. DIM darkens the panel for bedside use and, while sound is playing, keeps the screen awake where the browser allows it.
This is not medical treatment. Stop if you notice distress, headache, ear pain, or agitation. In a mental‑health emergency, contact local emergency services or a crisis line.