I am generally not a huge fan of apps. While I realize this is probably because I’m still stuck with an iPod Touch and not an actual iPhone (upgrade comes this June!), I still maintain that most apps are pointless. I have better ways to waste my time. But last night, I discovered, via a friend of mine, an app that I certainly wouldn’t mind paying a dollar for. It’s called “Sleep as an Droid.” That’s (obviously) the Android version, but there’s a similar app for the iPhone called “Sleep Cycle.” The app makes your phone a smart alarm clock that wakes you up at the moment when you’ll feel the most refreshed.

The science behind the app is that of sleep cycles. Every night, you cycle from light sleep to medium sleep to deep sleep/REM sleep and back again. The cycle happens multiple times per night and typically takes about 90 minutes. It turns out that light sleep is the optimal phase in which to wake up. If your alarm clock goes off when you’re in the middle of REM sleep, you’re likely going to feel drowsy and lethargic that day even if you got your “required” eight hours. With a plain old alarm clock, you have pretty much no way to work around this problem. You can either buy a bio-alarm clock for around $200 or download a $1 iPhone app (or a $2 Android app).

These bio-alarm clocks use an accelerometer to measure your sleep cycle and wake you up at the most ideal time. When you’re in light sleep, you move around a lot, and when you’re in REM sleep, you’re in a semi-paralyzed state. So the alarm clock tracks your level of movement and doesn’t let your alarm ring in the morning until your movement levels go up.

The smart phone apps do the same thing for a fraction of the price. Before you go to sleep at night, you set your desired wake up time and how long before or after that time you’ll let the app wake you up (a 30 minute time window, for example). Leave your phone on and plugged in overnight, and set it under or near your pillow. All night long, the app will track your levels of movement and, when morning comes, it will wake you up during your light sleep phase if at all possible. If it has to wait until 7:20 to go off even though you set your alarm for 7:10, it will.