Sleep Cycle Alarm Feature
J
Jeff Noble
With Oura rings being able to accurately track sleep cycles, there should be a feature like the popular app 'Sleep Cycle'. This app allows the user to set a wake-up window (15-45minutes long) and will start playing your alarm when you are at your 'prime' to wake up. The app unfortunately calculates this through the microphone, aka listening to when you might rustle and then start playing the alarm softly, gradually getting louder. It works extremely well still, and my sleep is much better waking up within my prime window than at a specific time.
Since Oura can more accurately track sleep cycles, they should incorporate this feature. The only 'problems' people have mentioned with it is that this feature may drain the battery and that Oura only syncs with the app when the app is open. I can go weeks without opening my iOS app and all my data is still there. And by setting a wake-up 'window', 30 minutes before the phone can prompt the app/ring at the designated time, then it can send the data, and determine when to start the alarm. It doesn't have to constantly be syncing data the entire night.
Also, this feature would be something I would be okay with paying a subscription fee for. Sleep cycle is $40 a year for premium features. Many Oura ring users (and users of wearable technology in general) abhor the current subscription model which locks your data behind a paywall which should be free since the technology isn't offering you any additional services, just providing you with the data it records. Whereas a sleep cycle feature is an additional service one could argue. I still believe wearable technologies shouldn't have subscriptions at all with the high costs of the initial purchase (But I understand that model is smart business for the company to stay afloat - and the cost of Oura is much lower than say Whoop) , but including this feature is one-way Oura can provide a 'service' to the user to better justify a subscription cost if that is a permanent feature for the foreseeable future.
A
Anthony Browne
I second this 100%! This would be an incredible feature and something I think a lot of people would be willing to pay for.