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AutoSleep vs. RISE Sleep App: Which One to Choose?

Published
2024-05-08
Updated
Written by
Jeff Kahn
Reviewed by
Dr. Chester Wu
Image showing AutoSleep vs. the RISE sleep app

What You Need to Know

  • RISE vs. AutoSleep Metrics: RISE focuses on the two key metrics that research shows make the biggest difference—sleep debt and circadian alignment—while AutoSleep also tracks sleep debt, though less accurately, and includes additional metrics like time spent in different sleep stages and its own sleep rating, which may be interesting but not as impactful.
  • Personalized Advice: RISE provides personalized advice based on how much sleep you need, while AutoSleep lets you set your own sleep goal and offers some features to help improve your sleep, though with less tailored guidance.
  • Compatibility and Features: RISE works without a wearable and can pair with devices like Apple Watch, Garmin, Fitbit, or Oura Ring, whereas AutoSleep works best with an Apple Watch. You can use both apps together, as RISE can pull sleep data from AutoSleep for additional insights.

AutoSleep and RISE are both popular sleep-tracking apps, so which one should you choose? Both track your sleep, but they focus on different metrics and offer very different features.

RISE gives you personalized advice to help you improve your sleep and energy, but you can pair it with AutoSleep if you’d like insights from both apps.

Below, we’ll compare AutoSleep and RISE to help you find the best sleep tracker for you.

Buyer’s Guide: What to Look for in a Sleep Tracker?

Ask yourself these questions when comparing sleep apps and devices:

  • Does the app or device track the right metrics? If you’re looking for better sleep and more energy — probably the reason you want to track sleep to begin with! — you’ll want to track the specific metrics that have a proven impact on these outcomes when improved. Those are sleep debt (how much sleep you owe your body) and circadian alignment (how in sync you are with your circadian rhythm). Look for sleep trackers that focus on these metrics and work them out accurately.
  • RISE accurately works out your sleep debt and predicts your circadian rhythm by working out how much sleep you personally need and using sleep science algorithms. AutoSleep uses a self-set sleep goal to work out sleep debt, so it’s probably not accurate, and it doesn’t give you much useful information about your circadian rhythm.
  • Does the app or device help you improve those metrics? You probably want to do something with your sleep data to improve your nights and days. Look for a tracker that gives you daily personalized guidance to help you improve your sleep and energy levels.
  • RISE gives you daily personalized advice to help you lower your sleep debt and get in sync with your circadian rhythm, so you feel more energy day to day. AutoSleep doesn’t give you much personalized guidance.
  • Does the app or device come with any other useful features? You might want a smart alarm, sleep sounds, a recommended bedtime, or the ability to sync with wearable devices.
  • RISE has a smart alarm, sleep sounds, recommended sleep times, and it syncs with wearables. AutoSleep pulls health metrics from Apple Watch like your heart rate and temperature.
  • How much does the app or device cost? Beyond the price tag, compare free trial periods, subscription models, and whether you need to buy a wearable to make the sleep tracker work.
  • RISE costs $69.99 a year, which works out at $5.83 a month. There’s a seven-day free trial. AutoSleep costs $7.99 plus the cost of an Apple Watch to access all the features. There isn’t a free trial.
  • Does the app or device have good reviews? Compare user reviews, industry awards, and recognitions.
  • RISE has thousands of five-star reviews and industry awards and recognitions. AutoSleep also has five-star reviews and awards.
  • Do you need a wearable to use the app or device? For some trackers to work, you’ll need to use a wearable. Consider the price, battery life, and whether you want to sleep with a device on. If not, look for a tracker that gives you the choice of tracking your sleep with a wearable or through your phone.
  • RISE can track your sleep through your phone or sync with a wearable if you have one. You’ll need an Apple Watch to access all of the AutoSleep features.

We’ve covered the best non-wearable sleep trackers here.

AutoSleep vs. RISE: What Do They Track?

Here’s what sleep metrics AutoSleep and RISE track and how they compare.

Sleep Debt

Sleep debt is the amount of sleep you owe your body. Lowering your sleep debt can improve everything from your energy and productivity to your mood and overall health.

Sleep debt is worked out by comparing how much sleep you get to how much sleep you need.

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AutoSleep tracks your sleep debt, but it uses a sleep goal you set for yourself. Most of us don’t know how much sleep we personally need — it’s not eight hours for everyone! — so this sleep debt tracking is probably inaccurate and not that useful.

The app tracks your sleep through your phone use or via an Apple Watch. But you won’t get many AutoSleep features if you don’t have an Apple Watch.

RISE tracks your sleep debt using your unique sleep need — the amount of sleep you genetically need. RISE works out your sleep need using a year’s worth of your phone use behavior and sleep science algorithms.

Sleep needs can vary quite a bit. Among 1.95 million RISE users aged 24 and up, we found sleep needs ranged from five hours to 11 hours 30 minutes. So you can see why it would be tricky to accurately guess your own sleep need.

The RISE app can tell you how much sleep you need.
How much sleep RISE users need.

RISE then tracks your sleep duration via:

  • Tappigraphy: Phone use, which may be more than movement tracking for some sleepers.
  • Acoustic sleep monitoring: Sound from your phone's microphone.
  • Mattress-based actigraphy: Movement from your phone’s accelerometer.
  • Data from wearables: RISE syncs directly with Apple Watch, Garmin, Fitbit, or Oura Ring and indirectly with trackers like Whoop. Don’t worry if you forget to wear your wearable device, RISE will automatically use tappigraphy.

RISE then calculates your sleep debt over the last 14 nights, giving you an accurate representation of how sleep debt from previous nights can affect today’s energy levels. You can also add in any naps you take for an accurate sleep debt number.

We’ve covered more on the best sleep debt tracking apps here, including RISE and AutoSleep.

RISE app screenshot showing how much sleep debt you have
RISE calculates your daily sleep debt.

Circadian Alignment

Your circadian rhythm is your internal body clock. It interacts with the timing of light and food to optimize your bodily functions, regulating your sleep schedule and affecting when your energy levels naturally fluctuate across the day.

Circadian alignment is when you sync your daily activities (such as when you get and avoid light, sleep, eat, and exercise) with that internal rhythm. One of the best ways to get in sync is by sleeping on a regular schedule at the right times for your body. This can not only help you get a good night’s sleep, it can improve your energy, health, performance, and productivity.

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AutoSleep tracks a few metrics related to your circadian rhythm, like sleep consistency, but it doesn't give you any information about your circadian rhythm as a whole to help you plan your day.

It gives you a recommended bedtime based on your self-set sleep goal and usual wake time. You’ll also get a readiness score to gauge your energy levels. This is based on your heart rate variability (HRV) and waking pulse.

This readiness score is static and doesn’t reflect how your energy levels can change across the day. And as it’s based on a combination of HRV and your heart rate, it can be hard — if not impossible — to know what to do in your daily life to improve it. Plus, you have to wear an Apple Watch to get this score.

RISE predicts your circadian rhythm based on your recent sleep times, inferred light exposure, and algorithms built on the SAFTE model developed by the US Department of Transportation and the Department of Defense.

You’ll see:

  • When your body naturally wants to go to sleep and wake up
  • When your energy levels will rise and fall across the day and by how much
  • When you should wind down for bed, sleep, focus on deep work, and take a break or a nap

Sync up with these times for more energy, productivity, and better sleep and overall health. You can also use these insights to shift the timing of your circadian rhythm to fix your sleep schedule, get over jet lag, or become a morning person.

RISE also gives you an Energy Potential score from zero to 100. This is based on your sleep debt, so you know exactly how to improve it — catch up on sleep to get more energy.

Learn more about how RISE predicts your circadian rhythm here.

RISE app screenshot showing your energy peak and dip times
RISE predicts your daily circadian rhythm.

Time Spent in Sleep Stages

Sleep stages include light sleep, deep sleep, and rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep. Many sleep apps track the amount of time you spend in each stage each night.

At first glance, this sounds like a useful feature. But, unfortunately, it’s a little misunderstood.

The amount of time you spend in different sleep stages doesn’t make that much of a difference to how you feel during the day. There are no set guidelines for how long you should spend in each stage, and — just like sleep need — the ideal amount of time will be different for everyone and it changes from one night to the next for a variety of reasons.

What’s more, shows sleep trackers — including wearables — aren’t that accurate at determining which sleep stage you’re in. Sleep experts aren’t perfect, either. In polysomnography (sleep studies), experts only agree on results of the time.

You don’t need to worry, though. Getting enough sleep for you on a regular schedule (low sleep debt and circadian alignment) will ensure you get enough of each sleep stage.

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AutoSleep tracks the amount of time you spend in different sleep stages by tracking your movement and heart rate through your Apple Watch. It can also pull sleep stage tracking data directly from Apple Watch.

There are default goals for how much of each sleep stage you should get and you can change these yourself.

RISE doesn’t focus on the amount of time spent in different sleep stages. Instead, RISE helps you get enough sleep on a regular schedule and build healthy sleep habits, so you spend the optimal amount of time in each sleep stage for you.

But if you have an Apple Watch, RISE can pull sleep stage data into the app so you can see when you were in different sleep stages throughout the night, if it’s something you’re interested in.

Learn why you don’t need to track deep sleep and REM sleep here.

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Sleep Quality

You’ve probably noticed that many sleep apps and devices track sleep quality, but just like with sleep stages, it’s a bit of a misunderstood metric.

There isn’t an agreed-upon definition for . The sleep score you get from an app is based on a proprietary scoring system and several different metrics. This score might not impact how you feel each day, and — even if it did — it can be hard to know how to improve it as so many metrics go into the final score.

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AutoSleep tells you how much “quality sleep” you got each night. This amount, in hours and minutes, is estimated from your sleep duration, how restless your sleep was, and your sleeping heart rate.

The app also gives you a Sleep Rating score from zero to 100. This is based on your sleep duration, sleep quality, deep sleep, and average heart rate. If the app pulls data from your Apple Watch, time spent in REM will also go into this score. You can set your own goal for what score you’d like to reach.

RISE doesn’t give you a sleep quality score. But you can track sleep quality yourself. shows how you feel about your sleep can impact your well-being, so you can self-rate sleep quality in the RISE app.

Heads-up: Concerned about sleep disorders? Metrics like the amount of time spent in sleep stages and sleep quality can’t help diagnose sleep disorders like sleep apnea and insomnia. Sleep debt can be a useful metric to show your doctor, though, as it shows sleep loss over time. AutoSleep pulls data about your blood oxygen levels from Apple Watch. This can help a doctor detect signs of sleep apnea.

How Do AutoSleep and RISE Improve Your Sleep and Energy?

Sleep data is all well and good, but you’re probably here because you want to see a difference in your sleep and energy levels.

Here’s how AutoSleep and RISE can help.

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AutoSleep doesn’t give you much personalized guidance on how to get more sleep or energy.

But it can:

  • Give you a recommended bedtime based on your self-set sleep goal and typical wake-up time
  • Track your sleep consistency to encourage you to keep a regular sleep pattern
  • Record notes you manually add to a night of sleep — e.g. you can note if you had alcohol or have a cold to see how these factors impact your sleep

Heads-up: AutoSleep encourages "banking” extra sleep, or getting more sleep than you need ahead of a time when you know you’ll miss out on sleep. But most sleep researchers don’t believe this is possible as you’re probably just paying back sleep debt you already have.

RISE has tools to help you lower your sleep debt and get in sync with your circadian rhythm and it gives you personalized daily guidance to make it easier.

Here’s how RISE helps:

  • 20+ sleep hygiene notifications: These are the sleep habits that help you fall asleep faster and wake up less often in the night. RISE will tell you the best time to do 20+ sleep hygiene habits based on your circadian rhythm each day. Learn when to stop drinking coffee, when to avoid alcohol, and when to get and avoid bright light.
  • Recommended sleep and wake times: See when your body wants to sleep and wake up and get a personalized bedtime based on your sleep need, chosen wake time, and sleep debt.
  • A prediction of your daily energy levels: See when your energy is expected to rise and fall and plan your day to match.
  • Sleep sounds and guided relaxation exercises: Manage anxiety and wind down faster with white noise, nature sounds, and science-backed breathing and relaxation exercises.
  • A smart alarm clock: Find out, as you’re setting your alarm, if your wake time will add to sleep debt. Get woken up with gentle noises or vibrations.

Learn why the RISE app is worth a try here.

RISE users' sleep stats
Regular RISE users get more sleep and go to bed earlier.

AutoSleep vs. RISE Other Features

Here’s how AutoSleep and RISE compare on additional features to track and improve your sleep.

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  • Pulls health metrics like your heart rate, HRV, temperature, blood oxygen, and respiration rate from Apple Watch.
  • You can view your live sleep data if you wake up in the night — although this can be pretty stressful and disruptive

RISE

  • Partner Connect: Sync up with a partner or friend to view each other's sleep debt and keep each other accountable.
  • Calendar integration: See in your calendar when your energy will be at its highest and lowest to schedule your day to match.
  • Access RISE on other devices: See RISE’s data on the app, the iPhone home screen widget, Apple Watch, or iPad.
  • Sync with wearables and sleep apps: You don’t need a wearable to use RISE. But if you have one, RISE syncs with more than just Apple Watch. The app syncs with Apple Watch, Garmin, Fitbit, and Oura Ring directly and with devices like the Eight Sleep mattress and Whoop indirectly through Apple HealthKit. You can also sync RISE with apps like Sleep Cycle and AutoSleep.

AutoSleep vs. RISE Cost

Here’s how AutoSleep and RISE compare on cost.

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AutoSleep costs a one-off payment of $7.99. Plus, there’s the cost of an Apple Watch to access all the features.

There isn’t a free trial.

RISE costs $69.99 a year, which works out at $5.83 a month.

There’s a seven-day free trial.

During this trial, you can:

  • Find out your unique sleep need
  • Find out how much sleep debt you have
  • See your daily circadian rhythm and energy predictions

Follow RISE’s personalized sleep hygiene reminders, recommended wake and bedtimes, and relaxing content for a week to see how much of a difference it could make to your sleep and energy.

We’ve found 80% of RISE users feel more energy within five days!

AutoSleep vs. RISE Reviews

Here’s what RISE users have to say about RISE compared to other sleep tracker apps:

  • “I’ve tried a few other sleep apps, but RISE doesn’t just track your sleep, it helps you improve your sleep! And it’s very accurate. After a few days I felt rested, energized, and refreshed, and didn’t need an energy drink to get going.” .
  • The best app for sleep health and well-being…ever….RISE is, far and away, the most useful app I've ever subscribed to and the features and resources it provides its users is beyond incredible.” .

And here’s what RISE users say about using RISE and AutoSleep together:

  • RISE doesn't disappoint. I tried a lot of apps related to sleep: the mundane Apple health app, Heart & Stress, HeartWatch, AutoSleep, AutoWake. AutoSleep was the best so far and I do still use that one to see sleep quality and sleep stages…RISE shows energy peaks and dips! Which helps you better understand your body and plan according to your natural rhythm to be your most productive self.” .

Beyond reviews, both Sleep Foundation and Sleep Doctor named RISE one of their best sleep apps for 2024. And Apple nominated RISE for a design award and named it an Editor’s Choice app.

AutoSleep vs. RISE: The Final Verdict

RISE is best if you want to know how much sleep you personally need and get daily guidance based on your own biology to help you lower your sleep debt and get in sync with your circadian rhythm. Improving these metrics is proven to benefit your energy levels, mood, productivity, and mental and physical health.

You can do all this with the RISE app alone or pair RISE with a wearable if you have one.

AutoSleep works well if you want a basic overview of your sleep duration and to see health metrics pulled from your Apple Watch.

RISE can pull data from AutoSleep if you’d like to pair the two apps together.

FAQs

About Our Editorial Team

Written by
Jeff Kahn
Medically Reviewed by
Dr. Chester Wu
Our Editorial Standards
We bring sleep research out of the lab and into your life. Every post begins with peer-reviewed studies — not third-party sources — to make sure we only share advice that can be defended to a room full of sleep scientists.
Updated Regularly
We regularly update our articles to explain the latest research and shifts in scientific consensus in a simple and actionable way.

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