[App Friday] Sleeping troubles? Pzizz helps eliminate insomnia with dreamscape

Before entering the digital age, falling asleep was easy. But the constant presence of blue light from smartphones, combined with the increasing pressures of work and study, has upended our biological cycles of sleep.

The COVID-19 pandemic has compounded the situation with anxiety, depression and uncertainty due to lockdowns adding to insomnia.

According to a study published in the National Center for Biotechnology Information, one in two adults report not sleeping well. Around 57% of people in India reported poor sleep quality, up from 31% before the pandemic.

Such a lack of sleep could lead to low mood, underproductivity and lethargy, among other things, while the long-term effects could be even worse.

Founded in 2015 to solve this problem, Pzizz The app uses Dreamscape which combines “psychoacoustics” with storytelling to soothe the mind. The app currently has over five lakh downloads and wear a three star rating on google play storewith eminent personalities such as author JK Rowling and NBA (National Basketball Association) player Roy Hibbert counting among its users.

How it works

The app can be downloaded from Google Play Store and Apple App Store.

When downloading, Pzizz gives you the option to register using your email address or start using the app as a guest.

The navy blue and gold user interface is easy to use. On the app’s home screen, users can set reminders for bedtime, nap time, and tune-up sessions. This writer chose bedtime because the app was used to see if she was actually falling asleep.

Once you set your bedtime reminder, the app also asks you what time you want to wake up in the morning. It acts as an alarm.

After these selections, the application fades into a page containing a short quote. For this writer, the quote was: “The cold is calm, a peaceful cacophony. No thought can move here. The quotes are designed to calm you down instantly.

It also plays an audio clip of a woman’s voice guiding you through the relaxation process. The background music consists of instrumental music and the sounds of crashing waves – all meant to calm you down.

If you follow exactly what the audio says, you will surely fall asleep.

You can also pause the audio by clicking the pause button at the bottom of the page. You also have the option to change the voice of the person and the music in the background. If you don’t want the music or voiceover to stay on, you can change the setting.

In addition to helping you sleep at night, Pzizz also helps take take naps and do focused meditation. While these might not seem like the best use cases for the app, they’re great if you’re having a really hectic day and just want to rest your head.

Verdict

Pzizz has an extremely simple login process and the user interface is also simple to serve the purpose of relaxed sleep.

The color combinations are also extremely soothing, as are the voices in the audio clip. Having the ability to change the voiceover and background music helps eliminate the monotony of falling asleep with the same voice every day.

Pzizz also has a timer, which can be adjusted to turn off narration and background score. This allows a user to wake up only when the alarm goes off the next morning. But other than that, you’d definitely be dozing off in less than 20 minutes of app usage.

It was also featured in Healthline’s “Best Insomnia Apps” for 2018 and 2019.