Support

The snore and scream detectors listen through the microphone for the whole night, and both iOS and Android will suspend that kind of work in the background to save power. So in this version the detectors run inside nightstand mode: the app stays in the foreground, the screen stays awake and dimmed as a clock, and the phone sits on the nightstand. Keeping the screen and microphone on all night uses more battery than a phone can spare, which is why the app asks you to plug in. Sleep sounds are different and keep playing with the screen locked. Screen-locked monitoring is planned for a later version.

Yes. iOS shows an orange dot, and Android shows a microphone icon, whenever any app is using the microphone. While a night session runs with a detector on, SleepTight is feeding a live level meter, so the indicator stays on until you end the session. It is not recording continuously: a short clip is saved only when the sound level crosses the threshold you set, it is encrypted on the phone, and nothing is sent anywhere. If you ever see the indicator while no session is running, end the app from the app switcher and email us with your device model and OS version.

Sound from the phone's own speaker reaches its own microphone, and the detectors only know about loudness, not what a sound is. Start the rain, then watch the live level meter beside the threshold slider settle into a band, and set the slider above that band. Turning the rain volume down or letting the sleep timer fade it out before you fall asleep both help, as does moving the phone a little further from the pillow if a partner's breathing is what sets it off. In the morning, label false triggers as such in the report so the night's disturbance count stays honest.

The detectors respond to sound level, so anything quieter than the threshold at the microphone is not an event. Lower the threshold while watching the meter, and test it from the pillow at a normal volume before you sleep. Make sure the microphone is not covered: phone face up, not under a pillow or blanket, case not blocking the mic opening, and within a couple of metres of the sleeper. Rain playing loudly next to the phone raises the floor the detector has to beat, so keep it moderate. A phone across the room will miss quiet snoring, and no threshold catches everything. Neither detector is a safety device or a baby monitor.

Some Android phones stop background audio to save battery, and the makers each do it differently. Two things fix it on most phones. First, exclude SleepTight from battery optimisation: open the phone's Settings, go to Apps, choose SleepTight, then Battery, and set it to Unrestricted. Second, if your phone has an extra layer such as sleeping apps, app hibernation, or an autostart list, add SleepTight to the allowed list there too. Running the night in nightstand mode, plugged in, keeps the app in the foreground, where the system leaves it alone.

The alarm depends on the phone as much as on the app. Check that notifications are allowed for SleepTight, that the alarm volume and the ringer are up, that Focus or Do Not Disturb is not silencing it, and on Android that the alarms and reminders permission is granted and battery optimisation is off. In nightstand mode the alarm plays through the app itself; if the app was closed overnight, it falls back to a notification, which follows the phone's sound settings. If you use the smart-wake window, the alarm rings by the end of the window at the latest, not at the start. When waking on time really matters, set a second alarm on the phone's own clock. We do not want you missing a flight because an operating system decided to save power.

Clips are kept for the number of days you choose under Settings, then Detectors, then Clip retention. Older clips are deleted automatically. To delete one clip, open it from the morning report and choose Delete. To delete all of them at once, use Delete all clips in the same settings screen. Deleting a clip leaves the event in your night's timeline; it just removes the audio.

Open the clip in the morning report and tap Share. The app decrypts that one clip into a standard audio file and hands it to the phone's share sheet, where you pick the recipient: a message, an email, or a file you save. That is the only way audio leaves the phone, and the copy you send is no longer protected by the app. If someone else was in the room when it was recorded, ask them before you share it.

No one can reset it, including us. When the lock is on, the encryption key is wrapped under your PIN, and neither the PIN nor the key ever leaves your phone. If you turned on Face ID or fingerprint unlock, use that to get in, then set a new PIN under Settings. If you have an encrypted backup and its passphrase, delete the app, reinstall it, and restore from the backup. Otherwise the data cannot be recovered. The lock is off by default, and that is the trade-off that keeps your nights truly private.

Go to Settings, then Backup, then Export encrypted backup. Choose a passphrase you will remember, and decide whether to include audio clips; they are excluded by default, which keeps the file small. Save the file somewhere you control, such as your own cloud drive or a computer. On the new phone, install SleepTight, choose Import backup, pick the file, and enter the same passphrase. Your nights, tags, ratings, night-terror entries, and settings all come back. We never see the file or the passphrase.

No. SleepTight is a one-time purchase of $9.99. You own it, with free updates and no recurring charges, no account, no cloud, and no in-app purchase needed to unlock anything. The app works fully offline. A purchase on the App Store covers your iPhone, and a purchase on Google Play covers your Android phone; the two stores do not share purchases.

Go to Settings, then Export CSV. You get one row per night with time in bed, estimated sleep onset, awakenings, efficiency, disturbance, the score, your rating, and your pre-bed tags, plus a second file of detector events. The file goes through the phone's share sheet, so you can save it, email it, or open it in a spreadsheet. Audio clips are not included in the CSV; share those one at a time.

Go to Settings and choose Erase everything. This deletes the database, every clip, and the encryption key from the phone, and it cannot be undone. Uninstalling the app does the same. Since we store nothing on our side, that is all it takes to remove your data completely.