This article is sponsored by Pocket Kado. Get the sleep you deserve with the free app here.
Have you had a good night’s rest? If you haven’t, you’re not alone. Quality sleep is sometimes viewed as a luxury and those who scrape by with just a few hours are lauded for it. After all, in today’s fast-paced society, who has time for eight hours of rest?
It can feel like we have so many things to do that there just aren’t enough hours in the day. But sleep is essential in ways that we may not even realize. And missing out on proper sleep can be damaging, even devastating, to your physical and mental health.
But help is at hand with Pocket Kado. This mobile app was created to give you a great night’s sleep, not just once, but every night. And it does so without any of the addictive, sleep-eroding loops that many apps feature. Thanks to Pocket Kado, when bedtime hits you’ll be reaching for your pillow, not your phone.
“Insufficient sleep is a pervasive and prominent problem in the modern 24-h society,” argues one scientific study. But the consequences go beyond tiredness, muddy thinking, and other more noticeable effects.
It “…has been linked to 7 of the 15 leading causes of death in the U.S.,” the study continues. It’s so serious that losing sleep can literally be a matter of life or death. “Sleep is essential not only for our health but for our survival,” adds Dr. Fiona Barwick.
Proper, quality sleep can aid mental health, reduce the risk of heart disease, improve concentration, and more. But if you’re locked into a poor sleep pattern, you may not even know that’s what you need.
“Many people walk through their lives in an underslept state, not realizing it,” explains sleep scientist Matthew Walker, “Human beings are the only species that deliberately deprive themselves of sleep for no apparent gain.”
So how much sleep do you actually need? Some studies say that you should get between seven and nine hours of sleep a night. But as with a lot of things, quality is just as important as quantity. It may be that you’re settling down for eight hours but insomnia leaves you staring at the ceiling. Whatever your sleep situation, Pocket Kado can help.
Pocket Kado helps enhance sleep quality and break the phone addiction that’s known to be a barrier to proper sleep. Available on Android and iOS, Pocket Kado employs a range of sleep-boosting strategies, CBT techniques included, all wrapped up in the most adorable virtual pet.
Unlike some virtual pets, Kado, the app’s animated koala, won’t have you tapping away at your phone every five minutes. Instead, Kado’s own routine will mirror yours. By ensuring that they’re sleeping properly, you’re reinforcing your own ‘correct’ sleep pattern.
That, in turn, gives you rewards – Dream Miles – that you spend on keeping Kado happy. We’ve been using Pocket Kado and it’s surprising just how well it works. Yes, we know we’re being trained by an app but we don’t have the heart to disappoint Kado.
Pocket Kado’s effectiveness is no accident. The app is a passion project for developer Revery Labs, whose co-founders quit their jobs to build it. CEO Khoa Tran was spurred into action when they heard the executive of a mental health app pushing sleep-eroding strategies.
“There are a lot of smart people working to keep people on their phones and not many working to help people put them down,” Tran explains. Developing the app, Revery initially found that conventional mobile gaming tactics had ‘players’ coming back but it didn’t help with sleep.
So they consulted three medical advisors, doctors who still work with Revery today, and went back to the drawing board. The result was an app that’s not only beneficial to sleep, it’s also fun. Factoring in that smartphones themselves can impact sleep, it encourages you to put yours down well before bed. And every one of its features has solid, well-researched CBT-thinking behind it.
Forget dry, text and tip-based apps, Pocket Kado’s helps establish a regular sleep routine that could offer real health benefits. And how could you say no to that fuzzy little face? Download Pocket Kado on iOS and Android free today and start getting the sleep you deserve.
