SleepSync
Participant hub

Welcome to the SleepSync trial.

Sleep advice built around the shifts you actually work. Here's how to get the app running, what the six weeks ask of you, and how to tell us when something's wrong.

Install the app What do I have to do?
6 weeksTwo weeks of baseline monitoring, then four weeks of intervention
2 check-insOne for your sleep, one for your alertness
From week 3Your shifts go in, and recommendations begin
Step one

Get SleepSync on your phone

Pick your phone below. You'll need to use the same email address you gave us when you signed up — that's the one on the participant list, and the app won't appear on any other account.

Install with TestFlight

SleepSync is released through TestFlight — Apple's free app for beta releases. Install that first, then open the invite and it'll take you the rest of the way.

Open the TestFlight invite
Nothing to install, or the invite won't open? Testers are added one email address at a time. Send Rachael the Apple ID email you're using and she'll add you.
Keep TestFlight installed. We'll push updates through the trial, and they usually contain fixes for things participants have reported.
Step two

Sign in with your Study ID

Worth reading twice — this is how your data gets matched to you in the study, and it's the one thing that's awkward to fix afterwards.

  • Sign in with Google Use your own Google email, or the study account we created from your Study ID — it looks like DH998.sleepsync@gmail.com. Both are in your welcome email.
  • Set your username to your Study ID The code beginning with DH. Not your name, not a nickname.
  • Answer the onboarding questions They're what the app uses to work out your recommendations later on.
Your username must be your Study ID. If you've already signed up as something else, don't start over — email Rachael and she'll fix it at our end.
Can't find your Study ID or your welcome email? Check your junk folder, then email Rachael — she can resend it.
SleepSync login screen reading Lets start your sleep recovery journey, with Sign in with Apple and Sign in with Google buttons.

Choose Sign in with Google.

The study

Your six weeks, in short

The trial runs in two halves. The first two weeks are deliberately quiet — we're just watching how you sleep normally. The app starts giving advice from week three.

Weeks 1–2 · Baseline

Just your check-ins

We need a picture of your normal sleep before the app changes anything. No shifts to enter, no recommendations yet.

  • Sleep check-in — every day
  • Alertness check — at the end of each shift, or late in the day if it's a day off
For the first two weeks, this is all you need to do.
Weeks 3–6 · Intervention

Check-ins + your shifts

Keep both check-ins going, and now also put your shifts and personal commitments into the app. That's what unlocks your recommendations.

  • Sleep check-in — every day
  • Alertness check — end of shift, or end of day
  • Add your shifts and personal commitments
  • Read your recommendations on the home screen
Not sure where you're up to, or what to do about a day you've missed? Ask Rachael — she'd rather answer than have you guess.
Every day

Your two check-ins

These are the core of the trial — everything else the app does is built on top of them. Both live behind the blue + button on the home screen.

🌙 Sleep check-in

Once a day. Log the sleep you've just had — when it started, when it ended, and how it went.

Wear a smartwatch or tracker? Your sleep times may already be filled in. Please still finish the check-in — the quality questions are the part your device can't answer.

☀️ Alertness check

At the end of your shift. If it's a day off, towards the end of the day.

It's short, and it's what makes your recovery score mean something rather than being a guess.

Home screen with the blue plus button expanded, showing Alertness check, Add Sleep Check-In and Add Shift.
Both check-ins sit behind the +.
Sleep check-in screen with a 24-hour dial showing bedtime 22:30 and wake up time 08:00.
Set when your sleep started and ended.
SleepSync home screen showing a recovery score ring and recommendation cards.
Your recovery score builds from these.
From week 3

Adding your shifts

From the start of week three, your roster and your personal commitments go into the app. Everything SleepSync recommends is built off what's in here, so it's worth keeping accurate.

The Shifts screen: Morning Shift, Evening Shift and Afternoon shift chips above a March calendar with coloured dots on rostered days, and a list of today's events below.

Shift types up top, drag them onto the dates.

  • Get your roster into the Shift tab Build your shift types once — Morning, Night, whatever your roster actually uses — then put them on the days you're working.
  • Add your personal commitments too School drop-off, standing appointments, the regular stuff. These matter as much as the shifts: they're the real constraints on when you can actually sleep.
  • Keep it up to date Your recommendations come from what's on this calendar, so it's worth keeping it matched to your real roster.
About syncing your personal calendar. You can connect your own calendar instead of adding things by hand — but if you keep reminders in there, we'd suggest not syncing. SleepSync reads calendar events as shifts, so a reminder to renew your rego becomes a shift, and your recommendations go sideways.
From week 3

Your recommendations

Once your shifts are in, the home screen starts telling you what to do and when. This is the part of the app we most want your honest opinion on.

Recovery score

The ring at the top. A read on how recovered you are right now, built from the check-ins you've been doing since week one.

Recommendations today

Timed windows through your day — a caffeine window, an eating window, a sleeping window.

Pre Shift · During Shift · Post Shift

The tabs above the cards. Advice changes depending on where you are in your shift, so check the tab that matches the moment you're in.

Today

Underneath, the running order of your day — your shift plus the commitments you've added.

Nothing showing? Recommendations only appear once shifts are in — so they won't be there in weeks 1–2, and they'll be thin until your roster is entered.
Home screen showing a 76 percent recovery score ring, Recommendations today with Pre Shift, During Shift and Post Shift tabs, and Caffeine Window, Eating Window and Sleeping window cards.

Once your shifts are in.

Your eye on it

What we'd love you to notice

Nothing to tick off and no homework. But if any of these stand out while you're using the app, that's exactly the sort of thing worth telling us about.

  • Did signing up make sense?Anything you had to guess at or re-read — especially the Study ID.
  • Are the check-ins easy to keep up?How long they really take, and whether there's a time of day they're a nuisance.
  • Is logging your sleep straightforward?Especially sleeps that cross midday, naps, or sleep broken into two chunks.
  • If you wear a tracker — were its times right?And was it clear you still had to finish the check-in?
  • Do your shifts go in easily?Especially the awkward ones: split shifts, on-call, overtime, swaps, night into day.
  • Do the recommended windows fit your life?If a sleep window is laughable given your roster or your family, we want to know.
  • Does the recovery score feel right?When it says 76% and you feel wrecked, that gap is useful data.
  • Are the recommendations doable?Could you actually follow a caffeine or eating window while you're at work?
  • NotificationsToo many, too few, wrong time, arriving mid-shift or while you're asleep.
  • Anything brokenCrashes, blank screens, endless loading, wrong dates or times, text cut off.
Tell us

Every bit of feedback shapes the app

A one-line "this button confused me" is worth sending. You don't need to write a report, and there's no such thing as too small.

The easiest way — email us

Works on any phone. Attach a screenshot if you have one, and send as many as you like.

Email your feedback

On iPhone, screenshots are quickest

Screenshot whatever's bothering you and share it through TestFlight's Share Beta Feedback option — it reaches us with your device details already attached, so you don't have to explain your setup.

iPhone screenshot share sheet with the Share Beta Feedback option at the top of the menu.

It's at the top of the share menu.

If the app crashes, TestFlight may ask whether to send us the crash report — please say yes.

On Android, send it to us directly

Google Play gives testers no feedback button, so email us instead.

A screenshot, your phone model, and roughly when it happened is plenty — that's usually enough for us to find it in the logs.

A good report has three things: what you did, what you expected, and what actually happened. "I added a night shift for Saturday, expected the sleep window to move, it stayed at 10pm" is perfect.

Stuck? We've got you 🛟

If you can't install, can't sign in, or something's blocking you completely — email us. We'd much rather hear from you than have you quietly give up.

Email the team