Wide Awake

Do you find yourself wide awake in the middle of the night? Wide Awake allows you to preselect a list of media you would like to listen that will help you take your mind off your worries so you can go back to sleep. Use day mode to update and select your media, use night mode to run your playlist without making you more awake.

How do I use it?

1. Sync your iPhone/iPod/iPad with iTunes to download the latest versions of your media.

2. Open Wide Awake.

3. Click the light switch to go to day mode so you can see all the controls.

4. Click the "+" button in the lower left to open the media list. You can delete and rearrange your media here.

5. Click the "Add Media" button in the lower left to select new media.

6. Click "Done" when you are done selecting media.

7. Navigate back to the Home page using the navigation bar when you are done with the media listing page.

8. When you are happy with the night's selection of media, click the light switch to turn on night mode. This mode is very minimal with red lighting that's good for night vision. This mode is designed so you won't be more awake from the usual bright white light of the display. Now you can turn off the app. You can still select between the clock and timer views from here.

9. When you wake up, just turn on the app. You can start your first podcast, audio book, etc. by touching the clock/timer display. If you elected to use the timer from the preferences page, the timer will count down and the media will stop playing when the timer expires.

That's it. I've found listening to podcasts to be very effective in distracting my mind from whatever mental chatter woke me up in the first place. When I start drifting off and no longer remember what was being said in the podcast, I know I'm ready to go back to sleep!