Calm Ratings and Reviews

Great app, use it every night

I love the Calm app! I stumbled upon a television commercial about it a few years ago and decided to give it a try. I have had trouble falling asleep for years, and was honestly skeptical that an app would put me to sleep. Boy was I wrong! I love the different options - sleep stories, music, meditation - each one is interesting, and while I can’t say I’ve managed to get to end of a story…well that’s the point. I’m out within five minutes. I’ve read some reviews about the expense - here’s the thing - what is your sleep and a relaxed mindset worth to you? Divide that annual cost by 365 and you’re paying a pittance for your health. Check back around the holidays - the makers of Calm run specials sometimes that make it even more worthwhile. I had just renewed my annual fee two summers ago, when an end of year special came around. It was a lifetime subscription that was going to save hundreds of dollars over the years. I knew I wouldn’t get the remainder of my annual fee (8 months left) refunded if I jumped on the lifetime subscription, but it was still worth the jump. This is a must have app.

*App makers - please put the sleep check-in back! With the latest update it is gone, and it was something that really helped understanding factors that affect sleep.

Developer Response ,

Thanks for the wonderful review! And, fear not, Sleep Check-ins are still available ;)

On your Calm app's home screen, scroll down to the "Quick & Easy" section. Then, scroll through the options to the right until you find "How did you sleep?"

If you have any further trouble getting to your Sleep Check-ins, please reach out to our support team at www.calm.com/contact - they'd be happy to help you out!

So relaxing and amazing

I absolutely love love love this app!!!!♥️ once I could not go to sleep so I turned on some of the calm music and I fell asleep 10 minutes later. I was amazed. I have been getting better sleep since than. Also whenever I am feeling stressed or anxious about someone or something, I listen to one of the daily calms or the next day on the meditation trial. Right away it’s as if you were brought into some beautiful relaxing world where there are these voices saying “It will be ok no matter what. This will pass.” And it does its amazing how calming and peaceful this app is. Next, mood check in. The mood check in helps me express and release good and bad feelings and thoughts. Enjoy the good ones and let go of the bad ones. It even gives you a chance to write a little about them. It’s like your own personal diary, but way better. Last but definitely not least, I Believe this app can make you a better person. To be happier, to live life longer. It can be a real life changer. And just know that it’s never to late to start fresh again. It’s never to late to change yourself. But most of all, it’s never to late lo be the big change in the world, that you have wished for. And calm can help with all of that. This is a total recommendation for anyone.

Sleep, anxiety, & life saver all in one app

Honestly, I had come to a point in my life where I insomnia and anxiety were at an all time high , I was on anxiety meds, sleep meds, anything they could do to try & get my anxiety and insomnia under control & even when the pills weren’t really helping, I decided to try this app out because even doctors had recommend it, while yes- price tag can seem like a lot, BUT I used this one night while my anxiety was setting in and I was asleep half way through the sleep story and when I woke in the morning I was in disbelief. Nothing, I mean nothing had helped me until I found this app. The meditation & sleep stories are amazing. I am so grateful for this app. Now, the only reason I didn’t give it 5 stars would be due to a recommend I have for the creators, they should create a watch or something that can track your sleep & in the morning provide meditations, music, sleep stories that reflected how you slept the night before. For example, if someone woke up a lot, or of people were waking up frequently and having a hard time going back to sleep & maybe making suggestions for a meditation they could choose that one as more personal, or for anxiety with sleep or sleeplessness, things like that. I don’t know that would be my only recommendation, but overall and amazing app that’s worth the price.

Pls read

Dear calm,

I have had your app since my middle school years. I’ve got to say, your app was AMAZING with 15 sleep stories and 2 and 1/2 meditations, this wasn’t a problem for me because I also use headspace. Yes, they're your competition but I wasn't choosing sides. Anyways, over time you guys added feature that you really focused on for 2 weeks at a time and just gave up on it. Next, you decreased the amount of sleep stories which was ha a huge problem for me because I was NOT getting enough sleep to keep my grades up. It got so bad that I stole my mother's phone just to sleep (she Had the Premium subscription). So I was like, ”ok, I'll just use headspace ONLY for sleep and calm for meditation. Then, you took away the 7 days of calm AKA: YOUR MAIN TRIAL AND ONLY TRIAL MEDITATION LEFT after you premiumfied the 7 days of something (forgot). I mean like BRU, I have other options. I started using headspace which is a great alternative if you don't have much money. I recommend bringing back some stuff from premium and reduce the price. To counteract this, put one 15 second ad at the beginning. Of every session of meditation for people without premium. Therefore, there is more than one reason to get it and it's CHEAPER. That's a win-win situation. I hope you come to the right decision. Whatever it is, I probably wouldn't stop using the app. Thank you for your time.

Great App-Needs a few little tweaks

Calm has great stories, meditations and more. I love it and have the full version. I love Anna Acton, Eric Braa, and other soothing voices. Some of them, however, are just a bit...jarring. I know everyone has different tastes but I like to listen to voices directing me during meditation or towards sleep that don’t jump out at me. Please, Calm, add more voices like Eduardo Ballerini, Ramon Tikaram, Chiké Okonkwo, May Charters and Jerome Flynn. Cillian Murphy is a great guest sleep story teller but please don’t just use celebrities because of name value. They don’t all make good storytellers/meditation guides. Some write the stories and I am grateful to those who come up with such wonderful sleep stories for adults. The ones that travel back in time, especially aboard old trains are outstanding! Just curate the voices a little better because some of us are too sensitive to the nuances of voice to listen to many of the meditations/stories. That’s kind of a waste. I end up listening to the same ones over and over. Please make the sleep stories at least 35 minutes, too. For those of us who need longer to drift away.
Finally, since you are now making playlists, how about one that is just long train stories? Thanks so much!

App is in accessible for blind user, buttons unlabeled

Hello, I really like the content on your app and it has really helped me to develop my practice. However because of the issues described in the title I probably will no longer subscribe to calm next year. I am blind, and use the screen reader voiceover. I can play the videos for the content well enough with play pause, fastforward but the biggest barrier I am facing is that the mountains which you tap on in the for you tab to bring up the settings are unlabeled. I was trying to turn off the babbling Brook sound, accessible apps need to have text labels to accompany any clickable items. I would love to resubscribe once you have resolved these issues, buttons for the mood check-in feature are also unlabeled or nonexistent. The box breathing technique does not speak anything aloud or refresh on its own. A better way to accomplish that might be to use a metronome with 44 times signature. I am happy to speak to a developer more about my feedback and suggestions for how to resolve these issues, but I think that especially since healthcare providers are starting to recommend your service to their users, many of them who use Medicaid and Medicare and are disabled the app absolutely should be more accessible. Thank you for your timely consideration and namaste. I look forward to working with you in making the meditation community more inclusive.

The best way to calm anxiety

I’m a 19 y/o college student that suffers from an anxiety disorder. I feel anxious most of the time and when things to actually feel anxious about present themselves it can be absolutely debilitating for me physically and emotionally.
However calm allows me to find hope in my current predicaments, and is amazing at calming me down. I really enjoy the soundscapes and meditation but my favorite thing is definitely the sleep story’s.
Listening to a bedtime story made for little kids mostly is really strangely therapeutic. There are more adult options but give the kiddy one’s a try. I feel like I’m one of the last demographics that these sleep story’s would reach but they make me feel more secure and able to connect back to the security of childhood.
But anyways I highly recommend this app, the subscription is a bit pricey but the quality isn’t matched anywhere else. Falling asleep, calming down, feeling secure, and gaining more confidence & hope have all been easy and peaceful to do with this app. I’ve been falling asleep with my headphones on every night so I can listen to this without disturbing my roommate. But I feel like he would enjoy it too.
After just the first day of the free trial I’m hooked.

Great, but limited content, needs more

This app has really changed how well I sleep. And for that I am truly grateful to the developers. They definitely deserve all the accolades the app has been receiving. I do have one major criticism thought that I wish I could get them to pay attention to at this time. They apps content is very limited in comparison to other similar apps. The major area of limitation is the sleep stories section. There are only a handful of sleep stories that can not even get you through a month of nights without having to listen to the same stories over and over again. Many users I know are focusing in on the sleep stories section because they work. However, all have the same complaint as I do; just not enough stories and having to listen to the same stories over and over again. Hey for little kids, this particular flaw is fine. Heck, I have read the Fantastic Mr. Fox to my youngest literally over a 100 times to get him to sleep. For us adults, the developers of calm need to realize we need more variety in our sleep stories. If this app only had more, I would be elated to change my rating to 5 out of 5 stars without a days hesitation.

Great but needs more voices

I love this app and use it all the time. Loads of new content added constantly. The length of the meditations is perfect. I love the series like 7 days of calm, 7 days of sleep, etc. the breathing exercises are so helpful.

One area for improvement would be that currently most of the meditations, especially new content, is narrated by the same woman. It would be really helpful if these same sessions were recorded with a male voice, so listeners could have an option. It would also be helpful if there were a more diverse selection of voices throughout the meditations. (This is done in the master classes and sleep stories, but I’d like to see it in the meditations too). A second area would be a review of the content of the gratitude meditations, which make assumptions and are therefore injurious for some listeners. For example I am in the middle of fighting a long term disease. Suggestions like you should be grateful for your health are not helpful and actually harmful for me. I’d really like to cultivate more gratitude but I can’t get through any of these meditations without being triggered. A review by someone working with diverse populations could help this.

Other than this, I love the app. It has been designed so well and my mental health has improved dramatically since starting to use it. Highly recommended!

It will help you through sleepless nights - worth the annual membership

I originally received a Calm membership for a year through Verizon and mostly knew it as a meditation app. I would probably give the meditation side of the app 3 stars. It has variety and guided options but if you are a meditator, it isn’t very helpful. The search feature also isn’t useful. I look for sound meditation with chimes at various times depending on how long I would like to meditate. And if I want a guided meditation, I want to be able to search by length, not topic. But all that being said, the sleep story side of this app is 5 stars. It has saved me from sleepless nights and eased me back to sleep when I’ve woken in the night due to anxiety and illness. While I don’t use it every night, when I do, I am asleep within minutes. On nights when I’m having a hard time sleeping, one to two will ease me to sleep. There’s great variety from fiction to nonfiction, different types of narrators, and different journeys from walking through a bookstore to riding a train to taking a trip to space. I highly recommend the paid version for these sleep stories. I’ve even enjoyed some of the children’s versions!