Sleep Paralysis vs Narcolepsy
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side โ with what reviewers say about each.
Sleep Paralysis
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Sleep paralysis goes beyond what sleep hygiene can address. The shadow figure at the foot of the bed, the weight on your chest, the certainty that something is in the room. Then the fear that follows you into the next night. Your doctor gave you what they had. Umbral is sleep paralysis support. WHAT YOU SAW. WHAT YOU TRIED. Log an episode the way you'd actually remember it. When it happened, what position you were in, what you perceived, how afraid you were. Tap the chips, add a note, done. It takes a few seconds, and you're building a record of something no one else is tracking for you. YOUR PATTERNS What you log becomes patterns you can actually see. Whether your episodes cluster in one part of the night, whether sleep position changes what you perceive, how your fear level moves over weeks. The patterns are yours, and they're the first thing that makes the experience feel less random. EVERY TRADITION STARTS HERE Every tradition that works with threshold states of consciousness starts with the same step: grounding the nervous system. Buddhist meditation, Christian contemplative prayer, yogic breathing, Monroe's binaural audio research. Across centuries and continents, with no contact, they arrived at it independently, because it works. That convergence is the idea Umbral is built on, and it's the foundation of the practice. THE PRACTICE Sleep paralysis takes away your choice. The daily practice builds it back. Grounding trains the breathing response you'll reach for at 3am. Stillness lowers your baseline so you start further from the panic threshold, and Body Scan rebuilds the connection to your body that SP disrupts. Start with 5 minutes. As the habit builds, the 10 and 15-minute sessions bring in binaural audio that needs about 8 minutes to settle in. VOICE JOURNAL Tap the Lock Screen widget. Speak into the dark with a dimmed screen. It stops and saves after a few seconds of silence so you can fall back to sleep, and transcribes the rest. No typing, no bright screen to wake you up. WHEN YOU'RE READY People who've had sleep paralysis long enough sometimes notice something. The state they feared, mind awake and body asleep, is the same one lucid dreamers spend months training to reach. Umbral has a lucid dream session for when you get there. Delta binaural audio for sleep onset, guided intention prompts, and a Lock Screen widget that starts it in one tap at 3am. The dream recall you build carries over. WHAT THIS ISN'T Umbral doesn't cure sleep paralysis. Nothing does. It doesn't promise episodes will stop. It provides the support the medical framework wasn't built to give: tools that reach the full experience, a practice that builds your capacity to respond, and the knowledge that millions of people share what you go through.
Narcolepsy
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Living with narcolepsy means the day can turn heavy without warning. This app helps you stay ahead of it. It learns from your logged episodes when you're most likely to get drowsy during the day, and combines that pattern with live signals from Apple Watch (heart-rate variability, heart rate, sleep, daylight and activity) to estimate your current drowsiness risk โ and warn you before a high-risk window. What you can do: See your live drowsiness risk โ with a breakdown of why it's rising or falling Get an early warning before your predicted high-risk times Log sleep attacks, microsleeps, cataplexy and more in seconds Keep a clinical sleep diary โ bedtime, sleep onset, awakenings, efficiency โ auto-filled from Apple Watch sleep Track medications, including extended-release, with reminders and an intake planner Plan smart power-naps right before your dips Driving mode: tighter monitoring, earlier warnings and break reminders Export a clear report for your doctor Practical guides for everyday life with narcolepsy Private by design: Your data stays on your device. The model runs entirely on iPhone. Important: This app is a self-tracking and organization tool. It is not a medical device and does not provide a medical diagnosis. Risk estimates are guidance based on self-observation and wearable data โ not a substitute for professional medical advice. Never rely on the app alone for decisions about driving or treatment; always consult your doctor.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Narcolepsy at weekly against Sleep Paralysis's every 2 weeks. Narcolepsy also leads on device support (3 vs 1). Sleep Paralysis's advantage is iOS requirement (18.0 vs 26.4). On price, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price ยท Rating ยท Positive reviews ยท Number of ratings ยท Update frequency ยท Ads ยท In-app purchases ยท Monetization ยท Best chart rank ยท Devices ยท Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Sleep Paralysis ships an update every 2 weeks, Narcolepsy weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Sleep Paralysis | Narcolepsy |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks | Weekly โ better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch โ better |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 โ better | 26.4 |
| Further details โ not scored | ||
| Size | 153 MB | 14 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Henry Doce | TIMON SCHENKEL |
In-app purchases
Sleep Paralysis
No in-app purchases
Narcolepsy
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Sleep Paralysis free?
Is Narcolepsy free?
Do Sleep Paralysis or Narcolepsy have ads?
Which is updated more often, Sleep Paralysis or Narcolepsy?
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