Like other young urban office workers, Cao faces pressure at work, and falling asleep is always difficult. Sometimes, he lies awake until 2 am, even if he goes to bed at around midnight.

He now uses two apps to help him sleep better.

"These two have more or less some effect on me," Cao says. "But the others I've tried all proved to have exaggerated their effectiveness in their sales pitch."

However, medical experts caution that the sleepless need to consider the overall benefits before using the apps.

Nothing to snore at

"There is limited data on the value of such apps," says Guo Xiheng, director of the sleep and breathing center at Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, and a council member of the Chinese Sleep Research Society.

"I believe they work more as distraction and may have more of a placebo effect."

Guo says the distracting ability of such apps is just soft music or simple, monotonous repeated sounds.

"Even if those apps are as useful as they claim, I don't think it is wise to use them," Guo says.

"Having cell phones on the bed exposes people to an electromagnetic field at close quarters and no one can say if this exposure will not cause a health risk."

Contact the writer at liuzhihua@chinadaily.com.cn.

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