In the old days, if we told someone we couldn’t sleep at night, we were often told “just count sheep!” I don’t know about you, but that never really worked for me.

Luckily, technology has provided a number of better ways for us to fall asleep when our brain doesn’t want that to happen. If you have a smartphone or tablet, there are a number of great apps that can help. Let’s look at a few of them:

Calm – One of the most popular sleep apps is “Calm.” There have been more than 10 Million downloads in the Google Play Store and in the App Store, it’s rated #2 under Health and Fitness. Like most of the apps I’m going to mention today, it offers sleep stories, music and master classes to help you sleep. There’s a basic free version and there’s a Premium version which runs about $70 a year.

Pzizz – If you’re a Harry Potter fan, you might be interested in knowing that J.K. Rowling endorses this app for great sleep and rest. This app will help you sleep, nap and even focus when you need it. It’s available in both the App Store and the Google Play Store. Like Calm, there’s a free app and a paid version for $70 a year.

Noisli – The last app I’ll mention in this post is Noisli. It’s a bit different than the two I already mentioned in that it provides ambient sounds, nature, rain and white noise to help you sleep (or focus). Another way it’s different is that there’s no free version but the paid version is only $1.99. Yes, it’s available in both the Google Play Store and in the App Store.

There could be one issue with these apps if you don’t sleep alone. How can you use these apps to help you sleep without disturbing your partner who may already be in la-la land? My recommendation? Use the Bluetooth earbuds I use. (Yes, I almost always fall asleep with my phone pushing out something through my earbuds to help me sleep. These earbuds are awesome and I highly recommend them!) Here they are. Just click on the image to order.