Sleep Sounds, Red Light: Dimly

Tap once at bedtime, pick one of 23 sleep sounds, and the screen goes dim red, then black. No clock at night, and nothing rings in the morning.

Dimly is a quiet app for the end of your day: a short bedtime routine, sleep sounds and a dim red screen with no clock. No account, no ads, and everything stays on your phone.

At bedtime you tap "I want to sleep". First you can write down whatever is still on your mind. The list waits in the app until morning. Then you pick a sound and a light, and the screen turns dim red. Over about 20 minutes it fades to black. The sound stops on its own after 15, 30 or 60 minutes, or plays all night if you want.

You can switch off any step you don't use, and your choices stay for the next night. On nights when you just want to lie down, play something on the Sounds tab and tap "Dim and sleep".

Sounds and light There are 23 sounds, and you can mix any two: rain, rain on the roof, a distant storm, a winter storm, ocean waves, a stream, a waterfall, a night marsh, wind, rustling trees, a forest, a fan, a fireplace, a campfire, a train, a purring cat, white noise, pink noise, brown noise, and four calm meditation tracks, singing bowls among them.

For the light you get Embers, Aurora, Night sky, Breath (a circle you can breathe along with) or Dark, which is just a black screen. Tap the screen for the controls, which sit over your own light. To end the night, hold the button.

At night None of the night screens show the time. That's on purpose.

If you wake up and open the app, one tap starts your sound and the light again. You can change the sound, the volume or the light in the middle of the night, and the controls stay dim and red. If you can't fall asleep, there's a short page that suggests getting up for a bit and coming back when you feel sleepy.

In the morning Dimly has no alarm. If you open it 7.5 hours or more after lights out, it asks "Time to get up?" You can sleep a little longer with your sound on, or get up and let the sound fade out.

Then it asks how the night was. Pick good, okay or rough. One tap is enough. If you like, add what helped, and last night's list is there too.

Your nights Tonight shows your last seven nights as small moons. The Nights tab goes back by week, month, year or all at once. After about ten nights you'll start to see what your good nights often had in common, a sound or going to bed on time, for example. It only works from your own nights in the app, so take it as a hint. There are no scores, streaks or badges.

You can set a reminder 15 to 60 minutes before bedtime. It stays off until you turn it on.

The daytime screens have an aurora in the background, in one of five shades from Emerald to Ice. At night everything turns red anyway.

There's nothing to sign up for and nothing to buy. The app doesn't track you and doesn't send anything anywhere, so what you write never leaves your phone. You can delete all of it in Settings.

I'm a product designer in Czechia. I made Dimly in my spare time, for my own evenings. It's in English and Czech. If something doesn't work for you, write to me from Settings. I read every message.

Dimly is not a medical device and does not diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any medical condition.