How to Record Snoring on an iPhone

Option one: Voice Memos, free and already installed

Every iPhone ships with Voice Memos. Open it before bed, tap the record button, put the phone on the nightstand and stop it in the morning. That is the whole procedure, and for a single night of curiosity it is enough.

What you get is one continuous recording of the whole night. What you do not get is any help finding the interesting parts. An eight hour memo is a large file and scrubbing through it by hand is the reason most people try this once and never again. Keep the phone plugged in: a full night of recording with the screen locked will still take a real bite out of the battery.

Option two: a threshold based sleep app

An app like Schlummer listens the same way but writes only the peaks. When the room crosses a loudness threshold it saves about eight seconds and then goes quiet again, so you wake up to a list of clips with time stamps instead of a single file.

1. Install and open the app. Grant the microphone permission when it is asked for. Without it there is nothing to record.
2. Set your wake time and, if you want the gentle alarm, a wake window between 10 and 30 minutes.
3. Plug the phone in and put it on the nightstand, screen up, roughly an arm's length from your head.
4. Tap start and leave the app in front. Do not swipe it away.
5. In the morning, dismiss the alarm and read the summary. Play the clips, tag anything that was your partner, and share one if you want to show it to somebody.

Placement and settings checklist

• Distance. An arm's length from your head. Across the room and you record the room, on the mattress next to your ear and every movement of the duvet becomes a clip.
• Surface. A hard nightstand beats a pile of clothes. Never under the pillow: it muffles the microphone and traps heat around a charging phone.
• Case. If a thick case sits over the microphone opening, take the phone out for the night.
• Power. Plugged in. Listening all night is real work for the phone.
• Ringer. On, or the alarm has nothing to play through.
• Low Power Mode. Off. It exists to cut background work, which is exactly what you are asking the phone to do.
• Do Not Disturb. Fine to leave on. Alarms still sound.

When it does not work

The list is empty in the morning

Either nothing crossed the threshold or the microphone was never available. Check that the microphone permission is granted in the iPhone settings, move the phone closer, and raise the sensitivity so quieter sounds trigger a clip. An empty list can also simply be the answer: a quiet night produces no peaks.

Far too many clips

Something else in the room is loud. Traffic, a fan, a humidifier or a second sleeper. Lower the sensitivity and, if a partner shares the bed, tag their clips so your own figure stays honest.

Everything you hear is your partner

A microphone cannot separate two people. The partner tag exists for exactly this. If you need to isolate one person, the only reliable fix is to record on a night when you sleep alone.

The recording stopped in the middle of the night

The app was closed, the phone ran out of battery, or the app was swiped away from the app switcher. Plug in, restart the night and leave the app in front.

What to do with what you recorded

Listen to it first. Most people are surprised in one direction or the other, and that is usually the whole point. Compare a few nights against each other before you draw any conclusion from a single one, because a heavy meal, alcohol, a cold or sleeping on your back all change what the microphone hears.

Where to go next

• What is inside a snore clip, and how the snoring figure is calculated.
• What else the same microphone can tell you about the shape of your night.
• SnoreLab compared, the best known specialist in this corner of the App Store.

Back to the Schlummer home page