The Latest Experiment: In this series, we try different types of products or services for 7 days, and 7 days alone, and report back. Then we may or may not voluntarily continue for much longer. This is not a sponsored post. HFP has not received any compensation for this coverage or review.
Right now it’s Endel. They provide “personalized sounds to help you focus and relax”. It’s pretty straight-forward. You open the app and you’re presented with different modes of use at the bottom including relax, focus, on-the-go, sleep, and another that’s more about your current location. For example: a clear winter morning in New York. Your health data such as resting heart rate also influences the sounds you receive.
In theory this sounds fantastic, no pun intended.
According to Endel’s site:
“Sound has a direct impact on our physiological and psychological wellbeing. For example, white noise helps infants sleep, while relaxing sounds reduce stress and anxiety – and have a positive effect on heart rate and blood pressure. In a similar way, Endel uses sound to align your mind and body to any task or goal.”
The Testing Parameters
There were three main times I used Endel: during work, before bed, and before a workout.
Most of the time I have music going 24/7. During work hours, I decided to turn off all music and other sources of sound and go strictly with Endel. Before my workouts, I’d take 5-10 minutes or so with the Focus mode. And before bed I’d put it in sleep mode with a 2-hour timer.
Work Time Results
A lot of times during the day I find myself wanting to get up and walk around when I feel like I get stuck on something and need to take a break. I do believe that the Focus mode of Endel may have helped keep me a bit more focused. I feel like it was calming sounds and rhythms, but didn’t go too far and make me sleepy. In a way, I felt like it helped put me into a work-trance of sorts.
Pre-Workout Results
I’ve always been an advocate of meditation, even though I’m terrible at it. Typically before a workout I’ll do some breathing exercises for a few minutes. But it was nice to have an extra tool—Endel’s Focus mode—to work with. While I think there’s a lot of people out there that would rather listen to their favorite songs before a workout, I also think there could be plenty of people that might like this.
Bed Time Results
My sleep is inconsistent. Sometimes it’s great, other times it’s rough. There are nights I have trouble falling asleep, then other nights I end up waking up in the middle of the night. What I noticed the most during the first week with Endel was that I seemed to have fallen asleep pretty quickly. It’s important to note that Endel isn’t like a sound machine with crashing waves, thunderstorms, or wind chimes, it’s a different type of sound.
At the moment, Endel is only available in the App Store for iOS devices. The subscriptions start at $2.99 for a month, $24.99 for 12 months, or $99.99 for lifetime use.
How do you like the sound of this?
Check out Endel in the App Store or Instagram (@endelsound) and see if you want to give it a try for yourself. Also, keep an eye on the @humanfitproject Instagram account, we are giving away 5 FREE 1-month long subscriptions to Endel.
