iPhone Rest Rise Grow - Motivational and Sleep App

[restrisegrow]

Hello,

This is our first App in the Apple App Store.

A little about me, I started programing when I was 11 years old on an Apple ][+. That started my love for technology. I got to work for some of the big names Seagate/Oracle. Then went on to consulting. My wife was part of the team that developed the Space Shuttle simulator for NASA.

I decided to get my two older sons into programing over the summer break, then after I read a few articles about brain chemistry and neuroplasticity, we decided to build an app that would help people. We combined research on Sleep, Neuroplasticity, and Gratitude. (Did you know thinking of three things you are thankful for each day has about the same effect on your brain as taking prozac?!?). There are many studies in this field — we chose to go with the prayers of gratitude approach which seems to work the best.

So, the final concept is “Press the Rest play button at night, which plays 18 minutes of positive affirmations, prayers of gratitude, and great relaxing music." We found a local artist who used Logic Pro for the music. After searching around the world for a voice actor, we found one whose dad lives a few blocks from us! The app simulates a sunrise in the morning with 18 more minutes of affirmations and motivation to get you ready for the day. The dimming and brightening of the app helps to restore circadian rhythm.

This app is the culmination of my sons’ learning to program and building an app based on research to help you get better rest, rise up in a motivated, positive mood and hopefully grow as a person. Studies show that it takes about 30 days.

Because of this project, they also learned Adobe Premiere, Photoshop, how to post on instagram. There has been a lot to learn, and it has been fun!

I would love the input from the forum. Please let me know what you think and any ways we could improve.

Thank you in advance for your help!
Jay and the Rest Rise Grow Team (aka My Family)

 

[restrisegrow]

We created an app-demo and we'd love to share it. It's some of our first Adobe Premiere work in many years. So many advances in that software!

 

[restrisegrow]

I want to start by saying thank you to the MacRumors community for your incredible feedback. We really appreciate the help and support, and have applied several of the tweaks and suggestions.

Now, we are excited to announce the third stage of our app which we call “Grow.” In addition to our earlier research we've also learned that to receive optimized benefits from positive affirmations it is important to actually write them down. Research also shows that your brain sees small wins similarly to huge wins. You can snowball your confidence by setting and achieving small goals such as making your bed or eating an apple for breakfast each day. You check them off when you accomplish them, and this leads to confidence that allows you to achieve bigger and better goals.

Research also shows that in addition to saying things that you're grateful for, writing them down also has additional benefits as can be seen on functional MRI’s. After a week of showing gratitude, brain chemistry dramatically improves while oxytocin, serotonin, and dopamine levels are also rising.

The app improves your sleep schedule, improves your mood, and helps you set goals to have a more successful and fulfilling life.

Please download the app at your convenience, as we look forward to hearing your suggestions. We hope you enjoy the new features as much as you did with the original two.

 

[restrisegrow]

Thanks for everyone who downloaded and tested. We appreciate your feedback. We have updated the app for Thanksgiving. This new version includes widgets with extra messages of thankfulness, gratitude and affirmations. It should be in the App Appstore Monday November 23. We are working on one for Cyber Monday to include some free background sound effects.

 

[restrisegrow]

The team has updated that app again with a new holiday themed icon, and even our first Cyber Monday sale. Our goal is to help everyone have a more positive life. We have also updated our website with more information for the most positive sleep app and motivational alarm clock app. We also added some additional widget affirmations!

Thank you all again for helping with the testing of our app!

 

[restrisegrow]

The new large iPhone Widget is the part of the app that we are the most excited about. It is so beautiful and so useful! The user just installs the rest rise grow app, chooses their widget size and from then on they enjoy widgets with positive affirmations and beautiful scenes from nature each time they glance at their phone! I know it boosts my mood every time I see it!