Calm on Reviews

That’s the thing—even if you’re working from home alone, checking into the app feels somewhat like a problem shared (and therefore a problem halved). The broad range of specific content made this incredibly easy to do. But equally, with the focus on “Mental Fitness” in addition to issues like depression and insomnia, it rebranded in my mind that meditation isn’t just one activity to invest time in when you’ve reached an anxious, breaking point, but rather something to be checked into on a daily basis.

Calm app review: is the sleep-meditation app worth the money?

Screenshot of Harry Styles Sleep Stories on the Calm app on a cloudy sky background

For both those new or familiar with meditation, the Calm app can help you relieve stress, anxiety and insomnia in minutes.

Soothing, slick design

Accessible meditation education

Takes a little time to come to grips with

Feeling burnt out working from home? Struggling to switch off your mind before bed? Enter: The Calm app.

The Calm app is one of the best meditation apps in the digital marketplace. It frequently ranks among the most popular—alongside key rival, Headspace—and boasted a whopping 100 million downloads in 2020, up from 40 million the year before.

After being launched out of wellness-loving California in 2016, the Calm app has become an effective all-rounder that’s suitable for both meditation newbies and veterans. It helps you de-stress as well as reduce anxiety, boost productivity, and is a good solution to the problem of how to get better sleep.

Indeed, the Calm philosophy is “mental fitness”—that our brain is a muscle that needs to be regularly flexed in order to build strength and resilience. And through a musical, soothing interface, they guide you every step of the way.

The Calm app is available in the Apple Store and on Google Play. After you’ve downloaded it, you’ll be able to try a “taster” selection of features for free—however, in order to utilize the app in its full glory, you’ll need to subscribe to the “Premium” version. You can try this for free as part of a one-week trial. After this, you’ll need to fork over £13.49 per month, or £28.99 annually. However, do note that its monthly and yearly prices can vary greatly depending on whether it’s on special offer.

Calm was not included in a recent review of 23 mindfulness-based iPhone apps using the Mobile Application Rating Scale (MARS) 3 , probably because it is too new. Calm received excellent reviews by users on iTunes (4.9/5), Google Play (4.5/5) and Amazon.com (4.4/5). Calm was deemed one of the “Best Meditation Apps of 2016,” along with Buddhify and Headspace, by Healthline.com. The Guardian selected Calm as one of the five best meditation apps in 2016. The New York Times (May 4, 2016) described Calm as “simpler in terms of features and menus than Headspace, and more relaxing in its look and feel.”

Calm: A Professional Review

Calm Screenshots

Reading Time: 6 minutes Dr. Nancy A. Haug, Ph.D. is a Professor at Palo Alto University in the PGSP-Stanford Psy.D. Consortium and Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine. She also serves as Research Director and clinical supervisor at The Gronowski Center, a community mental health training clinic for doctoral students.

Product Description

Calm introduces the basics of mindfulness meditation with the “7 Days of Calm,” a guided course featuring 7 sessions of 10 minutes each. Completing a session unlocks the next meditation in the series. After completing the 7 sessions, users can continue to “21 Days of Calm” and the full catalog with a paid subscription. Progress is tracked with statistics on time spent meditating.

The full catalog contains multi-day series that focus on specific goals (i.e., managing stress, focus, calming anxiety, sleep, happiness, gratitude, self-esteem). Calm has both guided sessions (e.g., body scan, loving-kindness) from 3 to 30 minutes and unguided meditations, with new programs regularly being developed. For example, “Daily Calm” is a 10-minute program for easing into the day or unwinding, and “Sleep Stories” is designed to aid the user in falling asleep. Some of this content is available without a subscription.

The Calm smartphone app features customizable settings (e.g., background nature sounds and scenes), mindfulness reminders, session history and FAQs. The app allows one button access to breathing exercises, meditations and sleep stories. The web-based program additionally offers entrance to the Calm online communities such as Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook, and a blog which explores different aspects of mindfulness practice.

Target Audience

The introductory Calm program is geared toward novice meditators, including those new to the concept of mindfulness, like children, yet its content can be appreciated by meditators at any level of experience. Calm may benefit individuals seeking to cope with daily stressors and find relaxation. Users will also appreciate the wide variety of mindfulness programs, such as forgiveness, commuting, walking meditations, and gratitude. The secular nature of Calm makes it accessible to a universal audience, especially those committed to initiating new meditation training or revitalizing their current practice. Individuals with serious psychological conditions should not use Calm as the primary replacement for mental health treatment.

Ease of Use and User Experience

Calm contains the standard mindfulness mobile app features of a session timer, e-mail reminders, progress tracking, program training, and an app community. There are audio and video features (e.g., music, nature sounds and scenery), which complement the guided meditation tracks. The interface is relatively easy to use on a computer or handheld device. The meditation sessions display a simple timer to let users see how much time remains. Some online users complained about the nature scenery and sounds as repetitive and distracting to the experience. Others noted program glitches such as the background sounds and timer being difficult to turn off. The FAQs address these issues (e.g., users must select a silent background scene in order to turn off the sounds). Recent program upgrades significantly improve the user experience.

A companion book is also available, Calm the Mind, Change the World, written by the Calm app developers. The Calm Life blog is an extension of the app and book, with a stated mission to “make the world healthier and happier through the super power of calm.”

User Interface

Calm is a web-based and smartphone application for Apple iOS (9.0+) or Android (4.0+) devices (phone or tablet), which can be downloaded from Apple iTunes, Google Play or Amazon.com. It is not available for Blackberry or Windows phones. Some users noted on iTunes store reviews that the app does not work on Kindle Fire or the Apple watch. The FAQ includes “using the app” and “troubleshooting” sections. On the iPhone, there is an option to connect Calm with an Apple Health app. Calm.com, Inc. was founded in 2012 by Michael Acton Smith and Alex Tew, and is headquartered in San Francisco, CA, USA. The meditation programs are guided by Tamara Levitt, an author and producer, and the Head of Content at Calm.com.

Appropriateness of Content

Mindfulness and meditation have roots in ancient Eastern philosophical and spiritual traditions, Hindu and Buddhist religions. Jon Kabat-Zinn brought contemporary mindfulness to mainstream medicine and psychology through clinical intervention programs like Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). Calm incorporates mindfulness practices from MBSR without religious or spiritual discourse. Techniques include breathing exercises, body scans, focused attention, non-judgment of one’s experience, walking and sitting meditation.

Calm provides the structure and guidance necessary to facilitate a daily meditation practice and mindful awareness. Over 25 nature scenes and sounds are used to invoke relaxation. Users are encouraged to complete a meditation session every day to maximize the benefit of the program. Once 7 Days of Calm is finished, subscribers may complete 21 Days of Calm to deepen their practice, along with other multi-day series or guided meditations. At these higher levels, users may opt to increase the session time in intervals from 3 up to 30 minutes. The guided and unguided meditations can be completed at any time.

Calm does not offer psychoeducation on the scientific evidence for mindfulness training. Although Calm can be used in clinical settings as an adjunct to psychotherapy, it is appropriate as a stand-alone, self-help tool for the general population. Some of the meditations offer focused support for anxiety, concentration, sleep and self-esteem. There is also an “Emergency Calm” meditation that provides relief for feelings of being overwhelmed or stressed.

Appropriateness of Feedback

Feedback is provided on user’s profile page. Visual progress appears under a calendar, which highlights days when Calm was utilized, and shows personalized user stats: longest “streak,” time meditating and total sessions. Users can also drill down to view their session history. Calm does not employ mood assessment ratings. As with any meditation practice, disciplined consistency is critical to achieving progress. The Calm phone app has the option to schedule notifications to remind users to meditate.

Ease of Account Management

A username and password are selected upon registering for the free program and downloading the application. Once the subscription fee is paid, the full Calm catalog is unlocked and users can select their own program. A profile button allows management of the subscription and settings. It is possible to purchase a gift subscription for another person. When I submitted a question about my subscription, I received a response and action within hours from the Calm support team.

Scientific Basis

Scientific evidence supports the efficacy of mindfulness interventions to improve physical and mental health outcomes 1,2 . Some psychological treatments have mindfulness components or informal practice, while others are almost exclusively based on mindfulness meditation practice. Mindfulness-based approaches are being employed not only in clinical settings, but also the workplace, schools, the military and prisons 2 .

Over the past five years, internet and smartphone mindfulness programs have proliferated 2,3 . These programs have the benefits of reaching hidden populations, low cost, portability and convenience. Emerging research has demonstrated benefits of mindfulness technology interventions. For example, one study showed reduced stress, anxiety and depressive symptoms from an online mindfulness course, although the study was limited by high attrition rates 4 . Another randomized trial indicated decreased symptoms of anxiety, depression and insomnia by a group receiving an internet-based mindfulness treatment compared to a control condition. 5

Mindfulness meditation may produce neuroplastic changes in structural and functional brain networks, although research is still in early stages 1 . The underlying neurobiological mechanisms explaining the positive effects of mindfulness are not well understood. Neuroimaging studies are identifying the putative brain areas and neural circuits linked with attentional control, emotion regulation and self-awareness. One theory suggests that mindfulness increases activity and functional connectivity in the prefrontal cortex while reducing activity and functional connectivity in the amygdala region. 2

Qualitative Review of Program Efficacy

Calm is advertised in app stores as “the #1 app for mindfulness and meditation to bring more clarity, joy and peace to your daily life.” However, the source for this rating is unclear. One of my students uses Calm with youth ages 8-18 years during therapy to teach breathing and body scan. Anecdotally, she reports that Calm helps guide their practice at home and receives positive feedback.

Estimate of Efficacy Relative to Similar Products

Calm was not included in a recent review of 23 mindfulness-based iPhone apps using the Mobile Application Rating Scale (MARS) 3 , probably because it is too new. Calm received excellent reviews by users on iTunes (4.9/5), Google Play (4.5/5) and Amazon.com (4.4/5). Calm was deemed one of the “Best Meditation Apps of 2016,” along with Buddhify and Headspace, by Healthline.com. The Guardian selected Calm as one of the five best meditation apps in 2016. The New York Times (May 4, 2016) described Calm as “simpler in terms of features and menus than Headspace, and more relaxing in its look and feel.”

Cost

The initial 7 Days of Calm, unguided sessions, some guided sessions and tracking features has no cost. A subscription which provides access to the entire Calm catalog costs $12.99/month, $59.99/year and $299.99 for a lifetime subscription. This is comparable to other mindfulness apps and a good value for the amount of content currently offered and the rate at which new content is being developed.

References

1 Khoury, B., Lecomte, T., Fortin, G., Masse, M., Therien, P., Bouchard, V., Chapleau, M., Paquin, K., & Hofmann, S. G. (2013). Mindfulness-based therapy: A comprehensive meta-analysis. Clinical Psychology Review, 33(6), 763-771. doi: 10.1016/j.cpr.2013.05.005

2 Creswell, J. D. (2017). Mindfulness Interventions. Annual Review of Psychology, 68(18), 1-18.26.

3 Mani, M., Kavanagh, D. J., Hides, L., Stoyanov, S. R. (2015). Review and evaluation of mindfulness-based iPhone Apps. JMIR MHealth and UHealth, 3(3), e82. doi: 10.2196/mhealth.4328

4 Cavanaugh, K., Strauss, C., Cicconi, F., Griffiths, N., Wyper, A., & Jones, F. (2013). A randomized controlled trial of a brief online mindfulness-based intervention. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 51(9), 573-578. doi: 10.1016/j.brat.2013.06.003

5 Boettcher, J., Astrom, V., Pahlsson, D., Schenstrom, O., Andersson, G., & Carlbring, P. (2013). Internet-based mindfulness treatment for anxiety disorders: A randomized controlled trial. Behavior Therapy, 45, 241-253.

6 Tang, Y., Holzel, B. K., & Posner, M. I. (2015). The neuroscience of mindfulness meditation. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 17(1), 213-25. doi: 10.1038/nrn3916

The best meditation apps offer guided meditations and so much more. They provide mindfulness exercises to calm anxiety, help you sleep better, and elevate your mood and overall well-being. They can even relieve stress during a panic attack. Always within reach, meditation apps truly work. Among users of the Calm meditation app, 81% reported less stress and 73% experienced better quality sleep. In fact, 84% of Calm users improved their mental health overall.

What makes Calm a great meditation app?

Calm makes mindfulness easy.

If you are new to meditation, an app with over 700 guided meditations might sound intimidating. After all, if you want to relax and sleep better, figuring out a new technology in itself can seem time-consuming if not stressful.

But don’t worry. Calm is easy to use. The first time you open the app, it prompts you with just a few questions. From there, Calm personalizes your experience based on goals such as better sleep, greater gratitude, anxiety reduction, increased happiness, enhanced performance or even better self esteem. For kids, choices include soundful sleep and emotion management. It only takes about a minute to set up, and you will immediately see personalized meditation sessions to get you started.

Mood check-ins, daily email prompts and a brand new navigation system all assist in keeping you—and Calm’s library of resources—organized and ready at any time of the day or night.

Daily Calm

One feature to help get you started is the Daily Calm. Narrated by author and mindfulness instructor Tamara Levitt, these 10-minute meditation sessions bring an uncanny blend of both relaxation and invigoration. Tamara appeals to visualization techniques while guiding your breathing and overall awareness of your body-state. These mini-sessions are great for a lunch break, but I found them to be the best mindfulness exercises to start the day. Users will love the sound quality and gentle, ambient sounds of nature.

Library of Guided Meditations

Calm provides more than 700 guided meditations hosted by Tamara Levitt and other mindfulness experts. Again, don’t worry that you’ll be sorting through such a vast library of meditations on your own. Simply choose from categories such as meditation for beginners, stress reduction, sleep enhancement, personal growth, increasing focus or others. You will also find kids’ and unguided meditation categories.

Typical mindfulness and meditation sessions range from 3-30 minutes. Some tracks progress through a multi-step program lasting over days or even weeks to build your best meditation practices. As with Daily Calm, the sound quality is amazing through quality earbuds or headphones. Many meditative sessions include ambient sounds to help you tune out the world for a deeper, more focused experience.

Sleep better with the Sleep feature.

Do you have difficulty sleeping? Do you struggle to leave the day behind and enjoy the tranquility of a deep rest? We all do at some time.

Calm offers a wide variety of sleep choices including sleep meditations, bedtime stories for adults and children, soundscapes and relaxing music. There’s even an easy-to-use sleep timer so that the sounds and music can last for just a few minutes or throughout the night.

A standout option is the Sleep Remix Series. Here, popular songs invite you in with familiar voices and sounds, but with a tempo designed for rest. These songs are amazing, and familiarity invites you in. Offerings include the music of Katy Perry, Ariana Grande, Post Malone, Jhené Aiko and others designed specifically for a calming bedtime experience.

Picture this. It’s 2006, and 23-year-old me is a brand new graduate student. Bright eyed and bushy tailed, I was ready to fulfill my lifelong dream of becoming a psychologist. Even though I knew very little at this point, I had strong opinions about the type of psychologist I would and wouldn’t be. And one thing I was pretty certain I wouldn’t be? Someone who talked about mindfulness. The whole concept seemed new age and fluffy, and I was convinced not to be one of those soft speaking, artsy-fartsy psychologists. Thankfully, my naïve and judgmental self opened my mind and stopped thinking I knew everything. (Sidenote: nothing makes you realize you know next to nothing like a PhD program, ha!) Several years later, after finishing graduate school, I started to wade through the research about mindfulness. And I couldn’t ignore it any longer. Mindfulness was legit.

Is Calm Worth It? Calm App Review 2020

Picture this. It’s 2006, and 23-year-old me is a brand new graduate student. Bright eyed and bushy tailed, I was ready to fulfill my lifelong dream of becoming a psychologist. Even though I knew very little at this point, I had strong opinions about the type of psychologist I would and wouldn’t be. And one thing I was pretty certain I wouldn’t be? Someone who talked about mindfulness. The whole concept seemed new age and fluffy, and I was convinced not to be one of those soft speaking, artsy-fartsy psychologists. Thankfully, my naïve and judgmental self opened my mind and stopped thinking I knew everything. (Sidenote: nothing makes you realize you know next to nothing like a PhD program, ha!) Several years later, after finishing graduate school, I started to wade through the research about mindfulness. And I couldn’t ignore it any longer. Mindfulness was legit.

Looking back, I can’t help but laugh. Because now, mindfulness is such a huge part of my personal and professional life, that I can’t imagine my life or my practice without it. And I’m guessing that if you’re reading this, you’re somewhat curious about mindfulness or meditation. It’s likely that in your quest to learn more about mindfulness, the Calm app has popped onto your radar. But now you’re wondering, “Is the app worth it? What does it do? And how can I make the most out of the app?” Or maybe, this is your first time hearing about Calm, and you’re intrigued to learn more. This post is designed to answer all those questions, giving you an updated Calm app review, fresh for 2020!

If you’re a more experienced meditator, I highly recommend the less guidance category. One of the frequent criticisms of meditation apps is that their meditations encourage focus on an external source (the narrator), rather than your internal experience. The meditations in the less guidance category provide less instruction, prompting you to sit in silence more intentionally. One of my personal favorites from this category is the open-ended meditation with bells. Even if you’re newer to meditation, consider weaving open-ended meditations into your routine. They can be challenging, but they get easier with practice!

Many of my clients in private practice have described misunderstanding mindfulness when they first heard about it. Thankfully, through our work in therapy, we were able to clarify many of these misconceptions. However, if you don’t have a therapist or a more formal teacher like me, then Calm is a perfect way to increase both your understanding and your practice of mindfulness. I truly believe that Calm does this better than any other app out there.

Calm’s Masterclasses feel like a combination of a podcast and a YouTube video, broken down into manageable 15-30 minute classes. They’re also available offline, so you can download them for a road trip or long flight. If you like learning the science behind why humans do what we do and how we can make meaningful change in our lives, then the Masterclass section is for you. So many people skip right past this feature, but there’s so much goodness tucked away here. It’s definitely worth checking out!

4. Calm Body: This is another lesser known section of the Calm app, but it’s one worth looking into. So often, when we think about mindfulness, we only think about our mind, forgetting about our body. But mindfulness isn’t just something to practice while sitting. Mindfulness is something to incorporate all throughout your day, bringing your attention and awareness to whatever you’re doing. Your body provides an incredible thing to pay attention to, noticing sensations, movement, and strength. But sometimes it’s hard to know exactly how to do this, and this is where Calm Body comes in.

In this feature, instructors guide you through mindful stretching, afternoon resets, and an evening wind down. They help you understand the mechanics of moving your body mindfully, making it easier to translate this concept to other forms of movement throughout your day. So don’t skip past Calm Body; there’s more there than you think!

5. Calm Kids: If you’re a parent or teacher, you will love Calm just for this feature. For years, the research has been clear about the benefits of mindfulness for adults. Excitedly, new research is starting to emerge about the benefits of mindfulness for kids. Across the world, schools are beginning to implement mindfulness and meditation programs, reporting incredible results. But sometimes with kids, it can be hard to know where to start. How do you teach a four-year-old about mindfulness? How do you show an eight-year-old how to meditate?

The Calm Kids section has you covered. With meditations, sleep stories, lullabies, and soundscapes, the app helps you understand how to translate mindfulness for your little one. The meditations are broken down by age group, starting as early as three years old, going up to age 17. Remember, your child’s mindfulness practice won’t look like yours, and we shouldn’t expect it to. Calm Kids makes mindfulness approachable, using images and examples familiar to your little one. It will also give you good ideas about how you can continue to incorporate mindfulness into your daily life at home, even without the app. Infusing mindful moments into your family’s daily routine is easier than you think.

However, remember that kids tend to copy what they see us doing, rather than what we say. If you want your child to practice mindfulness, they’ve got to see you doing it. So don’t hit “play” on Calm Kids and walk away. Do it with your child. And if they’re slow to catch on, that’s ok. Just keep offering it as an option, reminding them, as well as yourself, that mindfulness is something we can come back to at any time.

If the annual subscription fee is a little steep for you, then keep an eye out for discounts and promotions. They don’t run them often, but when they do, they’re pretty good. The holiday season seems to bring about some of their best deals, and they’ve also offered discounts for educators, students, and health care professionals. But if you’re not convinced that you even need a mindfulness app, make sure to check out my video on this issue. I don’t think these apps for everyone, and I break down exactly what I mean in this video.

If you’ve been contemplating a mindfulness app, Calm has my vote! (There’s a reason it’s the app I pay for and use, even after two years.) Calm offers so much more than meets the eye. So check it out and experiment with all the app has to offer. It’s too good to miss!