Lockdown? There’s an app for that
These downloads should help get you through the coming weeks, both mentally and physically
WE know there’s light at the end of the tunnel and this won’t last forever, don’t we? But that doesn’t really help right now, does it? As the pandemic edges towards its endgame, what we really need is two things – a distraction from the abject awfulness of our current predicament, and a way to maintain our mental and physical resilience to hard times. Here are five apps that will help you emerge from the time of coronavirus ready to face whatever comes next...
HEADSPACE
They say: Get happy. Stress less. Sleep soundly. Headspace is your guide to mindfulness for your everyday life. Learn meditation and mindfulness skills from world-class experts.
Build your practice your way with meditations for every experience level and lifestyle — including short, three-minute sessions that fit seamlessly into a busy schedule.
We say: Still the king of all mindfulness apps, Headspace has branched out from being an app focused on meditation, to encompassing other aspects of wellbeing. There are sections devoted to helping you sleep, or find focus, if that’s your problem. And there’s now even an ever-expanding section on physical wellbeing, with a range of guided workouts.
Relevant right now might be the Weathering The Storm section of the app, which aims to help you build mental resilience during challenging times.
Cost:
£9.99/month, £49.99/year.
ELEVATE
They say: Elevate is a brain training program designed to improve focus, speaking abilities, processing speed, memory, math skills, and more. Each person is provided with a personalised training program that adjusts over time to maximise results.
We say: With more than 35 games aimed at sharpening your cognitive skills, an idle moment can be turned into a productive one with Elevate.
The games are devised in collaboration with experts in neuroscience and cognitive learning, and so are rooted in real science. The app will track your progress so you can see real results as you improve your skills.
Cost: £38.99/year
REMENTE
They say: Small actions everyday create life- changing behaviours. Based on your needs, Remente acts as your life coach and provides a bunch of self-help tools to achieve lifestyle improvement and habits for personal growth, mental health and wellbeing. Remente helps you to avoid anxiety, stress and depression and to understand where in life you should focus. We help you with goal setting and teach you ways to feel good, be productive and stay motivated by developing healthy habits with tools for personal growth.
We say: Remente offers a collection of tools to help you think about, and get to grips with, managing your mental wellbeing.
It begins with a self-assessment that allows you to clearly outline your life-goals, and continues with a set of features to help you focus and realise those goals. From video coaching to powerful tracking features, Remente will help you bring your goals into focus and help you make the small steps required to reach them.
Cost: £4.49/month, £58.99/year
SLEEPZY
They say: Sleepzy is a smart alarm clock that tracks your sleep patterns, wakes you up during the lightest sleep phase in a way that feels natural to get up, analyses your sleep quality and notifies you, if you have a sleep debt.
We say: The more you know about your sleep patterns, the more you can act to change your routine to improve them. There’s only one problem – you can’t track anything while you’re asleep. That’s where Sleepzy comes in.
It works by listening to you sleep, analysing the sounds, and offering a full report on your sleeping habits. It’s an alarm clock, too, of course, and can also provide relaxing sounds to drop off too… It also works with Apple Watch for better tracking, and will integrate with the Health app on iOS.
Cost:
These youngsters proved they were tough enough to play rugby when they won an inter-schools competition in June 1994. Boys and girls aged eight to 11 from Brocklesby Park County Primary School came top in a mini-rugby tournament organised by West Lindsey District Council and the Rugy Football Union. Mini-rugby is a modified version of the adult game with the pushing and shoving cut out. The school was given free coaching and planned to continue with the sport.
Hundreds of Khmer Rouge troops are fleeing Cambodia after being crushed by Vietnamese-led rebel forces.