Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsSigning UpMy ExperiencePros & ConsFinal Thoughts

Table of ContentsView All

View All

Table of Contents

Signing Up

My Experience

Pros & Cons

Final Thoughts

For as long as I can remember, I’ve struggled withanxiety—especially in the past three years. Over the years, I’ve tried several things to help me cope with it: therapy,journaling, and, in moments of serious distress, Xanax. But one thing I’ve never tried ismeditation.

Of course, friends, family, and even therapists have suggested it to me many times. And there’s plenty of research advocating the benefits, with studies demonstrating that just 10 minutes a day can reduce anxiety levels.Still, I always felt like I couldn’t quiet my mind well enough to meditate. Plus, I never knewhowto do it or where to start. So, when the opportunity to test theCalm appcame up, I jumped at it.

Calm is a meditation and sleep app available on desktop, Google Play, and the Apple Store. It has a vast library of tools promotingmindfulness, relaxation, andbetter sleep. In its library, you can findguided meditations,breathing techniques,mindfulness exercises, calming soundscapes, and celebrity-narrated sleep stories. There are meditations available to help improvefocus, reduce anxiety,boost mood, andincrease confidence.

After trying the app for a month, I found meditating isn’t nearly as intimidating as I’d once imagined. By far, the sleep stories were my favorite part. Most are around 30 minutes long and, I’m happy to say, I have no idea how any of them ended. As someone who typically takes upwards of an hour to fall asleep, that was a huge deal! Read on to find out more about my experience with Calm.

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How I Signed Up

Since I was planning to use the app on my phone, I signed up with my Android via Google Play. And to be honest, I found the sign-up process a little more complicated than it needed to be.

Cost and Subscription PlansThe free version only gives you access to one breathing exercise, one sleep story, and timed meditations. In order to access all of the other features, I needed to sign up for one of the premium plan options available:Monthly: $12.99 per month with a seven-day free trialAnnual: $69.99 per year with a seven-day free trialLifetime: One-time payment of $399.99Family: $99.99 per year for six premium accounts; no free trial offered and all members must be 18 years or olderStudent: $8.99 per year plus a three-month free trial; only available for Amazon Prime student members located in the U.S.

Cost and Subscription Plans

The free version only gives you access to one breathing exercise, one sleep story, and timed meditations. In order to access all of the other features, I needed to sign up for one of the premium plan options available:Monthly: $12.99 per month with a seven-day free trialAnnual: $69.99 per year with a seven-day free trialLifetime: One-time payment of $399.99Family: $99.99 per year for six premium accounts; no free trial offered and all members must be 18 years or olderStudent: $8.99 per year plus a three-month free trial; only available for Amazon Prime student members located in the U.S.

The free version only gives you access to one breathing exercise, one sleep story, and timed meditations. In order to access all of the other features, I needed to sign up for one of the premium plan options available:

Now, if the annual plan is what you want (and I wasn’t sure I was ready forthatcommitment just yet), it’s easy to get started: Simply sign up for the free trial and your yearly subscription will start once the trial ends. But, if you want the monthly plan, like I did, it’s a bit more complex.

Once my free trial was active, I had to cancel it before the seven-day period ended, but that locked me out of all the premium content. To subscribe to the monthly plan, I needed to click on one of the locked meditations to get to a subscription page that allowed me to select a monthly plan.

All this felt, well, unnecessarily complicated for signing up for a monthly subscription.

Signing up for a month of Calm wasn’t necessarily difficult, but I did need to go to the FAQ section of the website to find out how to do it. It would be more beneficial if the app allowed users to choose between a monthly or annual plan right at the beginning.

My Experience With Calm

There are 10 categories, although I think there’s quite a bit of overlap between several of them. Still, the category options are:

Although I browsed through all 10 categories, I mainly used the meditations, daily mindfulness exercises, and sleep stories.

The Meditations

There are over 100guided meditationsin the Calm library, plus new content added daily.

There are a variety of topics, such as stress, focus, and personal growth, and sessions range from less than three minutes to over an hour.

Despite my initial confusion, the lack of lengthier guided meditations didn’t bother me.

Best Guided Meditations

The Mindfulness Tools

There are only two distinct “tools” in the mindful tools section:breathing exercisesand check-ins.

There are six different breathing exercises to choose from, including deep belly breathing andbox breathing, which involves four counts of breathing in, four counts of holding your breath, four counts of breathing out, and another four counts of holding your breath. These exercises feature a visual breathing bubble and a timer and you can adjust the volume, speed, and timer to fit your needs.

The check-ins consisted of amood tracker, a sleep tracker, and journal prompts.

Inputting Sleep DataUnlike some other apps, Calm doesn’t automatically track your sleep. Instead, you’ll input data such as how you slept and for how long.

Inputting Sleep Data

Unlike some other apps, Calm doesn’t automatically track your sleep. Instead, you’ll input data such as how you slept and for how long.

With the mood tracker, you’ll choose how you’re feeling from a series of emotions. After prompting you to write a quick note (which is optional), the app will suggest specific meditations for you. Both of these features were pretty standard, but the journal prompts were lackluster, in my opinion.

Journal PromptsSome of the journal prompts included were:“What simple things are you grateful for today?”“What has mindfulness taught you about your mind?”“Where did you find beauty today?”“What inspired you today?”

Journal Prompts

Some of the journal prompts included were:“What simple things are you grateful for today?”“What has mindfulness taught you about your mind?”“Where did you find beauty today?”“What inspired you today?”

Some of the journal prompts included were:

Generally speaking, these mindfulness tools weren’t bad, but I was expecting more options. There wasn’t a lot of variety among them, especially with the journal prompts.

The Sleep Stories

The sleep stories were my favorite part about Calm, hands down. I’ve always had a bit of insomnia—it takes me forever to drift off. Tesearch shows that healthy adults should take between 10 and 20 minutes to fall asleep, which is wild to me!I regularly toss and turn for an hour or more. So, I was excited to test if Calm could help me in that area.

Most of the stories range from 30 to 45 minutes long, so I anticipated having to play more than one each night.

To my surprise, Ineverheard the end of a story. I was not only impressed, but I ended up gettingsuchgood sleep over the month.

Pros and Cons

My experience with Calm was really good overall. I had a hard time trying to find anything Ididn’tlike. But of course, there are always positives and negatives with any app.

ProsFree seven-day trial periodMultiple subscription plansExtensive library of guided meditationsOver 100 sleep storesFeatures celebrity-narrated sleep storiesUser-friendly designConsTrial period automatically rolls into an annual subscriptionChoosing a monthly subscription plan is tricky and not clarified in the appLimited free features

ProsFree seven-day trial periodMultiple subscription plansExtensive library of guided meditationsOver 100 sleep storesFeatures celebrity-narrated sleep storiesUser-friendly design

Free seven-day trial period

Multiple subscription plans

Extensive library of guided meditations

Over 100 sleep stores

Features celebrity-narrated sleep stories

User-friendly design

ConsTrial period automatically rolls into an annual subscriptionChoosing a monthly subscription plan is tricky and not clarified in the appLimited free features

Trial period automatically rolls into an annual subscription

Choosing a monthly subscription plan is tricky and not clarified in the app

Limited free features

Considering the sheer amount of content in the Calm app, I think it’s worth the price.

Family Plan DiscountIf you know several people who would benefit, I’d suggest signing up for a family plan, which lets you share a membership with six different people—even if they don’t live in the same house. That comes out to less than $2 per month per person.

Family Plan Discount

If you know several people who would benefit, I’d suggest signing up for a family plan, which lets you share a membership with six different people—even if they don’t live in the same house. That comes out to less than $2 per month per person.

Even though I really enjoyed using the meditations, I don’t see myself practicing meditation every single day. But the sleep stories were fantastic and that alone would be worth the price. Based on how much the sleep resources helped me and the sheer volume of meditation and mindfulness content in the app, I would definitely recommend Calm.

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2 SourcesVerywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.O’Donnell K, Dunbar M, Speelman D.Effectiveness of daily mindfulness meditation app usage to reduce anxiety and improve well-being during the covid-19 pandemic: a randomized controlled trial.Cureus. 2023;15(7):e42432. doi:10.7759/cureus.42432Thomas D, Anderson WM.Multiple sleep latency test (MSLT). In:Encyclopedia of Sleep. Elsevier; 2013:96-99. doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-378610-4.00146-7

2 Sources

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.O’Donnell K, Dunbar M, Speelman D.Effectiveness of daily mindfulness meditation app usage to reduce anxiety and improve well-being during the covid-19 pandemic: a randomized controlled trial.Cureus. 2023;15(7):e42432. doi:10.7759/cureus.42432Thomas D, Anderson WM.Multiple sleep latency test (MSLT). In:Encyclopedia of Sleep. Elsevier; 2013:96-99. doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-378610-4.00146-7

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

O’Donnell K, Dunbar M, Speelman D.Effectiveness of daily mindfulness meditation app usage to reduce anxiety and improve well-being during the covid-19 pandemic: a randomized controlled trial.Cureus. 2023;15(7):e42432. doi:10.7759/cureus.42432Thomas D, Anderson WM.Multiple sleep latency test (MSLT). In:Encyclopedia of Sleep. Elsevier; 2013:96-99. doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-378610-4.00146-7

O’Donnell K, Dunbar M, Speelman D.Effectiveness of daily mindfulness meditation app usage to reduce anxiety and improve well-being during the covid-19 pandemic: a randomized controlled trial.Cureus. 2023;15(7):e42432. doi:10.7759/cureus.42432

Thomas D, Anderson WM.Multiple sleep latency test (MSLT). In:Encyclopedia of Sleep. Elsevier; 2013:96-99. doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-378610-4.00146-7

Hannah Owens, LMSW

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