Calm Store stocks a wide range of products for adults & children, designed to relieve stress & promote calm. These include aromatherapy products, body care, books, calming hobby supplies, calming jewellery, meditation tools and sleep aids.
Book of the Month lets you choose from five books each month, usually the options are books that are currently popular, but you get diverse options. The price is $15, which is less than what you would pay for most new picks at sticker price. If you don't want a new book every month, you can skip months and the credits roll over, which is nice if you are a slow reader or don't like the options for that month.
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The Sona app provides music to reduce anxiety, which can help you get a good night's sleep. It worked for me.
Taylor Leamey writes about all things wellness, specializing in mental health, sleep and nutrition coverage. She has invested hundreds of hours into studying and researching sleep and holds a Certified Sleep Science Coach certification from the Spencer Institute. Not to mention the years she spent studying mental health fundamentals while earning her bachelor's degrees in both Psychology and Sociology. She is also a Certified Stress Management Coach.
I've always had difficulty turning off my brain at night. For instance, I've written this intro in my head at least a dozen times while staring at my ceiling before falling asleep. It's not a secret; I'm an anxious person.
Enter the concept of sleep apps. Most people have used at least one. They're handy tools that help you let go and focus on sleep. I've tried plenty, and most work well enough, but they're not something I keep using after the initial excitement wears off.
Over the last few weeks, I've been testing Sona, an app that uses music from Grammy-winning producers to help you manage stress and get some sleep. It won the CES Innovation Award in 2022. Follow me through a journey of what I liked, what I could do without and what I recommend.
Sona is based on the idea that music can help reduce anxiety and that it can improve your mental health. The app is designed to increase alpha and theta brain waves, which naturally occur when we're deeply relaxed or sleeping. Sona has in-house research in partnership with Nielsen Neuroscience to test the app's effectiveness in reducing stress. That research concluded that Sona's music has a restorative or meditative effect on participants.
Sounds great. But we need to dig deeper to be sure this research was actually backed by science, as the app claims.
The concept of music therapy isn't new. There's a vast catalog of research showing how music can help decrease anxiety. Independent studies demonstrate that music can increase alpha waves and reduce beta waves because it helps relax and distract from negative feelings. Music also decreases cortisol in the brain, which is the stress hormone. When we're feeling anxious, cortisol levels increase. Listening to music can help keep them in check.
Since music is a proven way to calm the nervous system, help you fall asleep faster and increase the quality of your sleep, the premise of this app holds water. Now let's talk about what it was like using the Sona app.
Overall, I liked how simple the app is. When you open it, you'll be prompted to take a short questionnaire that helps determine how often you should use the app to ease your anxiety or help you sleep. My "listening dosage" was 15 minutes, four times each week. Once you have that recommendation, the app automatically sets your sessions to that time. However, you can extend it if so desired.
Sona has a free version and a premium subscription that costs $4.99 per month or $29.99 each year. That's quite low compared to Headspace at $12.99 per month and Calm at $14.99 per month, though it's worth noting that those meditation apps have more offerings than Sona.
I used Sona primarily when I was going to sleep, as well as while reading before bed and working. I let the songs play the first few nights, listening to whatever was next in the queue. All of them are low-tempo, acoustic and piano compositions. All the components, from the melody to the rhythm, are meant to help you relax.
The songs were all nice to listen to, though I quickly found that I had a preference for certain types of relaxing music and that some types were a little distracting. Thankfully, you have the option to skip, pause and repeat songs. To that end, one of the best features is the favorite button. The app was the most relaxing when I could play the songs I enjoyed.
One of the strongest aspects of this app is how everything is designed to help ease anxiety. It felt like a seamless experience. When you open the app and start the music, you'll get an inhale-exhale prompt that sets the tone. The background of the music screen is calm water waves.
What's more, the songs flow continuously, so you won't have the jarring element of your playlist jumping from one extreme to another. With Sona, each song fades in and out, which I found perfect for drifting off to sleep.
I was pleasantly surprised by Sona's ability to help me relax and sleep. It's a basic app with a large music catalog that allows you to favorite, skip and loop. The music was impressive and pleasant. There were a few instances of the music randomly pausing in the middle of my sessions, but it wasn't a regular problem.
Emotional regulation tools for childrenSona is less robust than other apps, especially if you want a meditation-heavy experience. Sona offers breathing prompts, but it's not focused on guiding breathing. It's primarily a music app for decreasing anxiety and increasing sleep.
While you don't need headphones to listen, using them while trying to sleep did help me focus only on the music.
Back when things were normal (remember those days?) if you were feeling particularly stressed, you might grab cocktails with a friend, or dine solo at your favorite restaurant bar, or go see a movie at your neighborhood theater, or head to an extra-sweaty spin class. But since you can’t do any of those things right now, we decided to find you some at-home alternatives. We combed through the Strategist archives for the most zen-leaning items and asked professional destressers (including a yoga teacher, cannabis entrepreneur, and natural healer) for what they suggest for instant relief in these trying times.
Strategist editor Alexis Swerdloff describes this Tata Harper potion as “an aromatic stress-treatment oil that’s like Klonopin in scent form” — and if there’s ever been a time for Klonopin in scent form, well, that time is now.
While we’re talking anxiety-medication dupes, how about a lavender stick that Strategist contributor (and formerly sleep-deprived new mom) Sara Gaynes Levy dubbed “Ambien without the side effects”? You don’t even have to check with your doctor before combining the two.
If you need something stronger, Kirsty Godso, a Nike Master Trainer, applies Mineral Health Maison Recovery Salve every single night, “and wow does it work,” she says. “I do A LOT to my body during the day and this balm is a life saver. It focuses on reducing inflammation and repairing the skin.” She likes the combination of CBD and CBG (cannabigerol) in this formula. (If sweat is still your go-to stress reliever, Godso is currently offering yoga and fitness instruction on her Instagram. Nike also announced that its premium fitness content is now free for anyone who downloads the app.)
If you’re CBD-curious but don’t want to spend so much cash, Verena Von Pfetten, co-founder of cannabis magazine Gossamer, swears by Ananda Hemp’s Spectrum Salve for her “morning dose of mobility.” “I’ve been waking up every morning with the distinct and painful inability to move my neck or shoulders,” she says. “A small scoop goes a long way.” (Ananda Hemp is also where Von Pfetten’s company sources cannabinoids for their sleep tincture Dusk.)
If you’re CBD-curious but don’t want to spend so much cash, Verena Von Pfetten, co-founder of cannabis magazine Gossamer, swears by Ananda Hemp’s Spectrum Salve for her “morning dose of mobility.” “I’ve been waking up every morning with the distinct and painful inability to move my neck or shoulders,” she says. “A small scoop goes a long way.” (Ananda Hemp is also where Von Pfetten’s company sources cannabinoids for their sleep tincture Dusk.)
An acupressure mat is no substitute for the real thing, but if you can’t visit your acupuncturist for the foreseeable future, it will help bridge the gap. This mat can provide a sense of calm and relaxation after a long day spent working from your couch, and writer Lori Keong also found it to be effective for her more intense back and neck aches, should you find yourself dealing with stress knots.
According to Yana Shept, one of the most popular photos she’s ever posted on @gelcream, her Instagram account dedicated to non-sponsored beauty reviews, “is a picture of my hand with coiled metal rings on three of my fingers.” Beyond being photogenic, though, these acupressure rings really work. Shept says they’ve helped her through some health and mental problems, and she turns “to the rings whenever I’m feeling blah or just want a little me-time moment on the go.”
If that doesn’t take care of your fidgety extremities, try these mashable magnets. They come recommended by Strategist editor Katy Schneider, who describes her fingers as “tiny, incorrigible beasts that cause actual, real-life damage: pick[ing] scabs until they bleed, unravel[ing] the sleeves of expensive sweaters.” She likes them because they’re “satisfyingly moldable” and “they’re not particularly noticeable, the way a fidget spinner is — you can hide them in your palm easily while using them.” She played with them through a dinner party undetected, but we think they’d be ideal for Zoom calls and FaceTime chats, too.
Natalie Toren bought this massage pillow at designer Leslie Aitken’s L.A. studio after hearing that Moon Juice founder Amanda Chantal Bacon and actress Dree Hemingway were fans. She wrote that it feels “as if real human fists were kneading me,” and likens the massage nodes to “hot stones a masseuse might use for an actual spa treatment.” Since it will likely be a bit until you can have an actual spa treatment, this is the next best thing.
Last year, Strategist writer Karen Iorio Adelson tested weighted blankets, which are said to relieve anxiety and improve sleep quality — something we could all use right about now. After Adelson concluded that “Baloo’s thoughtful design makes it the most comfortable and aesthetically pleasing one of the bunch,” the blanket quickly became a bestseller among Strat readers.
During stressful times, “you want to be cozy and rooted and surrounded by things that make you feel good,” says Kate Posch, a teacher at Sky Ting Yoga. That means wearing things that make you feel good, too. “I love my Parachute bathrobe,” says Posch, adding that she’s especially impressed by its supersoft Turkish cotton. (It’s also Oeko-Tex certified, meaning it’s free of harmful bleach or dye.) But don’t just take her word for it: Parachute’s robe once had a waiting list that was 1,900 people long. Fortunately, that’s no longer the case. You can buy it now, no queue necessary.
“I use Aesop Geranium — cleanser, lotions, oils — both at the start and end of the day,” says Posch. “Lately I’ve been bookending my days with a hot shower. I need that time to just be, to breathe, to have a cleansing practice.” She notes that she’s been showering twice a day not only to rid her body of germs, but also to “wash the shit that’s no longer serving a purpose in my brain.”
Godso says that “having a scent signal to you that it is time to wind down and relax is incredibly important.” She buys Maison Louis Marie candles, but notes that it’s less about a particular scent, and more about the ritual of lighting a candle. “As much as morning routine is important, so is evening routine. Appealing to the different senses is a good way to calm the system down and prepare for a good night’s sleep.”
This cannabis-odor-eliminating room spray doesn’t help with stress, per se —but it helps with something that may. “I’m not saying everyone’s smoking more weed — and we should probably talk about curbing our communal smoke intake for the foreseeable future — but if you are, and you don’t want your home to smell like a college dorm room, Veil’s the way to go,” says Von Pfetten, adding that it also “looks very nice on a shelf-scape next to an overpriced candle and a horizontal stack of books.”