SleepDrift documentation

Every launch opens on the Player, stopped. There is nothing to configure before the first night.

1. Pick a colour: White, Pink, Brown or Grey. First launch starts on Brown at 25% volume.
2. Adjust the volume. It changes only SleepDrift's own level, never your system volume.
3. Optionally set an end: a duration, a clock time, or neither for continuous play (continuous needs the unlock after the trial).
4. Press Play. Lock the phone — playback continues with the screen off.

The four colours are generated on your iOS device, not played from recordings, so there is no loop point and no repeating sample to notice. Switching colours mid-session starts a fresh generator for the new colour with a click-free transition. Grey replaces Violet in this version — the set is White, Pink, Brown, Grey.

Volume runs 0–100% in five-point steps with a quadratic response, so the lower half of the slider makes fine adjustments. VoiceOver and touch adjust by the same steps. The level persists: reopening the app restores your last gain.

Deepen adds a slow 0.8 Hz pulse to Pink, and only to Pink. It is OFF the first time you open the app, and it stays hidden for the other three colours — switching away from Pink keeps your saved Deepen value but stops showing the control. It is a mechanical variation on the sound, not a claim about deeper sleep.

• Duration offers OFF, 15, 30, 45, 60, 90 or 120 minutes. A duration you set while silent starts counting at the first audible output.
• Clock is an inline time picker for a one-shot local stop — e.g. 6:30 AM means the next strictly future 6:30 AM, never a daily alarm. Arming works immediately even before playback starts; an expired stop needs explicit re-arming.
• Both stops survive pausing, route changes, interruptions, purchase and relaunch. Each ends only through its own expiry or by setting it back to OFF.

Bluetooth speakers and headphones, the lock screen and Control Center share the Player's meaning: play and pause control the same session with the same deadlines. If the audio route disappears (speaker switched off, headphones unplugged), playback suspends without sound spilling to another speaker — press Play explicitly to resume the same live session.

The gear opens one combined Settings & About sheet with Done: purchase and access state, Help (feedback, support, privacy), local Diagnostics, and About with the version and acknowledgements. Returning with Done restores the exact Player state, including scroll position.

Everything below ships in version 1. Nothing here is a roadmap promise.

White, Pink, Brown and Grey are synthesized on your iOS device at playback time. No audio files, no downloads, no streaming, no loop seams. Colour changes apply within the same session with a click-free transition of 50 ms or less.

SleepDrift takes exclusive playback: it does not mix with or duck under other apps' audio. Starting playback needs to reach audibility within about a second; if the audio cannot start within five seconds the attempt fails openly with an explicit Retry — never a silent stall, never an automatic loop.

Duration and clock are independent, persisted timers:

• A duration set while running replaces the old one with the full new length at edit time.
• A clock stop is one-shot: it fires once at the next strictly future occurrence, then needs re-arming.
• Both survive Stop and pause, route loss, audio failure, the hourly trial cap, purchase and relaunch.
• While any stop is armed, the Player shows the minutes and seconds remaining (hours, minutes and seconds at an hour or more), the effective end, and which stop wins when both are set.

A 0.8 Hz amplitude pulse applied only to Pink, with a plain on-device explanation of what it does. Hidden for White, Brown and Grey; your saved Deepen choice is retained when you switch back to Pink.

Bluetooth play/pause buttons, headphone controls, lock screen and Control Center all drive the same session. Route loss suspends; resuming is always an explicit press, in the same session with the same cap and deadlines — never a new paid start, never resurrected audio after a cold launch or reboot.

• Trial: 7 days from first launch. Each session plays up to one hour.
• Unlock: one $3.99 purchase removes the hourly cap for continuous all-night playback.
• Buying never starts sound by itself: after unlock, stopped sound still needs a fresh press of Play, with settings and surviving stops intact.
• After the trial, configuration edits (sound, volume, timers, preferences) always remain usable; only starting sound beyond the hourly sessions needs the unlock.
• The purchase screen appears only from deliberate foreground intent — an Unlock button or a denied on-screen Play — as one dismissible native sheet with Close, plus Restore Purchase.

A local Diagnostics section states the app version, OS, capability, and counts of operational events within a seven-day, 1 MiB window. Nothing is uploaded automatically. If you ask for help, you can explicitly export a UTF-8 report through the system share sheet and send it yourself.

• Requires iOS or iPadOS 17 or later.
• iPhone in portrait; iPad in portrait and landscape including multitasking sizes. One window. Mac and Vision Pro are not supported.
• Fully offline: playback, timers, settings and diagnostics all work with no connection. The network is used only for things you start yourself: the App Store purchase, the support and feedback pages in Safari, and a diagnostic report you choose to share.

Your settings, timers and preferences stay exactly as they are and remain editable. Starting a sound session beyond the one-hour trial sessions asks for the one-time $3.99 unlock. Nothing you configured is ever locked behind payment.

No. SleepDrift is a free download, then one $3.99 purchase that removes the hourly session cap for good. No subscription, no ads, no upsell inside the app.

If Family Sharing is enabled for the purchase, family members can download SleepDrift and restore the unlock on their own devices with their own Apple ID.

During the 7-day trial each session is capped at one hour — that is the boundary the trial draws. The Player shows the cap alongside your timers while it runs. The $3.99 unlock removes it for continuous all-night playback.

Duration is elapsed time from when sound starts (OFF, 15, 30, 45, 60, 90 or 120 minutes). Clock is a wall-clock stop — a one-shot local time like 6:30 AM that fires at its next strictly future occurrence. They run independently, both stay visible, and the Player tells you which one wins when both are armed.

No. It plays steady noise and stops when asked. It records nothing about your night, scores nothing, and makes no claims about sleep stages or sleep quality.

Neither. No account, no sign-in, no analytics. Playback, timers, settings and diagnostics all work fully offline. The only network use is the App Store purchase itself, the support pages if you open them, and a diagnostic report you explicitly choose to share.

On your iOS device, in the app's on-device store. SleepDrift has no server of its own. System device backup may include the preferences as part of your normal backup; the app itself uploads nothing.

Yes. Bluetooth, headphone, lock-screen and Control Center play/pause all control the same session. If the route disappears mid-session, playback suspends rather than spilling onto another speaker — press Play to resume the same session.

No. SleepDrift's volume is app-only gain from 0–100% in five-point steps. Your ringer and system volume are untouched.

The session suspends. Resuming is an explicit press of Play within the same live session and cap — the app never restarts audio on its own after an interruption, a cold launch or a reboot.

Purchases are handled by Apple, so refunds go through them at reportaproblem.apple.com. You can also ask through the feedback form and we will point you to the right place.

1. Check the volume: SleepDrift's gain is app-only, so turn it up in the Player while your system volume is at a normal level.
2. Check the route: if a Bluetooth speaker or headphones connected, audio goes there. Reconnect or reselect the output.
3. If the start fails, the Player says so with an explicit Retry. A failed start never leaves a phantom session running — Retry is a fresh start of the same session.

Read the Player's deadline summary: it shows every live stop and which one won. The usual causes:

• The hourly trial cap ended the session during the trial — the summary names it.
• The other stop fired first: a duration you forgot, or a clock stop armed from an earlier night. Expired stops need explicit re-arming.
• A route loss (speaker off, headphones unplugged) suspended playback — press Play to resume.

If a required preference cannot be read, the app keeps your live value, marks it visibly as not saved, and offers Retry rather than silently reverting. A successful retry clears the flag; nothing you set is lost.

Use Restore Purchase in Settings & About with the same Apple ID used for the purchase — it restores immediately at no cost. If it does not restore, send a note through the feedback form with your receipt and we will sort it out.

SleepDrift generates sound continuously on the device, so stuttering points at the system, not the sound: low-power throttling, an overloaded Bluetooth link, or another app competing for audio (SleepDrift plays exclusively and does not mix). Try the phone speaker to isolate a Bluetooth issue, then include your device model, OS version and what you found in a feedback message.

Clock stops follow your device's local time, including daylight-saving changes; a time that does not exist on a transition day fires at the first valid instant instead. Duration stops measure elapsed time and are unaffected by clock changes.

Send what broke, what you expected, and what the app did instead through the feedback form — one form for every TLC Designs app, answered by a human, usually within 2 business days. Your device model, OS version and the SleepDrift version (Settings → About) speed things up.