Headspace
Guided meditation app built around ten-minute sessions, voiced by Andy Puddicombe
A subscription app that teaches meditation in short guided sessions, most of them around ten minutes. It starts with a basics course, then branches into programs for stress, focus, sleep and anxiety, plus sleep sounds and short breathing exercises. Andy Puddicombe, a former Buddhist monk, co-founded it and records many of the sessions himself. The low time commitment is the design: people who found books on meditation intimidating tend to say this got them to sit down and keep going. Free trial, then a monthly or annual fee.
People on record
Sorted by strength of stance
Does it: documented as part of their own routine. Recommends: explicitly advises other people to do it. Discusses: covered it substantively without clear personal adoption; this can include criticism or disagreement.
- Bill GatesDoes it
Microsoft co-founder · Gates Notes reading lists
Credits the app, and Andy Puddicombe's voice on it, with turning him from skeptic to regular. Books on meditation had made the time investment feel too high; ten minutes of following Andy was a low enough bar to start and stick with.
Source: Gates Notes: Why I'm into meditation - Rich RollDoes it
Ultra-endurance athlete · The Rich Roll Podcast
The morning routine he laid out on his own show puts a twenty minute meditation in the Headspace app between the visualization and the journal.
Source: The Rich Roll Podcast: morning routine AMA - Rhonda PatrickRecommends
Biomedical scientist · FoundMyFitness
Anyone curious about meditation can try Headspace, she suggests, describing it as an audio guide with a couple of million users. Her own preference is time outdoors rather than a guided session.
Source: FoundMyFitness: meditation solocast
Aimed at the same thing
Other entries filed under stress, focus or sleep.
- App$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Reveri
Self-hypnosis sessions for sleep, stress and pain
On record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 recommends it - Supplement$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
L-theanine
Amino acid from tea used for calm focus, or with caffeine
On record from 2 of 62 tracked people: 2 do it - ProtocolFREE, no cost
Non-sleep deep rest (NSDR)
10-20 minute guided body-scan rest, sometimes called yoga nidra
On record from 2 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it, 1 has discussed it - Protocol$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
HRV biofeedback training
Paced breathing against a live heart rate variability readout, a few minutes a day
On record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 recommends it - App$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Calm
Meditation and sleep app with guided sessions, sleep stories and soundscapes
On record from 2 of 62 tracked people: 2 do it - App$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Waking Up
Sam Harris's meditation course, heavy on the theory as well as practice
On record from 2 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it, 1 recommends it
App entry · notes paraphrased from cited sources, quoted excerpts copied from the transcript they link to. Not medical advice. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or reviewed by anyone listed. How this works.