Natural Cycles launches sleep insights designed around the menstrual cycle
New Sleep Insights feature helps women understand how hormonal changes may affect sleep
Natural Cycles has launched a new sleep tracking feature designed to help women better understand how hormonal changes throughout the menstrual cycle may influence sleep, recovery and overall wellbeing.
Called Sleep Insights, the feature is being added to the company’s app and combines sleep data from connected wearables - including Natural Cycles’ own wearable - with cycle information and daily user check-ins.
And while sleep tracking has become increasingly mainstream, many consumer sleep platforms do not incorporate menstrual cycle data when interpreting sleep patterns.
“We hear from many women that they notice changes in their sleep throughout their cycle, but most sleep platforms aren’t designed to explain those patterns through the lens of female physiology,” said Dr Magda Armbruster, Vice President of Product at Natural Cycles.
“Because Natural Cycles already helps users understand their hormonal patterns and fertility status, we’re uniquely positioned to connect sleep changes to the menstrual cycle and deliver insights that feel more personal, relevant, and actionable.”
Personalised insights on sleep
Natural Cycles’ new feature includes a daily morning check-in where users can record how they slept, alongside sleep metrics such as duration, efficiency and timing collected from connected devices. The app then combines those signals with fertility status and cycle phase to generate personalised insights.
Over time, users can also view longer-term trends to explore how sleep patterns may change across different stages of their cycle.
Research has suggested that hormonal fluctuations throughout the menstrual cycle may influence sleep quality, sleep architecture and perceived restfulness, particularly during the premenstrual phase. Research has also shown that women's subjective experience of sleep quality does not always align with objective sleep measurements, particularly during the premenstrual phase.
Natural Cycles says combining wearable data with subjective experiences may help create a more complete picture of how women experience sleep throughout the month.
Wearable integration
Natural Cycles’ new feature expands the role of the NC° Band, Natural Cycles’ first proprietary wearable, which launched earlier this year and collects temperature and heart rate data.
Sleep Insights will initially be available to users tracking overnight with the NC° Band and the Oura Ring. The company said support for Garmin and Apple Watch users is planned following launch.
Founded in 2013 by physicists Dr Elina Berglund Scherwitzl and Dr Raoul Scherwitzl, Natural Cycles developed the first FDA-cleared birth control app and has since expanded into pregnancy planning, pregnancy, postpartum and perimenopause tracking. The company says it now has more than six million registered users worldwide.
The addition of Sleep Insights marks Natural Cycles’ latest move beyond fertility tracking, as digital health companies look to build broader platforms around women’s health, physiology and personalised health data.