There’s a meme that goes: if all of xyz artist’s fans are dead, then I am dead. Well, that’s me, but with music in general. I don’t commute without my AirPods, I don’t make a cup of coffee without it, I don’t study without it, and I’ve reached a point where I can’t sleep without it. And I most certainly do not work without it. But there’s a slight problem with listening to music while I work. I can’t count the number of times I’ve accidentally typed down the lyrics to Taylor Swift’s All Too Well into a work email or, in my case, into an article.
But also, I need something constantly playing in the background to keep my brain from wandering off on its own little adventure. So, I’m always experimenting. I went from Taylor Swift to lo-fi playlists, and eventually landed on (don’t judge me) the Subway Surfers soundtrack on repeat. It worked so well that it ended up as my top track on Spotify Wrapped that year. However, it worked… until it didn’t. I’ve recently been playing around with an app called Endel that syncs music to my heartbeat, and it’s over for both Taylor and the Subway Surfers soundtrack.
Endel syncs sound to your body and your environment
That’s the whole point
Endel is an app that creates soundscapes that adapt to your environment in real time by reacting to inputs around you and personal data from your body. The tool is available on every major platform, including iOS, Android, macOS, Amazon Alexa, the web, and even on TVs like Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV.
Now, what makes Endel different from every lo-fi playlist and white noise app aren’t the soundscapes themselves. Instead, it’s what happens behind them and how they actually reach you. Time, weather, location, and natural light all feed into your circadian rhythm. Scientific terms aside, that’s your body’s internal 24-hour clock that determines the pattern your body follows. This is the rhythm that tells your body when it’s time to sleep and when it’s time to wake up.
Your circadian rhythm also plays into when you’re most productive, when your energy dips, and when your brain is basically begging you to stop working. Endel takes advantage of this and shapes the surrounding soundscape. So, what you hear at 8 AM when your energy is climbing sounds different from what plays at 2 PM when you’re fighting that afternoon slump.
Now, time of day, weather, location, and natural light are all external factors that exist around you. Endel also takes into account your wake-up time, activity level, and what I find most interesting: heart rate. The app uses your wake-up time to ensure your circadian phases are more accurate. Activity level, on the other hand, allows the activity-themed soundscapes to adjust intensity based on your movement. So, when you’re out on a walk, the sound matches your pace and steps.
The heart rate feature only works with certain smartwatches
But there’s a workaround
When you pair Endel with a smartwatch, it begins comparing your resting heart rate to your real-time one and adjusts the tempo and intensity in real time. So say you get a Slack message and your heart starts beating faster than usual, the soundscape shifts to help you ease back down. When you’re calm and locked in (which your heart rate will reflect), the soundscape stays low and steady.
Here’s the thing, unfortunately: Endel’s heart rate sync officially only supports two platforms — Apple Watch for iOS and Wear OS smartwatches for Android. So, if you have a Fitbit, Garmin, or in my case, a Redmi Watch 5, you’re technically out of luck. At least, that’s what the support page says.
That said, after installing the app myself and testing it out for a few days, I found that the soundscapes it was playing were indeed syncing to how I was feeling at the time (depending on my heart rate, which I could definitely tell). So, I opened the app, and there it was — my heart rate syncing in real time.
I didn’t expect a smartwatch to boost my productivity this much
A smartwatch has been my smartest purchase.
I then found out it was syncing via the Apple Health app, which made sense since I had connected the Redmi Watch 5 to Apple Health earlier. So even though Endel doesn’t officially support my watch, the heart rate data was flowing through anyway, and Apple Health was acting as the middleman.
That said, the reaction time in this case is likely slower than it would be with an Apple Watch or a Wear OS device that connects to Endel directly. My Redmi Watch syncs heart rate to Apple Health at intervals rather than streaming it continuously. So Endel might be reacting to where my heart rate was a minute or two ago, not exactly where it is right now.
However, I’ve been using Endel to focus during working and studying blocks, and it’s genuinely been a lot better than I expected. Soundscapes, white noise, and lo-fi beats in general have never really worked for me and always end up making me feel… sleepy. That’s the reason why the Subway Surfers soundtrack worked so well. It had enough energy to keep me awake and engaged without demanding my attention.
The problem was that it was the same thing every time. Some days, it was too much, and other days, it felt like it was missing something. I had no way to adjust it to how I was actually feeling and what I needed at the time. Endel hits this weird sweet spot. It’s not music, so there are no lyrics to sway me away. It’s also not boring like white noise either!
Oh, and I’ve also been sleeping a lot better
That’s not something I say often
My sleep schedule is something I’d rather not talk about. Simply put, it’s a mess. The days I’m all caught up and in bed early, the sleep I’ve been longing for days on end is suddenly nowhere to be found. On nights where I’m exhausted enough to pass out the second my head hits the pillow? I wake up three hours later for absolutely no reason. Music’s been one thing that’s helped, but with a playlist like mine, staying asleep even when One Direction starts playing at 2 AM is impossible.
I’ve tried curating a sleep playlist, but it always ends up too boring. Endel’s Sleep mode, though, has been one of the rare things that’s worked for me. The soundscape gradually softens as your heart rate drops and matches the pace of your body winding down. Once you’re asleep, it plays natural sounds and colored noise to keep you undisturbed in a deep sleep. Endel also has a Smart Alarm feature where you set a wake-up time. Similar to how it soothes you into sleep, it gradually begins waking you up 5 minutes before the time you set.
I wish Endel was cheaper though
I started with the free trial and expected to uninstall the app after a week of testing. The free version, in my opinion, is more or less unusable. In just a few days, my focus sessions were lasting longer than they ever had, and I was sleeping noticeably better. So, when the trial ended, I caved and ended up subscribing.
Endel has a Premium tier you can get for $6.99/month, $19.99/3 months, $39.99/12 months, and then $249.99 for lifetime access. Students get 66% off their plan, and since I’m in college, that discount made the decision a lot easier.
