“Hey! Wake up!” is what I heard one evening after a week of late nights and hard work.

Annoyed and embarrassed, I got up to have my fifth expresso, which obviously wasn’t working. “I know! There must be an app for that, right?”.

Most of the apps out there are aimed at drivers. Although not a showstopper the way they work just isn’t practical for someone working in an office, or studying or any task where you need to be alert and focused.

The first app we tried had a neat feature that tried to simulate you talking to someone, but what that meant was repeating random words back to your phone which if you got wrong or the app didn’t quite hear you, would cause an alarm to ring. Not so great if you need to concentrate on what you’re doing or working in an office or studying environment.

The next app we used would give you nudges at varying times to jolt you awake. Great if you like things vibrating in your pocket indiscriminately, but we found ourselves getting annoyed with getting nudged every couple of seconds. Eventually we just started to ignore the buzzes.

A group of apps worked by detecting if your eyes were sleepy. Some of these apps seemed promising until we found that we had to have our phones in the correct position to see our eyes before it would even start working. And when working, the number of times that they would catch us nodding off were few and far between.

Daylight suppresses the secretion of melatonin. There are apps that try to exploit this fact and emit blue light to help reduce the amount of melatonin that our body produces and therefore make us feel more awake. We tested a couple of these apps and the biggest takeaway we had was that you would need to be in a darkened room to get the effects of the blue light. I work in front of a computer screen in a bright office. For me at least, I didn’t get the feeling that I was more awake using these apps. My colleague was indifferent.

Caffeine works, but doesn’t give you more energy. Adenosine is a natural compound that your body produces whilst you are awake. It helps promote sleep and relaxation so as the day goes on your adenosine levels rise. Your brain contains adenosine receptors that bind with the adenosine in your system making you feel more tired. Caffeine blocks your adenosine receptors so that your body is tricked into not feeling tired!

And like everything in nature, you don’t get something for nothing. Some of the proven negative side effects of caffeine include:

- Addiction and Dependence
- Cardiovascular Problems
- Sleep Disturbances
- Increased Anxiety

There is something that works when you are tired and has been proven to work, is natural and free – sleep. Sleep heals your body. Unfortunately, most of us fight our tiredness as if it is something to be defeated.


This is where V-CAF Stay Awake, Stay Alert comes in. Unlike most apps and caffeine, our app works with your body to alert you to when you become drowsy. By using your Apple Watch and iPhone, V-CAF not only alerts you to when you’re most likely to fall asleep, but also alert you to when your focus and alertness levels decrease.

And in this release our new tend prediction feature will help you to know when your alertness levels are likely to change, allowing you to better understand when you are at your most productive.

We’ve also included context relevant articles from our blog – https://blog.v-caf.org – on your V-CAF iPhone app. Just scroll through and click on an article title which will open in your default browser.

Download V-CAF now for free and see how it can help you stay awake, stay alert and stay focused.

Features
- Needs an Apple Watch, an iPhone is optional
- Notifies you when you are tired via your Apple Watch and iPhone
- Notifications can be an alarm of your choice or if in silent mode, vibration alerts via your Apple Watch or iPhone
- Not only focused on drivers! It is useful for professionals and students of all types and ages