n early 2025, I hit rock bottom with my health: over 220 lbs (100+ kg), prediabetic, and wearable sleep scores stuck in the 60s. I was trapped in a brutal daily loop—waking up in a fog, chugging coffee, crashing hard at 2 PM, and staring at the ceiling wide awake at midnight. Desperate for a fix, a Huberman podcast episode sent me down a deep rabbit hole of circadian biology research. I ended up piecing together my own daily protocol based on the studies: timing my morning and evening light exposure, delaying and cutting off caffeine, aligning workouts, and cutting off late meals. That routine changed my life—my sleep scores jumped into the 80-90s, my daytime energy finally stabilized, and over the next several months, I lost nearly 90 lbs (more on the science below). The catch was that trying to manage all those timings in my head a nightmare. I was constantly doing mental math for coffee windows and juggling five different phone alarms just to stay on track. That's why I built Rhythm, an iOS app that automates that protocol by mapping your daily habits around your biological clock instead of just passively tracking bad sleep. It started as just a tool for my self, but after seeing the benefits of aligning with your body clock, I decided to productize this and share with the broader community. How it works: Daily Energy Curve Uses your sleep and wake times to forecast your natural focus peaks and afternoon dips. when will you likely be more alert and when will you feel a lull? Lock Screen Live Activities: Subtle, glanceable prompts (like stepping out for morning light, your caffeine cutoff, or evening wind-down) sit right on your Lock Screen—no noisy alarm fatigue. Lux Meter & Walk Tracker: Uses your iPhone’s camera to measure real-world light levels so you know for sure if an overcast morning or sitting by a window is bright enough to activate your body clock. Track your walks so you know you hit your light exposure target. Caffeine Control: Automatically maps your morning delay caffeine window and afternoon cutoff so caffeine boosts your energy without wrecking your deep sleep. Wind-Down & App Blocker: Prompts you an hour before your target sleep to dim bright lights, and includes a scheduled app blocker to cut off late-night doomscrolling when your brain needs to wind down. The science behind why this worked: Fixing my body clock changed both my sleep and my weight because light controls our daily hormones. Morning sunlight triggers a healthy rise in cortisol to wake you up naturally and helps it taper off by bedtime. On the flip side, your eyes get much more sensitive to light after sundown—so bright light during your evening "phase delay" window blocks your sleep hormone (melatonin) and causes nighttime cortisol spikes that keep you wired. When your sleep and cortisol are thrown off, your body cranks up your hunger hormone (ghrelin) and drops your fullness hormone (leptin). Fixing my light timing and cutting out that late-night meal quieted my constant cravings and made eating less feel effortless. If you’re tired of apps that just give you a bad sleep score and want something that helps you actively align your day, I’d love for you to give it a spin: App Store: Rhythm - Sleep & Energy Coach Pricing: 7-day free trial, then $5.99/month or $39.99/year. I'm actively refining the app, so any feedback that would mean a lot!   submitted by   /u/Fair_Awareness_8417 [link]   [comments]