Once again you find yourself sat watching the TV, full up from dinner and yawning thinking it's probably time to head to bed soon.

It appears though that there is a lot more to sleeping than just heading to bed early in order to wake up feeling refreshed and ready for your commute to work.

There are so many online tools and apps out there, tailored towards analysing your sleep patterns and helping you get a good night's kip - but which one do you choose?

Bedtime

Even your iPhone can now have a say on when you should be hitting the sack.

You can set your bedtime and wake-up time, rather than have it dictated to you, and a feature on the iPhone clock will just notify you when you should be heading to bed.

You can also link this to your Health app which analyses your sleeping patterns.

The app says: "Set a bedtime. Wake at the same time, stay consistent."

Built-in feature on your iPhone

Fitbit

From food intake to step count, exercise tracking and even sleep analysis, there is little that this little wristwatch misses out on.

The watch monitors your sleeping pattern, analysing moments you wake up and also moments when you are restless during the night.

You can set a goal bedtime, wake-up time and goal sleep time (seven to nine hours is advised) and the watch, alongside your phone app, will alert you to when you should start getting ready for bed.

The Fitbit app says: "Aim to wake up and to go to sleep within 30 minutes of your target time.

"Waking up and going to bed at a consistent time can help you sleep better and get more sleep."

Fitbit prices start from around £69.99

Sleep Cycle alarm clock

Yet another app for your phone, this program requires the you to place your phone by the bed.

The app then analyses your sleep pattern - and when it is time to wake up, it will alert you at your lightest sleep phase.

Available for free on the App Store

Digipill

This app creates audio 'pills' which have been designed around psychoacoustics to help with issues such as smoking, stress and sleeping.

Each audio track plays for around half-an-hour to help target your issue.

The website says: "The technique can even be used to approach natural highs not unlike that of some physical pills."

Could this be your new form of sleeping tablet?

Download the app and receive a complimentary pill

Pills on the app range from from around 69p to £4.99

Sleep Well Hypnosis

This tool works in a similar way, playing music which claims to help you fall asleep easily and experience deep and restorative sleep.

Available for free on the App Store

Pillow

Similar to the Fitbit, the Apple watch can also monitor your sleeping pattern alongside heart rate analysis.

According to the app, it monitors your movements and sounds while you sleep, keeping a history of how well you have slept and judging when is the best time to wake you up.

Available for free on the App Store, to be used with an Apple Watch which are priced from around £269

SleepBot

This app says it will wake you up at the right time for you and also provides sleep tracking statistics.

Tell the app when you are going to sleep and it will automatically set your phone to aeroplane mode and then switch it off again when you wake up.

Available for free on the App Store.

Sleep Talk Recorder

Have you ever been told that you talk in your sleep but never quite believed it?

Well, you can hear your conversations for yourself on the Sleep Talk Recorder app, which does exactly what it says on the tin - it records what you say in your sleep.

Maybe you just want to find out if you snore, or prove that your partner is keeping you awake with their loud snores.

This could be your answer!

Available for free on the App Store.

Dream Moods

If you want to venture further into your sleeping world, there is an app which claims to interpret your dreams.

You can either type in or voice record your dream and keep them all logged within the app as a

journal type entry.

Once you have logged your dream, the app will then tell you what it could mean.

Available for free on the App Store.

Sleep Calculator

A Sleep Calculator has been created which tells us at what time we need to jump into our PJs and settle down under the covers, all according to what time we want to wake up.

It considers the average time it takes for a person to fall asleep - which they say is 14 minutes - and lays out our nightly sleep pattern into five or six 90-minute cycles.

According to the website, waking up mid-cycle can leave you feeling tired and grumpy, whereas rising in between cycles can help you start the day in a good mood.

So if you were setting your alarm for 7am in the morning, Sleep Calculator - which is free to use online - says you can go to bed at one of four different times.

For early birds, you will need to head to bed at 9.46pm or 11.16pm.

Or if you have evening plans, you can stay up a bit later until either 12.46am or even as late as 2.16am, suggesting that it isn't all about getting an early night.

The Sleep Calculator website reads: "Getting a good night's sleep is about more than simply going to bed early – it's about waking up at the right time too.

"Using a formula based on the body's natural rhythms, the Sleep Calculator will work out the best time for you to rise or go to sleep."

In the next few weeks, our reporter David Rivers will be testing out the Sleep Calculator method to see how it works for him.

But why not give it a try yourself and let us know how you get on! You can contact us via email to lois.swinnerton@trinitymirror.com.