Are there a bunch of great skills that just bought an Amazon Echo? Download these 15 essential Alexa skills! Just bought an echo from amazon? Download these 15 essential Alexa skills! Alexa, the virtual assistant that powers Amazon's Echo line of speakers, is getting smarter every day thanks to a growing number of skills. Here are 15 skills everyone should enable as soon as they unbox their... Read More These skills can entertain, increase your productivity and, in the case of sleep and relaxation sounds, help you fall asleep and get a good night's rest!
Once installed, you can enable the skill by saying “Alexa, enable the Sleep Sounds skill.” You can also enable it through your Amazon Echo account in a browser or on your phone.
Once enabled, you can start by saying “Alexa, open Sleep Sounds.” You can then start playing sounds that are available through the skill. If you want to fall asleep to the sound of a thunderstorm, say “Play thunderstorm.”
One great feature (which is unfortunately only available to premium users) is the ability to mix sounds. So you can say "Play storm and frogs." You can find the full list of available sounds by saying “List Sounds.” (That list is also available on the skills page here, as it can be hard to keep track of all the options as Alexa lists them.)
You can switch between the sounds using the voice commands “Next” and “Previous.” If you want to stop the sound, you can do it in two ways. You can use the voice command “Stop,” or if you want to use Sleep Sounds to fall asleep, set a timer. After you've started the sound you want to hear, say “Alexa set a sleep timer for 1 hour” (or however long you want the sound to play).
If you prefer to stick with a free service, A Soft Murmur is a great service full of ambient sounds This site customizes sounds to help you focus or fall asleep This site customizes sounds to help you focus or fall asleep or white noise in the background while whether you work or sleep, this site is the best yet, because it allows you to customize each sound. Read More Available as an iOS and Android app, or simply to use in any browser, you can connect it to your Amazon Echo using Bluetooth.
At the time of this writing, Sleep Sounds has not yet set a final pricing structure for premium members, but they are looking at a monthly fee of around $9.95. Other premium membership benefits include access to additional sounds, combining sounds, saving your favorites, and creating playlists.
What do you think of the Sleep Sounds ability? Is it something you find yourself relying on to fall asleep? Do you keep your Amazon Echo on your nightstand? Let us know in the comments.
