I’m an Anxious Mom Who Tried the Ten Percent Happier App to Help Me Relax

After the birth of my son in October 2022, I started to feel more anxious than usual. I was not diagnosed with postpartum anxiety—which I note because, if I were, I would have sought medical attention—but I wanted to feel more at ease. I was also having a lot of trouble sleeping. Sometime around the time my son turned eight months old, it occurred to me that I hadn’t slept through the night in, well… eight months.

I was sleep-deprived and therefore short on patience, so I decided to look for something that could help me learn meditation so I could live my life more calmly—and be a better example of emotional regulation for my son. I also wanted to replace my nightly scrolling with sleep meditations to fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer.

I hoped meditation could help me live life more calmly, which is something I want to model for my son. I knew the benefits of meditation are far-reaching: it can lower blood pressure, improve sleep, and even reduce the symptoms of anxiety, depression, PTSD, disordered eating, and ADHD. This is because meditation helps you focus and get back to the present moment, which can reduce the racing thoughts that can lead to negative effects.

I knew I would like meditation if I could stick with it, but sitting still with my eyes closed for meditation is daunting to me. When I’ve made attempts on my own, I feel like I don’t know what I’m doing, which led me to start making grocery lists in my head. So I decided to try Ten Percent Happier, an iOS and Android app that educates users on the benefits of meditation and mindfulness through various courses and guided meditations; it bills itself as “a meditation coach in your pocket.” I was familiar with Ten Percent Happier because I'd tried it in October 2019, then forgot about it until recently when I decided to re-subscribe. So I tested both the meditation and sleep services the app offers. And, spoiler alert: I plan to continue using it. 

How I Signed Up

Sign-up is easy, quick, and straightforward: I was asked to input my name and email and create a password. 

Then I was given full access to a robust library of content (over 500 meditations) which included guided meditations, courses, podcasts, and more. 

Because I was a former subscriber, I could re-subscribe for $59.99, though an annual subscription is typically advertised as $99. There is no option to choose a monthly subscription plan during sign-up, though the website says if you’re looking for a monthly subscription and can't afford the annual you can email customer service for help.

How Ten Percent Happier Works

The Ten Percent Happier app focuses on meditation as its core tenet, though through the lens of meditation, users can work to reduce anxiety, manage anger, or sleep better. In the app, there are more than 500 meditations to choose from and most are guided by well-regarded meditation teachers (my favorites are Oren Jay Sofer, Sebene Selassie, and Alexis Santos). Much of the content is geared toward skeptics or beginners.

If you use the search function to find topics for beginners, there is a whole collection of over 50 meditations labeled “Great for Beginners.” This is a great starting point if you’re not sure where to begin. There’s also a course called “Meditation for Skeptics” which sheds light on common misconceptions about meditation, such as “I don’t have time for this,” or “But XYZ is my meditation.”

On the bar at the bottom of the app, you can see a sleep tab, where you’ll find all the different sleep meditations (the sleep selection is a bit more limited, with around 50 meditations). Sleep meditations range from five to 30 minutes long, most hovering around 20 to 30 minutes.

In addition to guided meditations, there are also entire courses that cover topics like taming anxiety, establishing healthy habits, mindful eating, and improving focus. Each course is divided into 10 to 15 videos of around 15 minutes each.

How I Used Ten Percent Happier for Meditation

I tried to use Ten Percent Happier every day while my son took his first nap, usually at around 10 a.m. I’d light a candle, sit quietly in my office, and work on a daily meditation. If something specific was nagging at me, like work drama or a conflict with a friend, I’d use the search function to find something that aligned with my needs. 

I also occasionally used the app first thing in the morning or in the evening after dinner, but I found having a set predictable routine around the app (putting my son to sleep, then going into my office) made it easier for me to stick to a schedule.

I found myself repeatedly returning to favorite meditations including Pausing for Patience, Happiness Right Here, and Parents Have Needs Too.

This made it feasible to fit into my day where and when I could, and I was never daunted by feeling like I didn’t have the time to meditate. I also enjoyed the I Don’t Want To Meditate podcast on days when I was unmotivated to keep at it.

There is no set path or curriculum, and you can do any exercise at any time (which can be a little daunting if you’re someone like me who appreciates a little structure). One nice thing is that the app interface changes slightly depending on the time of day. So, when I opened the app at 1:45 p.m., there was a section called “Right Now: Afternoon Boost,” which included four suggested meditations for this time of day. 

When I used it in the morning, there was an option for a “morning gratitude” meditation or one you could listen to while in bed. This provided some welcome structure by helping me narrow down the possibilities.

There were far more exercises available than I thought there would be, and I liked the option to search for specific things.

As someone who often needs movement to feel most at ease (and is constantly on walks with my baby and dog), I loved that Ten Percent Happier offered walking meditations. Led by Alexis Santos, the walking exercise I enjoyed is called “Natural Walking Meditation,” which encourages you to walk at your normal pace. It simply asks you to stay aware that you are walking, to be present in your body by noticing your arms swinging or your feet moving. As the teacher says, “Being aware is mostly about remembering to notice. It’s the remembering that’s often challenging.” 

I also appreciated the reminder that meditation doesn’t necessarily have to happen seated in a lotus pose with my eyes closed; it can happen as you walk, drive, or shower. This was one of the ideas that made meditation feel more accessible to me.

Using Ten Percent Happier for Sleep

I gravitated toward shorter sleep meditations because I would drift off with some of the longer ones before they were finished, only to be awoken by the teacher’s voice at the end of the session. This would be hard to do, but it would be cool if the app could pair with a smartwatch so it could know when you fell asleep and stop playing.

One of my favorite sleep meditations was “Nightly Gratitude,” led by Jeff Warren. You can choose to do this meditation for five, 10, or 15 minutes, and it’s a meditation practice that can be done in bed. It asks you to recall a few things from the day you’re grateful for; it can be as small as something pretty you saw, a smile from a stranger, or something you ate. The meditation asks you to “tap into” whatever it was about what you enjoyed and feel grateful for. I found it relaxing and calming before bed, and I noticed a sense of overall well-being and excitement for the next day when I did this practice.

There are only three sleep stories to choose from in the Ten Percent Happier app, which may be a drawback for some. They tended not to work for me because I get into the plot of the sleep stories and struggle to drift off.

I noticed that I was able to fall asleep quickly using the app. I especially noticed it when I had time for a quick power nap of 20 to 30 minutes, usually on weekends or while my son napped. One thing I would have appreciated was soundscapes or meditation music. Sometimes when I have trouble sleeping I prefer white noise to a meditation or story. 

Additional Features I Appreciated 

One feature I liked more than expected was access to podcasts, which are available to anyone but are ad-free for subscribers. 

I listened to episodes of two of the four podcasts: “Childproof,” which is a podcast about parenting with insight from experts and real parents, and “More Than A Feeling,” which is about learning to “skillfully chose which emotions to listen to and which ones to just let move on by,” according to the podcast blurb. 

“Teacher Talks” features short five-minute “micro talks” by meditation teachers, so it’s great if you’re short on time, and “Twenty Percent Happier” offers interviews with everyday meditators plus tips to get the most out of meditating. I hope to listen to all the podcasts in the future.

Pros and Cons

Overall I noticed more benefits than drawbacks while using Ten Percent Happier. Here are some pros and cons of the app.

Final Thoughts

After using Ten Percent Happier daily for three weeks, my husband told me I seemed more “go with the flow.” To be fair, there were a few other factors during the month that I tried the app that could have contributed to my overall positive mood—we had gorgeous weather in Portland, Oregon, where I live, so I was able to spend a lot of time outside in the sun, and I dramatically reduced the amount I was breastfeeding which shifted my hormone levels. However, something I can say for sure is that unlike other times I’ve tried meditation, this time, I look forward to doing it, and I plan to stick with the app as much as possible.

Plus, you may find yourself returning to your favorite few repeatedly. It was helpful to have a tool to turn to when I woke up feeling anxious in the middle of the night or had trouble winding down before bed. In these moments, I’d do one of the body scan sleep meditations, which I found relaxing and grounding.

I do wish there had been more guidance upfront about which courses and meditations would be helpful for me.

I think the option to fill out a quick questionnaire about how you're feeling with some suggestions provided at the end would be helpful. This is why I liked the four suggested meditations based on the time of day, but something a bit more bespoke, like a “recommended for you” section, would have been great.

Overall, the content on the app was beneficial and worth the price. While I didn’t love that I had to buy an annual subscription, as I used the app, I realized there's more than a year's worth of fresh content available. I think I’ll see the best results when I start thinking of meditation as a long-term practice rather than something I try for a month. I plan to continue using the app at least until the year is up, and I recommend it to any meditation skeptics out there, those who are open-minded but new to meditation, and those who have trouble falling or staying asleep.