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Caffeine tracking · iPhone

Caffeine Tracker for iPhone That Reads Your Sleep Back

Most caffeine trackers stop at the curve. Circa draws the curve, then checks it against the deep sleep your tracker actually measured and tells you the size of the effect in your own nights.

Download Circa on the App Store

Free · no account · ad supported

Logging

Two taps, exact numbers

A tracker is only as good as the log behind it, so Circa asks for the things that matter and nothing else.

  • Exact dose, exact unit, exact time. Type any amount. Switch between mg, g, µg, IU, ml, drops and pouches freely. A stack is a shortcut, never a constraint.
  • One tap from the Home Screen or Lock Screen. The widget carries your three most frequent intakes and logs straight from the lock screen.
  • Or just say it. "Log an espresso in Circa" works through Siri and Shortcuts.
  • Backfill without lying to yourself. Late entries are marked as backfill in the log and in the export, so the completeness figure stays honest.
The Circa log tab: caffeine now at 91 mg, 31 mg projected at 23:00, nicotine 12.5 mg
 today, decay curves crossing a 50 mg line before the marked bedtime, and the day's intake list.
The Log tab. Caffeine in system now, caffeine projected at bedtime, and the decay curve crossing the 50 mg line.

The curve

What the decay curve is, and what it is not

Circa models caffeine and nicotine clearance from what you logged and plots the result against your bedtime. Two numbers sit above it at all times: how much is in your system now, and how much is projected to remain when you go to bed. A horizontal line at 50 mg gives you a fixed reference so one day is comparable with the next.

It is a model, not a measurement. Nobody's phone can read caffeine out of their blood, and clearance rates differ a lot between people. What the app can do honestly is measure the association in your own data, which is what the Signals tab is for. See how late you can drink coffee for the arithmetic behind the tail.

Circa is a personal tracking tool, not a medical device. It does not diagnose, treat, or prevent any condition, and it gives no medical advice. Its numbers describe your own logs and your own tracker readings, nothing more. Talk to a qualified professional before you change medication, supplementation, or anything else about your health.

Download Circa on the App Store

The measurement

Caffeine at bedtime against measured deep sleep

Once you have enough complete nights, Circa fits your caffeine at bedtime against the deep-sleep minutes your tracker recorded, controlling for training load, weekday, alcohol and bedtime. The result is stated as minutes of deep sleep per 100 mg, with n, a 95 percent confidence interval and a p-value, and you can open the scatter plot of the actual nights behind it.

Minimum before an insight unlocksa set number of nights, per insight
Log completeness required80 percent of the window
Counts as an effect whenthe 95 percent interval clears zero
Retired automatically after14 days of failing that test
Cited sourceDrake et al., J Clin Sleep Med 2013

A null result stays visible as a null result. An app that only ever shows you effects is telling you something about its filter, not about your body.

Honesty

What Circa does not have

If one of these is what you came for, another app will serve you better and it is quicker to say so here.

  • No branded-drink database. There is no catalogue of thousands of chain-store drinks. You type the milligrams, or save your own item once and reuse it.
  • No barcode scanner and no camera.
  • No reminders or notifications of any kind.
  • No Apple Watch app and no Apple HealthKit integration.
  • No iCloud sync. Your data lives on the one iPhone that holds it, plus whatever you export.

For the trade-off spelled out against a specific competitor, see the HiCoffee alternative page.

Download Circa on the App Store