Dreams Calendar vs How We Feel: connecting overnight dreams & sleep to daytime emotion tracking
How We Feel is an acclaimed free nonprofit app for naming precise daytime emotions across high/low-energy quadrants and watching short regulation videos. Dreams Calendar is also 100% free on iPhone and iPad, while adding the missing overnight half of the day: real-hour sleep blocks, dream diaries, nightmare and latency counters, daydreams, five-question evening reflections and a scatter chart linking sleep quality to emotion balance.
1. 24-hour dream-and-sleep calendar vs daytime emotion check-ins
How We Feel asks you to tap one of four energy/pleasantness color quadrants to pinpoint a granular emotion word, tag who you are with or where you are, and optionally try a one-minute regulation exercise. However, it is not built as a bedside dream diary or manual sleep-hour log.
Dreams Calendar places nights and days on one shared calendar. Night Dreams log your sleep window, 1–10 sleep quality stars, 1–10 morning energy, sleep latency, awakenings, nightmares, dream text and 30 tappable emotion chips; Day Dreams and five-question Day Reflections reuse those exact same 30 chips.
| Feature | Dreams Calendar (v1.1) | How We Feel |
|---|---|---|
| Overnight dream diary & nightmares | Dedicated Night Dream wizard + nightmare counter | Not a dream journal (optional check-in note only) |
| Manual sleep metrics | Sleep hours, 1–10 quality, 1–10 energy, latency & awakenings | Optional Apple Health sleep/step import; no manual sleep timeline |
| Emotion selection method | 30 tappable chips (15 positive + 15 negative; multi-select) | 144+ granular emotion words across 4 energy quadrants |
| Evening structured review | 5 grounded reflection questions per evening | Context tags (who, where, doing what) + short video lessons |
| Calendar & timeline layouts | 6 views: Month, Day, Year, Multi-day sleep blocks, List, Statistics | Check-in feed & emotion breakdown views |
2. Privacy, permissions and zero-account storage
Both apps take user privacy seriously. How We Feel stores journal data locally on device (with optional iCloud backup, HealthKit correlation and optional social friend sharing).
Dreams Calendar takes an even stricter minimal-permission stance: it requests zero HealthKit, location, photo, microphone or contact permissions, offers no social sharing and stores everything solely in local SwiftData on one device (no iCloud sync and no export in v1.1).
| Privacy factor | Dreams Calendar (v1.1) | How We Feel |
|---|---|---|
| Account requirement | None | None required for core logging |
| System permissions requested | Optional single daily notification only | Optional Notifications, HealthKit, Location, Photos |
| Social / friend check-in sharing | None (strictly solo private calendar) | Optional trusted-friends mood sharing |
| Backup & export | iOS device backup only; no v1.1 file export | iCloud backup & export options |
| Biometric lock | iOS 18 native Home Screen Require Face ID | In-app passcode / Face ID option |
3. Both are $0 — when to use one or both
How We Feel is donor-funded with zero ads and zero subscriptions; Dreams Calendar is independently published for $0 with zero subscriptions and occasional AdMob interstitials outside the writing flow.
Use How We Feel when you want a deep 144-word vocabulary and psychologist-taught video strategies during the workday; use Dreams Calendar when you want to capture morning dreams, log sleep latency and see how sleep quality aligns with emotional balance across 10 Swift Charts.
| Scenario | Dreams Calendar | How We Feel |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $0 (occasional AdMob interstitials; 0 IAPs) | $0 (nonprofit donor-funded; 0 ads) |
| Sleep quality vs emotion scatter plot | Built into Statistics tab | Relies on Apple Health sleep hours if connected |
| Video coaching & regulation tools | None — uncoached calendar & charts | Short expert-led regulation strategies |
| iPad native calendar experience | Native iPadOS 18 & iOS 18 layouts | Primarily iPhone-centric check-in flow |
Can I pick multiple positive and negative emotions on one dream in Dreams Calendar?
Yes. Unlike single-word check-ins, you can tap as many of the 15 positive and 15 negative emotion chips as apply to a single dream or reflection.
Does Dreams Calendar require Apple Health access to show sleep charts?
No. All five sleep charts and the sleep-vs-emotion scatter plot are built directly from your quick morning wizard ratings.
Does Dreams Calendar include coaching videos or psychology lessons?
No. It stays completely uncoached so you can log and review your own dates quickly.
Are both apps completely free of subscriptions?
Yes — neither How We Feel nor Dreams Calendar charges a subscription or locks features behind in-app purchases.
