Waking Up: Meditation & Wisdom

Waking Up LLC

In-app purchases

About this app

Recognized as a 2025 Pick by NYT Wirecutter

Thousands worldwide call Waking Up life-changing. Whether you want better sleep, more clarity, or deeper meditation, Waking Up is your complete guide.

What’s Inside

• Introductory Course—a transformative 28-day program, for both beginners and experienced meditators
• Daily Meditations—regular guided sessions with Sam Harris
• Moments—short reflections when you need them most
• Daily Quotes—a spark of insight each day
• Reflections—breif lessons that shift perspective
• Sleep—talks and meditations to help you rest
• Meditation Timer—customize your own sessions
• A vast library of meditations, theory sessions, life courses, conversations, and Q&As
• Community—connect with members to discuss meditation, philosophy, psychedelics, and more


Why Waking Up Stands Out

Unlike conventional meditation apps, Waking Up blends practice with theory—so you not only learn to meditate but also understand how it transforms your mind. It’s meditation, science, and timeless wisdom in one place.

Topics & Techniques

Our library combines contemplative traditions with modern science, offering tools for both practice and understanding. Techniques include mindfulness (Vipassana), Loving-Kindness, body scans, yoga nidra, and nondual awareness practices from Dzogchen, Zen, and Advaita Vedanta. Topics span neuroscience, psychology, Stoicism, ethics, psychedelics, productivity, and happiness.

Content & Teachers

Created by neuroscientist and best-selling author Sam Harris, Waking Up features leading voices in meditation, philosophy, and psychology:

• Practice—Vipassana, Zen, Dzogchen, Advaita Vedanta (Joseph Goldstein, Diana Winston, Adyashanti, Henry Shukman, Richard Lang)
• Theory—Philosophy and science of consciousness, ethics, and well-being (Alan Watts, Charlotte Joko Beck, Joan Tollifson, James Low, Douglas Harding)
• Life—Mindfulness in relationships, productivity, Stoicism, and more (David Whyte, Oliver Burkeman, Matthew Walker, Amanda Knox, Donald Robertson, Bob Waldinger)
• Conversations—Sam Harris with Yuval Noah Harari, Michael Pollan, Morgan Housel, Roland Griffiths, Cal Newport, Shinzen Young, and more
• Q&As—Sam Harris with Joseph Goldstein, Adyashanti, Henry Shukman, Jack Kornfield, Loch Kelly

Created by Sam Harris

Neuroscientist and best-selling author Sam Harris built Waking Up as the resource he wished he’d had when he began meditating 30 years ago. Every practice, course, and teacher is chosen for its power to change lives.

Testimonials

“Waking Up has led to my most consistent meditation practice. Family and staff also use it because it’s such a powerful tool.” —Andrew Huberman, neuroscientist

“Waking Up is a critical part of my daily practice. It’s my go-to for presence, peace, and well-being.” —Rich Roll, athlete & author

“Waking Up is the most important meditation guide I’ve ever used.” —Peter Attia, MD

“If you’ve had trouble getting into meditation, this app is your answer!” —Susan Cain, best-selling author

Free for Anyone Who Can’t Afford It

We never want money to be the reason someone can’t benefit.

Subscriptions renew unless auto-renew is disabled 24 hours before the current period ends. Manage in Apple account settings. Payment charged to your Apple account.

Terms: https://wakingup.com/terms-of-service/

Privacy: https://wakingup.com/privacy-policy/

Satisfaction guarantee: Email [e-mail] for a full refund.

Ratings and reviews

This app stands out from all the other guided meditation apps I know of. It is more like an inner journey of self discovery, for which meditation is the medium. And there's an aspect of pragmatism to it as well - in small steps, all the things you discover in your journey, you will have ideas for how to integrate them in your daily life. I'm grateful to have found it in this phase of my life -- I'd surely recommend you try it out too!

This is a wonderful app. It features high-quality meditations and supplementary lessons; the content is secular (i.e. there's no woo whatsoever); there are no ads; etc. I tried Balance, another meditation app, and found Waking Up to be soooo much better. The subscription is expensive, but there are even scholarship options if one can't afford to pay the full price. Also, if you do intend to subscribe, check the pricing on the website, which might be cheaper than in-app.

After just a few days of daily practice for just about 10 minutes, I could honestly already feel how Mindfulness meditation gave me a different perspective on some things. It helps me to be more concentrated and better in contact with others. The lessons, which are small talks from Sam Harris, are really helpful as well and give tips for both, meditation and the daily life. I can only recommend to try the first 5 days of the Waking Up Course for free and look how it affects you, and it will.

What’s new

We’ve made some behind-the-scenes improvements to enhance your app experience. This update focuses on fixing bugs and optimizing performance, ensuring everything runs smoothly and reliably. No big changes to note this time—just refining the little details that make a big difference.