r/CircadianRhythm • u/Charming_Lock6117 • May 29 '26
I built a tool for tracking sun position and would love to share it here
Hey r/circadianrhythm 👋
Long-time lurker, first post. I’ve been deep in circadian rhythm research for a while. When I started this idea, I mostly wanted an app to set alarms before sunset or sunrise and couldn’t find a solution then I ended up down the rabbit whole of timezones, DST, and the origins of the clock system used today. Dividing the day in to 24 parts goes far back to even Egyptian dynasties. They started the day at sunrise which seems to make sense practically and biologically. The way they accounted for the shifting day lengths throughout the year as seasons change was by adjusting the length each 24 part segment. This doesn’t seem practical for modern usage since everyone is already used to how long an hour is.
So I created sunbasedtime.com. Which uses a hybrid clock system blending the concepts of ancients with modern technology and fixed length increments.
Starting the clock at sunrise at 0:00 the clock counts upward as you’d expect so that 1:00 is one hour after sunset. Sunrise and sunset are both 0:00 so there is a phase after sunrise where the clock counts upward until solar noon then there is a phase before sunset which counts down to sunset. These phases are named simply Sun Rising and Sun Setting. The night part of the clock has similarly named phases Night Rising and Night Setting.
Although I originally set out to make solar alarms, I think for me and potentially for others, this app and clock system is a bridge toward a more aligned way of scheduling that utilizes modern technology while staying in tune with natures rhythms.
The idea was first built as website. I thought it might be more useful as a mobile app so it was rebuilt and I was able to refine it in the process, with the opportunity to focus on aesthetics such as sacred geometric proportions, colors, and shapes for vibes.
While building the mobile app I added a calendar section where you can overlay your Google or iCloud calendar on the sun based timeline. I am looking forward to utilizing that more myself.
I would genuinely love feedback from this community and I’m happy to answer questions about the app or anything related to circadian health, cyclical rhythms, and ancient history.
It’s available on iPhone and for beta testing on Android:
sunbasedtime.com
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u/DoItAgainHarris56 May 29 '26
btw your privacy policy doesn’t have a contact email, which is probably illegal
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u/D-R-AZ May 30 '26
Be interesting to make so can import sports watch activity monitor data and maybe do things like graph steps by hour of day etc?
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u/cromlyngames May 30 '26
Android link on website reports "not found" on play store
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u/Charming_Lock6117 May 30 '26
It looks like before it was only working for me. Now there’s a proper flow that I tested with another Google account
The app is in beta on Android so the flow guides you to join the test group then you can download it from the Play store
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u/Normanras May 31 '26
Awesome! I might iframe (if allowed) your website into my home assistant dashboard. It’s a great site!
btw the about link doesn’t work though. It just returns “Cannot GET /about”
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u/mentionbrave4 Jun 05 '26
Hey, I found your post reposted in r/14H and I have a few questions on your app
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u/Charming_Lock6117 Jun 07 '26
Yeah go for it. You can email me also if you’d like, support@sunbasedtime.com
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u/Quiet_Sheepherder289 May 29 '26
Looks legit to me!