Which apps listen for bruxism at night, and how to set up Snore Timeline to record the sound of grinding.
A teeth grinding recorder app listens through your phone's microphone overnight and saves the moments that may be grinding, so you can play them back in the morning. On the US App Store, Bruxa, GrindMute and Do I Snore or Grind are built around grinding, and SnoreLess, Sleep Island and SleepyNight list it among the night sounds they pick up. Snore Timeline has no grinding label. Turn on Loud Sound Detection and it saves any sound above your room's background noise as a Loud Sound episode, grinding included, and keeps the whole night's audio on your phone with nothing to buy. No phone app can hear clenching, which makes no sound, and these apps do not diagnose bruxism.
| App | What it listens for | Audio you can replay | Purchases | Privacy label |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Snore Timeline | Snoring, sleep talking, coughs, gasps; grinding through Loud Sound Detection | The whole night, plus every episode | None | Data Not Collected |
| Bruxa | Ranks the night's moments for you to judge; doesn't count grinding [6] | The whole night on a sound timeline [6] | PRO, $14.99 one-time | Data Not Collected |
| GrindMute | Possible grinding patterns, with an optional alert sound [7] | Short clips of detections [7] | Subscription or $79.99 lifetime | Collects data |
| Do I Snore or Grind | Snoring and grinding [8] | Listing: recordings to hear next morning | None listed | Collects data |
| SnoreLess | Snoring, sleep talking, coughs, grinding [9] | Short highlights [9] | None | Data Not Collected |
| Sleep Island | Night sounds including possible grinding [10] | Clips; full playback past free previews needs Premium [10] | Subscription or $29.99 lifetime | Collects data |
| SleepyNight | Snoring, sleep talking, grinding [11] | Listing doesn't say | Premium, $6.99 to $29.99 | Collects data |
Bruxism means grinding or clenching your teeth, or bracing your jaw. A 2018 international consensus split it into sleep bruxism and awake bruxism, and it called sleep bruxism a jaw muscle activity during sleep. In otherwise healthy people the panel treats it as a behavior that can raise the risk of problems, not as a disorder in itself [4].
Sleep bruxism comes in episodes. The Sleep Foundation says each one usually lasts up to a second, and most happen in the lighter stages of non-REM sleep [2]. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine puts the rate at about 8% of young to middle-aged adults and 14% to 17% of children, and it notes that you may not know you grind unless someone hears the noise [1].
That noise is what a phone records. A microphone hears teeth scraping together. It can't hear a clenched jaw, because clenching is silent. Sleep labs measure jaw muscle activity with sensors and record audio and video at the same time, and a 2026 review of sleep bruxism calls that combination the most accurate method. The same review points out that home devices without audio can't tell grinding from clenching [5]. A phone app gives you the other half: the sound, with no muscle data.
So treat every app on this page as a way to hear your own night. A night with no flagged sounds doesn't prove you didn't clench. Bruxa and GrindMute both say so in their listings [6] [7].
I searched the US App Store for teeth grinding, bruxism, jaw clenching and sleep recorder apps on 1 October 2026 and kept the ones whose listings say they record or detect grinding sounds through the phone. Most bruxism apps turned out to be jaw exercise programs, habit reminders or TMJ symptom logs, and they don't record anything, so they're not here.
Bruxa is built for grinding and nothing else. It records the night on your iPhone, plays the whole recording back on a sound timeline, and ranks the night's moments so you can mark each one as grinding or not. Its listing says it won't count grinding or score your night, because a phone across a bedroom can't detect it well enough to put a number on it. Recording, playback and your seven most recent nights are free. PRO, a one-time $14.99, adds full history and a Dentist Report PDF built only from moments you confirmed [6]. The store also shows older monthly and yearly Premium items. Bruxa declares Data Not Collected. It came out in June 2026 and has one rating.
GrindMute listens for patterns that may be grinding, saves short clips of each detection, and lets you mark them Grinding or Not Grinding on a nightly timeline. It can play a gentle sound when it detects a possible grinding pattern, which none of the others here do for grinding. Analysis runs on the device, and sharing labeled clips to improve detection is optional and off by default. The listing says some features need Pro: $6.99 a month, $39.99 a year or $79.99 for life [7]. Its label declares data linked to you, including Health & Fitness and User Content. It launched in September 2026 and has no ratings yet.
Do I Snore or Grind records snoring and grinding, filters both with an algorithm, and lets you listen the next morning. It also compares nights with and without a remedy, and it can pair with an anti-snore wearable. The listing names SleepScore Labs as the developer and shows no in-app purchases. It has 205 ratings at 3.7, but its last update came in March 2019 [8], so check that it still runs on your iPhone before you count on it.
SnoreLess is a snore recorder that also labels teeth grinding, sleep talking and coughs, then keeps short highlights of each on the phone. You can correct a wrong label, log sleep notes and export CSV or PDF. Its listing says every feature is free with no in-app purchases, and it declares Data Not Collected [9]. It keeps highlights, not the whole night.
Sleep Island is a sleep tracker with a large sound library. Its night sounds list possible teeth grinding next to snoring, coughing, sleep talking and a partner's voice. Clips past the free 15-second previews need Premium, which runs $2.99 a month, $19.99 a year or $29.99 for life [10]. It has 23 ratings at 4.9.
SleepyNight lists audio detection of snoring, sleep talking and teeth grinding, along with sleep stages, a sleep score and a sound library. Premium costs $6.99 to $29.99, and the store lists a weekly subscription among the options [11]. Its label puts Usage Data under Data Used to Track You. It has 208 ratings at 4.7.
Two apps read a sensor instead of a microphone, which lets them pick up clenching too. The GrindCare app shows grinding and clenching detected by the BUTLER GrindCare device during sleep [12]. VibeBrux pairs with its own night guard and tracks grinding patterns [13]. Both need hardware you buy separately. VibeBrux lists its night guard as a pre-order with no price [14], and Sunstar doesn't publish a US price for the GrindCare device.
Snore Timeline's classifier labels snoring and sleep talking on its own. Loud Sound Detection covers everything else. It creates an episode whenever a sound rises above a volume threshold, whatever the sound turns out to be, and that includes grinding. It's off until you turn it on. How Detection Works covers the full pipeline.
The Android app has the same Loud Sound Detection switch with one Volume Threshold slider. Start a recording, check the dB level the timeline shows during a quiet stretch, and set the threshold just above it. If your room sits around 38 dB, try 40.
Open the night and go to the episode list. Cards carry a badge for each type, so you can pick out the Loud Sound episodes. Tap one and playback starts about 2 seconds before the sound, which gives you context. Grinding episodes are short, often around a second each, and they can come in clusters. Loud Sound also catches you turning over, a partner, a pet or the street, so you're the judge of what each one was. The Timeline & Playback guide covers zooming and scrubbing.
When you find one, tap the download button on that episode to save the clip, with 2 seconds of padding on each side. You can also export the full night's audio and a CSV report, all at no cost. Export & Sharing shows where the files land.
Grinding varies from night to night [1], so record a week before you draw a conclusion. Snore Timeline's sleep factors let you tag nights with Caffeine, Alcohol, Mouth Guard or a factor of your own. The factor ranking doesn't score grinding, so compare the Loud Sound episodes on tagged and untagged nights yourself. The test a remedy guide explains tagging.
The same recording flags breathing pauses and tracks snoring. Cleveland Clinic notes that sleep apnea and grinding often show up together, though it's unclear which drives which [3]. If a night shows both, mention both to your dentist or doctor. My guide to breathing pause detection explains that flag.
For the sleep talking side of the same setup, see Sleep Talking Recorder App. For snoring, start with how to record snoring on iPhone.
Snore Timeline analyzes audio. It is not a medical device and does not diagnose bruxism, sleep apnea or any other condition. Bring recordings to a dentist or doctor if you think you grind your teeth.
Yes. Grinding makes a sound, and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine notes it can disturb a bed partner's sleep [1]. Any app that records through the microphone overnight can capture it. The harder part is finding a few seconds of grinding in eight hours of audio, which is what detection and loud sound flags are for.
Clenching is different. It makes no sound, so no microphone app can record it.
Not as its own category. Its sound classifier labels snoring and sleep talking. Turn on Loud Sound Detection and the app saves any sound louder than your room's background noise as a Loud Sound episode, so grinding lands on the timeline for you to play back. You decide by ear which episodes were grinding.
Not from sound. GrindMute's listing says it cannot detect silent clenching [7], and the same holds for any app that listens. Clenching needs a sensor on the jaw muscles. Sleep labs use muscle sensors with audio and video [5], and consumer devices such as the BUTLER GrindCare sensor send their readings to a companion app [12].
On the nightstand, 1 to 2 feet from your head, with nothing covering the microphone. Keep it off the bed and out from under the pillow, where every movement turns into rustling. Turn off fans and white noise if you can, because a louder room raises the Automatic threshold and quiet grinding can slip under it.
A few clips that sound like grinding, the dates, and how many nights you recorded. Cleveland Clinic says dentists usually diagnose bruxism from an exam and your symptoms, and some people need a sleep study [3]. The recordings show what happened at night. They don't stand in for that exam.
Free. No subscription, no account, no in-app purchases.
