SABAH (صباح, Arabic for “morning”) is a UAE-built app that gives you the first ten minutes of the day. Most mornings begin by answering to somebody else, whether that is a message, an email or something that was waiting for you overnight. SABAH runs one fixed ritual before any of that, and then closes. Ten minutes that are yours, and a day you chose instead of one you were handed. This page has everything you need to write about us: the facts, a press release you can run as it is, bios, quotes you can use, the research and the images.
You check in, breathe, move and then reflect, in that order, every single morning. There is nothing to decide and nothing to plan.
Most apps are built to keep you using them for as long as possible. SABAH is built to finish, so after ten minutes you are done for the day.
Those are the ten minutes most people give away first thing in the morning, and SABAH keeps them for you instead.
Ten minutes in total, and then the app leaves you alone.
You are welcome to use these in anything you write about SABAH. The full-size files are further down the page.
Today — your ritual
Check in
Breathe
Move
Reflect
Ritual complete
Guided movement
Box breathing
Practice anytime
Share your streakThe facts, in one place, for editors and journalists.
| Brand | SABAH (صباح — “morning”) |
|---|---|
| What it is | A ten-minute morning ritual that you finish and then walk away from. |
| Built for | Anyone whose day begins by answering to somebody else. It has less to do with who you are than with how your morning starts. |
| The ritual | Check in, breathe, move and reflect, in the same order every morning. |
| Founder | Ekaterina Trofimova |
| Technology & product | Karim Dakroury — Chief Technology and Product Officer, who leads the engineering and the product |
| Built in | United Arab Emirates |
| Premium | US$9.99/month or US$79.99/year |
| Trial | Seven days free, with everything unlocked |
| Free access | Gentle Wake movement + Box Breathing |
| Equipment | None required |
| Languages | English and Arabic throughout, with a Ramadan mode for fasting days |
| App Store | Listed as SABAH — Breathe. Move. Think. Prices here are from the US App Store. |
| Google Play | Listed as SABAH — Breathe. Move. Think. |
| Contact | hello@sabahapp.com |
SABAH is a UAE-built app that puts a check-in, guided breathing, movement and one moment of reflection into a single ten-minute morning ritual, short enough to do every day.
For release
The UAE-built app runs one fixed ten-minute ritual of check-in, breathing, movement and reflection, and then closes. It works in English and Arabic and has a Ramadan mode. There is a free tier, and new users get seven days of full access.
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES — Most people begin the day by answering to somebody else. You wake up, reach for your phone and read a message, an email or a piece of news that was waiting for you. Before you have decided anything about your day, other people have decided it for you.
SABAH is built for the ten minutes before that happens. It opens with a question instead of a menu: how did you sleep, and how much energy do you have? The answer changes the session. If you slept badly, the breathing slows down and the movement gets gentler. If you slept well, you get more.
After the check-in there are two minutes of guided breathing, where a ring on the screen grows and shrinks so you can follow it instead of counting. Then comes five minutes of movement, filmed in the UAE, which you do barefoot next to the bed without a mat or any equipment. The last two minutes give you one idea and one question to take into the day. At ten minutes the session ends, and there is nothing else to open and nothing else to buy.
“Everyone I know gives the first part of the day to other people. I wanted those ten minutes to be mine.”
The four steps are the same every morning, and that is the part most people find unusual. Most wellness apps are libraries, so before you start you have to choose a session, a length and a teacher. Those choices are the reason people stop using them. SABAH makes the choices for you.
Ekaterina Trofimova built the app in her spare time while working a full-time job. She had tried the morning routines people share online, the ones that start at 5am with journaling, matcha, a cold plunge and a workout, and none of them lasted more than a few days. The version that did last was short, the same every morning, and finished before the rest of the house woke up.
SABAH is not aimed at a particular kind of person. Parents, students, shift workers, commuters and anyone who wakes up already behind can all use it, because the only thing they need to have in common is a morning that starts by answering to something. You do not need experience, equipment or any flexibility you do not already have.
Missing a morning does not undo anything. The app counts streaks, but it also gives you freezes that cover missed days automatically, because something you are meant to do most days should not punish you on the days that go wrong.
SABAH was made in the UAE and works fully in both English and Arabic. Its Ramadan mode changes the breathing, the movement and the timing for fasting days instead of pausing the ritual. Apps built elsewhere tend to add Arabic and Ramadan support late, and it shows. It also means SABAH suits Muslim users anywhere in the world, not only in the Gulf.
The app is built on repetition rather than intensity, because repetition is what changes the brain. Brain scans show physical changes in people who practise every day, in some studies after only four to eight weeks. In one study, people who completed an eight-week mindfulness course had more grey matter in several parts of the brain than a comparison group who did nothing. In another, older adults who exercised regularly for a year grew the hippocampus, the part of the brain used for memory, by about 2 percent. Neither study tested SABAH, and the company makes no medical claims about its own sessions. The finding that carries over is a simple one: small things done on most days for months are what work.
Karim Dakroury, the Chief Technology and Product Officer, is the engineering mind behind how the ritual works on a phone. He owns the engineering and every release, and he is the reason ten minutes feel easy rather than fiddly, from the breathing ring staying exactly in time with the audio to the movement videos playing without a stutter. He also decides where SABAH goes next, from the devices it runs on to the features that will take the ritual beyond the morning.
The free tier includes the Gentle Wake movement sequence and Box Breathing. Full access costs US$9.99 a month or US$79.99 a year, and every new user gets seven days of the complete ritual for free. SABAH is available on the App Store and on Google Play. More information is at sabahapp.com.
Media contact: Ekaterina Trofimova · Founder, SABAH · hello@sabahapp.com · sabahapp.com
Karim Dakroury is SABAH's Chief Technology and Product Officer, and he is the engineering mind behind the product. He owns how the app is built and everything that ships, and his work is the reason the ritual runs smoothly enough that you stop noticing it: the breathing stays exactly in time with the audio, the movement videos play without stuttering, and the session changes depending on how you say you slept. He also decides where SABAH goes next, leading the product plan and the engineering behind it.
Approved for publication as direct quotes. Hover over any quote to copy it.
“I didn't want to build another unrealistic morning routine. I wanted one thing I could actually do every morning.”
“Ten minutes that are yours, before anyone starts asking for things.”
“The goal isn't to do everything before 8AM. It's to begin the day with something intentional.”
“We kept asking what we could remove, not what else we could add.”
“Ten minutes is not supposed to be your entire wellbeing routine. It is your starting point.”
“You don't need the perfect morning. You need ten minutes you can come back to tomorrow.”
“If it only works on a good morning, it does not work.”
“Everyone I know gives the first part of the day to other people. I wanted those ten minutes to be mine.”
“A perfect morning you did once does nothing. The same ten minutes every day changes you.”
Everything that is in the app.
SABAH is built on research into repetition, breathing, movement and attention. That research supports each part of the ritual and the value of doing it consistently. It does not mean that any single ten-minute session will do something specific for a specific person.
Studies of habits keep reaching the same conclusion. Doing the same thing in the same setting is what eventually makes it automatic.
Time to Form a Habit: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Health Behaviour Habit Formation and Its Determinants (2024)In a randomised study, a few minutes of structured breathing each day improved mood, slowed the breathing rate and reduced negative feelings.
Brief structured respiration practices enhance mood and reduce physiological arousal (2023)Reviews covering many studies link exercise, including gentle movement, with better thinking, memory and focus.
Effectiveness of exercise for improving cognition, memory and executive function (2025)Doing this consistently rewires the brain, and that is meant literally rather than as a turn of phrase. It is also why SABAH is built on repetition rather than intensity. Neuroimaging studies have found measurable structural changes in as little as four to eight weeks of daily practice. In one controlled study, people who completed an eight-week mindfulness course had more grey matter in several parts of the brain afterwards; the comparison group did not. In another, 120 older adults who exercised regularly for a year grew the hippocampus, the memory part of the brain, by about 2 percent, reversing one to two years of normal age-related shrinkage. Both studies used longer or harder programmes than a ten-minute daily ritual, and neither tested SABAH. What carries over is the principle. The change comes from being consistent over months.
Hölzel et al., Mindfulness practice leads to increases in regional brain gray matter density, Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging 191 (2011) · Erickson et al., Exercise training increases size of hippocampus and improves memory, PNAS 108(7) (2011). Note for editors: a published letter in PNAS contested the memory finding in Erickson et al.; the hippocampal volume result was not contested.Randomised trials of meditation training show that practising regularly can improve how long people are able to hold their attention.
Four weeks of meditation training improves sustained attention in older adults (2024)Practising consistently really does rewire the brain, and the studies above are solid. Credit the practice rather than the app, and the claim holds up.
So it does not have to read like an app announcement.
For interviews and written questions. Quote these as they are.
About SABAH — SABAH is a UAE-built app built around one fixed ten-minute morning ritual. Every session combines a short check-in, guided breathing, movement and a moment of reflection. It was made for people who want a steady start to the day without an hour-long routine, and it works in both English and Arabic with a Ramadan mode for fasting days. There is a free version, and full access is available monthly or annually. More at sabahapp.com.
Ekaterina Trofimova, Founder —
hello@sabahapp.com
We are happy to do interviews or answer questions in writing, and we can send photography and free App Store or Google Play codes so you can try the app yourself. We reply within one working day.