Gradual Wakeup Light Alarm Clock, anybody use one?

There are some alarm clocks with lights that can be set to gradually brighten for, say, 15-30 minutes, before the alarm goes off. And they have nicer sounds, such as chirping birds or classical piano. Anybody have one of those? Wondering about brands and user experiences. I’ve been eyeballing the choices on amazon. Trying to keep it under $50.

I have one with chirping birds that I really like, but it doesn't have a light that gradually brightens.

(I sleep with a sleeping mask because I frequently sleep during the day, and there is a lot of light in my bedroom during the day.)

Just use two inexpensive clocks? One that plays music, set 1/2 hour before the other one, that has a real alarm. Or, maybe there is a phone app that does this without any more gadgets.

I can imagine… :laughing:

My phone’s alarm “fades in” somewhat. It’ll start as a soft “ding… ding ding… ding ding ding…”, then gets louder and more insistent as time goes on.

It’s still a rather sudden wake-up vs, say, a gradually brightening light, but it’s not as jarring as hearing a loud “MEOW!!!” and seeing Cat Face a few inches away when you open your eyes.

Those MEOW alarms are rather expensive to maintain, what with the vet bills and flea treatments and the food bill. I had a series of those but when the last one aged out I didn’t replace her.

I’ve got a fish tank in my room that pops on about 20 minutes before the alarm. It’s not incredibly bright, but it’s enough to start waking me up so the alarm doesn’t feel as abrupt.

Thank B’harni (pbuh!) no need for flea meds after they came in and stayed in. 60bux a pop for 6 or 8 squeeze’ums is a bit obscene.

Ran out of Fancy Food, which is pretty much all they eat now, only had Friskies, and it was like they both were on a hunger-strike. Discontinued and/or out-of-stock at Chui, so had to order other FF varieties they did still have.

All the outside cats seem to be getting killed off, so there’s no one to eat the Friskies anymore. Grabbed a coupla cans of 9Lives for them to try, they both looked at me like I was trying to poison them.

And the one that’s a bottomless pit and is on his way to becoming morbidly obese unless I seriously limit him, just stares at me. When the other one joins in on the starefest, it’s like Children Of The Corn here.

I know I dote on them, and overindulge, but sometimes it’s just too much. And they got expensive tastes. (For my own food, I generally live’n’die by the sales flyers.)

I got one made by Phillips which was useful when I went in to work super early in the winter. I’m light sensitive so it worked pretty well for me even without an auditory alarm.

About 40 years ago I watched a television program at a relatives house where some hypnotist explained that, when you’re laying in bed about to go to sleep, visualize a switchboard - a switchboard that controls your mind and body. Picture an alarm clock on it, and visualize setting the alarm to a time.

That very night I picked a time in the middle of the night and set my mind’s alarm. I was pretty shocked when I woke up at exactly that time. I’ve done it many times since, and I’ve always wondered how the mind can keep such accurate time.

In fact, I’ve done it so many times that I generally wake up 1 to 2 minutes before the alarm I set on my phone. I think my mind budget’s my REM sleep according to this time, and when I do the exercise I always way up lucid and ready to get out of bed.

YMMV

I have a couple of the Philips ones. I really like them. They can be had on eBay for pretty inexpensive for what they initially cost. The 3650 is such a weird looking thing too it kind of adds to its charm. The sunset/relax setting is nice if you are person who can’t fall asleep well. The actual physical clock setting UI and the general UI is fine, but not great. There is not a seperate weekend setting which is kind of a pain but is also counter intuitive to getting good sleep. I have never tried the wifi one so IDK about that one.

I wound up ordering one of these:

TechTock sunrise-sunset alarm clock, Amazon

I’ve only had it for one night, but so far I like it quite well. 25 alarm sounds, a 3-position switch on the back for volume, and 4 brightness settings for the clock face (the latter automatically dims further from 10pm-6am, automatically). The instruction manual was tolerably well written and setting the thing up wasn’t complicated. Best thing is, the light ring for sunrise comes on at super-low output (1% of total, maybe?) and then ramps up very slowly and almost unnoticeably over the next 30 minutes.

I really like that I can turn the alarm off after it sounds by simply pushing any button on the clock’s top (there are 10). No need to fumble around feeling for the correct button, as with my old clock radio. The two ‘ears’ won’t turn off the alarm, though, because they are the snooze buttons. (So big, ya can’t miss ’em!) :laughing:

Two possible downsides are visible PWM flicker if one stares intently at the output (but that’s not the purpose of the thing, right? :sunglasses: ), and the clock face could have had a lower “low” setting or even an “off” for those who are bothered by lit clock faces. Oh, one more: it is powered via usb cord, but no AC power adapter block was included with it; I had a couple of extra adapters sitting around, though.

The last couple of years, I only had to buy Revolution one time because I found a foreign supplier of bulk bottles of the stuff (called “Stronghold” overseas). Measured each dose into a needle-free syringe every month. Saved a bundle!

Back in the 1980’s, GE pioneered a digital alarm clock radio feature called Grad-U-Wake.

If you turned Grad-U-Wake on, the alarm would come on at a low level, and then gradually grow louder over the next few minutes. It works for the radio AND the buzzer. I still have one of these running in my home. It’s nice waking up to the radio, because it’s like there are people in the room. And the buzzer? Like an air raid siren. The built-in speaker is very nice quality. It’s a full range driver and pleasing to listen to. The display is a reverse LCD… backlit using a cheap/common 194 incandescent bulb. Late 1980’s… and the thing still works like a charm. As it’s often said, “they don’t make ’em like they used to.”





Why not consider smartphone? I hate to be waked up suddenly and loudly, have tried many apps previously and found that one perfectly suits my needs: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sssprog.wakeuplight

Been considering buying a “sunrise” alarm clock style thing for a while, not found anything that’s particularly portable that ticks the rest of my requirements yet… The search continues

phone apps can do that

at least with sound

possibly they can use the flashlight LED too, but it would have to be facing upside down

wle

I looked into these too and I like the idea. All the ones I’ve seen for sale appear to be both poorly built and overpriced. I’ve decided that I’d like to make my own, but haven’t gotten around to it yet. Someone on reddit posted a DIY using components from amazon but it was pretty ghetto and relied on a bulb taking time to warm up to achieve the gradual lighting increase :person_facepalming:

A couple of years ago, I bit the bullet and got one of the fancy Philips models. I have not looked back since!
When I had a normal alarm clock, waking up was constantly the worst time of the day. I felt miserable, hated everything and the world, it was really bad. After I had a shower and breakfast, it was ok again.
Now with the Philips clock, things have improved dramatically. I feel ok when I’m waking up, the bitterness of the past has completely gone. If I had to name a couple things which improved my life a lot, the Philips clock would be among them, next to my car and my e-bike.
I have a model with two separate alarms and a radio tuner. The buttons are hard to see from the front, so I drew some marks with a sharpie to be able to spot them quickly. The UI is ok when one has set it up once or twice. I set the alarms a few minutes before the half or the full hour to be able to hear the news while being fully contious, like at xx:25 and xx:55. These alarms can be quickly switched on with one respective button for each. When the alarm is switched on, the hours of it can immediately be adjusted without UI hassle, which I like. So depending if I like to be woken up at the half or full hour, I enable the one or the other alarm and set the hour quickly. I just have to remember to switch it off for the weekend, but I rarely forget it as it is clearly displayed which of the alarms is enabeled or not.
What would be nice to have considering the price point is a battery backup for memory and as a power source for an emergency beeping alarm so one is not late during a blackout, but since we rarely have them in Germany it is not really an issue. I have my old alarm clock as a backup, though.
So, every morning nowadays I am gently waking up to an artificial sunrise and my favorite radio station, and my life is alot better.
I definitely can recommend it!