For many of us, getting up in the morning is a chore, as peaceful sleep or a serene dream is interrupted by the shrill ringing of a smartphone alarm. It’s all too easy to hit the snooze button until the last possible moment to stay in a cozy, warm room and avoid the day’s obligations.
But there’s plenty of tech that can improve your wake-up routine – gadgets and apps that can ease the transition from sleeping to being awake and turn the daily process into something much more natural and even enjoyable. Here are five of our favorites and how to put them to work.
1) Use a Smart Hub
If you have a smart hub installed at home—essentially a Google Nest Hub or an Amazon Echo Show—you can gradually increase the volume of both the sound and the images on the screen as your set alarm time approaches. The idea is that waking up is a process rather than a jolt.
You can set an alarm on Google Smart Displays by swiping up from the bottom of the screen and tapping the clock icon. During the alarm setup process, you can Sunrise alarm to set gradient effects and configure the volume to increase over time.
There is something similar on the Echo Show, but it is easier if you configure the alarms through the Alexa app on your phone. On your Echo, tap the Devices and then the gear symbol to access the settings: You can set a slow wake-up light via Display and brightness and an increasing alarm volume over Sounds.
2) Use a smart light
Many smart lights on the market offer the ability to gradually increase their brightness over time. Check your smart lights’ app for this (or look for this feature when purchasing new lights).
We can’t give you instructions for all smart light brands and models, but here’s how it works with a Philips Hue system: Open the Automations in the app, then tap the + (Plus) button at the top right and Waking up with light.
On the next screen, you can set the desired alarm time, specify how long in advance the lights should start glowing, what colors and brightness you want to use, and which days of the week the effect should repeat.
3) Use a wake-up light
In addition to the smart lamps for general applications, there are also lamps that have been specially designed for a gentle transition into the waking state: They are based on the sunrise times in your area or on a time you set to gently start you into the day with a warm, gradually increasing glow of light.
The Lumie Bodyclock Shine 300 costs $159 and also has a built-in radio so you can wake up to music and a gentle increase in light. It’s designed to mimic a real sunrise; it has a sunset mode and can even produce white noise.
Another possibility is the Casper Lightfor $129. Like the Lumie, it can help you fall asleep at night and wake up in the morning, and it also works well as a portable light that you can take anywhere.
4) Use an alarm app
If you need to use your phone to get up, there are plenty of apps available to help you do that, including ones that require you to do a math problem before you can disable the alarm to make sure you got up.
Try Alarmy (Android, iOS) for something less demanding. It produces gentle and natural sounds for your alarm and can even monitor your sleep overnight (and if you want, it’ll do the math too).
Then there is sleep cycle (Android, iOS) that focuses on your sleep and wakes you up at a time that suits your natural sleep pattern – but within a preset time window so you don’t end up late for work. It also offers a choice of gentle wake-up options.
5) Use a different alarm
You can even experiment with some options by using your phone’s default alarm if you don’t want to buy additional devices or install third-party apps. These are more limited, but it’s worth exploring the possibilities – and of course, Google and Apple are constantly releasing new features.
On the alarm When you tap the sound option of any alarm in the standard Android clock app, you have a number of choices: not only can you choose from the built-in sounds, but you can also select any audio file (such as nature sounds) or even record something directly. Tap the three dots (top right) and Settings to find a … Increase the volume gradually Possibility.
In the standard Clock app for iOS, there are fewer options when you tap an alarm and then soundbut you can import tracks from Apple Music so you can have a more gentle loading experience. You can also use the sleep schedule option in the iOS Health app to better manage when you wake up.
