I think my body has grown terrified of my alarm clock, because I wake up way before it does. However if I’m off work for a few days, I’m able to sleep in better.
So I’m wanting a new alarm clock that isn’t as scary or jarring to my body. I do not want a light alarm clock for fear this will affect my circadian rhythm, I’d prefer one that uses slowly increasing sound.
What are my options? Looking online, I think an app might be a good idea. I have a kindle fire, an android smartphone and I think an old iPad touch. So I could use apps from any of those systems. I may need to hook up some computer speakers, but that is fine.
I’d prefer to be able to put an mp3 on it, but it isn’t totally necessary. It is just necessary to have the audio slowly grow. However if there is another way to gently wake up I’d do that too.
I heard there is another app that has a light tone 30 minutes before the main tone. The logic is that if you are in a light sleep cycle, the light tone will wake you up. If not, then the regular alarm will wake you during a light sleep period which will be roughly 30-45 minutes after the first tone.
One thing I’m curious to try is an activity/sleep tracker that gently vibrates to wake you up. I think they make those anyway. I have one that pulses if I’ve been sitting at my desk for an hour and acts as a reminder to get up an move, but I don’t think it has the capability to act as an alarm.
I have something similar to this. Bought mine so long ago that I can’t locate the exact model, but there are lots of them around. Do some googling.
I can set it to get bright over the space of 30 mins or 60 mins. It’s important to position it so it’s fairly near to the head of your bed, i.e., don’t put it waaaay on the other side of the room. It’s quite miraculous. I’ll awaken with my eyes still closed and have the clear sensation that the sun is shining on my face. Very gentle.
I burned a custom CD called simply “Alarm” 30 years ago - it starts with slow-paced songs at low amplitude and ends 20-some minutes later with serious rock at rather loud amplitude.
I have to believe that there are still apps that can let you vary the loudness of the recording.
40-some years ago, I just routed the stereo through the alarm (don’t remember how) and had it play In-Da-Gadda-Vita at 60 db.
Neighbors didn’t like me…
I use an iPhone app called Quick Sleep. It features over 100 different sounds- nature sounds, bells and chimes, soothing music and various flavors of white noise. You can mix multiple sounds at different relative volumes and save the results.
My alarm sound is a piece of soft simple music with a low pitched chime mixed in. When the alarm activates it doesn’t come to the preset volume all at once, it starts off really soft and gradually gets louder until it reaches the preset volume level
Well Wesley, if you are a woman, then I would suggest The Little Rooster.
Apparently many women use it to wake themselves up, as well as using it throughout the day.
But I don’t think you’re a woman. Too bad :rolleyes:
There is an iPhone app (probably Android too) called the Sleep Cycle alarm clock. It’s supposed to analyze your sleep patterns and wake you up when you are sleeping the lightest during a 30 minute window you set. It then wakes you up gently.
I use Rise on my iPhone or iPad. It’s very simple and the interface is wonderfully simple. There are different alarms you can use and it starts soft and slowly increases in volume until you are awake and turn it off.
I also like that it tells you how long until the alarm. It’s a simple calculation, but its nice seeing it right there.
My Fitbit Alta does this (I’m sure its not unique, but that’s the one I know of for sure). You set your days/times in the app on your phone and all you need to do to change it/turn it off is sync via bluetooth.
I use an app on my Android smartphone. The app is “Timely”. It might be available for iPhone. The app has a gentle wake cycle that starts softly but then gets louder.
There are some standard alarm clocks with ascending alarm - they are designed to wake you up gently - although they don’t typically do any pre-alarm chimes - they just start quiet and build up.
I have one because I always get up earlier than everyone else and I usually wake quite easily - so my clock usually only gets one quiet beep in before I’ve turned it off.