Mornily AirPulse Pro

I was skeptical at first, but this alarm really works. I usually sleep through most alarms and phone calls, but this one actually wakes me up.

It’s easy to set the time and alarm, and the lamp feature is handy—from a soft glow to a bright reading light. The sounds are nice, but the real magic is the light that gradually brightens for about 30 minutes before the set time, bringing you to wakefulness naturally instead of jolting you awake. After 2 weeks of use, it’s been a pleasant surprise: it really feels like waking up to a sunrise.

I absolutely love this alarm clock. I normally need 11 alarms and I’m the opposite of a morning person, but this one actually wakes me up without making me want to throw it against the wall.

Starting 30 minutes before your set time, it slowly gets brighter, then reaches full brightness (with beeps if you want) for a much more natural wake-up, especially before sunrise. You can dim the clock numbers at night and even use it as a light if you wake up to go to the bathroom.

Getting up in winter was hell: pitch black before work, and I kept hitting snooze because it didn’t feel like morning. I bought the SoftWake Pro after seeing an ad. The design is sleek on my nightstand, and I can dim the numbers, which is ideal as I’m very sensitive to light.

Best of all, it gradually turns on about 30 minutes before my alarm, so I wake up gently—often before the sound, just from the light. Now I use it every night and as my main alarm in winter, and dark mornings are much easier.

I’ve always been interested in waking up smoother. I used a typical iPhone alarm that jarred me awake no matter how deeply I was sleeping, and I even tried apps that wake you outside REM.

I tried those apps that would attempt to wake you up in not REM sleep, really anything that would make waking up easier. Nothing worked, well, until this. I bought this little light on sale for $110 and it has been completely worth it

- It makes a great night light if you need to see your surroundings for a moment.

- It goes from very dull to very bright.

- The clock brightness is adjustable, so it won’t strain your eyes if you wake up in the middle of the night.

- I definitely wake up easier: I’m still tired, but it’s a very calm awakening. The little beep is just loud enough, and I often find myself waking up with the light itself, just before the alarm.

I bought this alarm because I wake up easily when the sun is out, but a change in my job schedule made that impractical. I also wanted to get used to it in advance of wintertime, where I'd always wake up for work in the dark, an experience that left me miserable. Because I'm a chronic oversleeper, I paired this with the alarm app on my phone (SleepCycle, for iOS), just to make sure I woke up. I continue to use them together.

After a month, I can firmly say it works for me. It has made 5AM wake-up times a lot more bearable. Because my alarm app wakes me up when I'm lightly sleeping, I don't feel jarred awake. The light makes me less likely to fall back into bed to snooze and since it comes on gradually, it doesn't feel like someone flipped the light switch on in my bedroom.