Sunrise simulator ‘alarm’ clock

In Sweden we’re moving towards much darker times (literally) and it is getting increasingly difficult to get up in the morning. During the summer months you don’t feel violated when the alarm clock rings, but now, fumbling in the dark after the beeping spawn of the devil is a somewhat different experience. My previous trial, getting up early, have certainly had a few bumps in the road since the sun decided we had had enough light for a few months.

Not wanting to keep hitting the snooze-button I decided to try and ‘fix’ this by getting myself a sunrise simulator and yesterday was my first time using it and it was rather pleasant.

Lumie sunrise simulator

The version I decided to get is called Bodyclock Advanced 200. It’s a product by Lumie and to be honest, I have had no previous experience with them or even these types of products before. What I like about this clock is that it feels solid. The cover is actually made of glass (in this model, cheaper ones use plastic). The digital display is clear, with green solid text. The display will dim at night (which is good) because it’s actually kind of bright.

Unboxing the product, while not terribly exciting, is usually a good indicator of the overall quality.  There is nothing to complain about here. A neat little manual with clear instructions of how to configure the device. Well, I did not intend for this to be a review so I’ll stop here. If anyone is interested in more details feel free to ask and I will happily try and provide the answers.

The first night (and eventually morning)

My expectations were quite high and would hope for some amazing results. I was hoping that I would wake-up, with no tiredness whatsoever, jumping out of bed with a smile on my face. The experience, obviously, wasn’t exactly like that, but certainly not as bad as it normally would be. I set the clock to be fully “risen” by 5:10 am, and I also decided to use the built-in alarm (sound) just in case. I woke up when the alarm (sound) went off and to my big surprise I actually felt it was time to get up. The normal hesitation and magical pull of the warm bed wasn’t there. Over a period of 30 minutes it had slowly increased the brightness from nothing to full and let me tell you it is kind of bright, but a with a very … soft light, not intrusive at all.

My energy levels seem pretty normal and I did my usual little snooze on the train to work, but it was actually, now that I think of it, a more relaxed and light snooze. Not like yesterday when I twitched like the girl from the ‘Exorcist’ falling in and out of sleep. Felt sorry for the person next to me that had to endure me bopping from side-to-side and suddenly giving off a growl and a few crazy hand-movements. You know, the usual kind of falling-asleep-on-the-train-type-of-twitching.

The future

While it’s obviously a bit early to say whether or not it has improved my sleep and wake-up routine I intend on making some sort of concluding thoughts in a month or two. For now I’m just happy that when I wake up it feels like a good time to get up.