Waking up is hard to do, and the snooze button doesn’t make it any easier. If your alarm clock is easily ignored or too simple to disable, you might want to check out some of these snooze-resistant gadgets.
These alarm clocks use a variety of tactics to get you out of bed in the morning. Whether it’s solving a math problem, taking a photograph, or enduring an electric shock, these products are practically guaranteed to pull you from the clutches of sleep.
Read more: The snooze button is bad for you, but why?
Ruggie ($79)
There are several alarm clocks available that can’t be shut off until you complete a mental task like solving a math problem or a riddle. The Ruggie Alarm Clock has an even simpler solution: Just stand up. It literally makes you get out of bed in order to shut it off.
The Ruggie became the most funded alarm clock in Kickstarter history in March 2016 when more than 3,000 people pledged over $400,000 to see this innovative solution to the morning blues come to life. You have to place both feet firmly on its soft memory foam surface for at least three seconds in order to shut it off. You can’t hit snooze. You can’t throw your clock against the wall. You have to roll out of bed and leave the comfort of your sheets to stop the beeping. As a reward for completing this grueling task, the Ruggie can be programmed to play a motivational message to help you start your day on the right foot.
Read more about the Ruggie here.
Buy one now from:
Indiegogo
Pavlok Shocking Alarm Clock ($169+)
What better way to wake up than with a sudden dose of pain? The Pavlok wristband is a device that aims to break your bad habits with a series of electric shocks. The idea is that someone wearing one of these wristbands will shock themselves whenever they start thinking of doing something like biting their nails or smoking a cigarette. Eventually, they will associate the painful shock with the bad habit and quit. While we’re not sure how effective Pavlok is when it comes to losing weight or beating a nicotine addiction, an electric shock will certainly wake you up in the morning.
The Pavlok typically requires the user to activate the shock manually (hence our skepticism), but the device does have some automated features. The Pavlok Alarm Clock feature, for instance, will automatically shock you if you sleep through your alarm or hit the snooze button. This little jolt may ensure that you get out of bed, but we doubt that it will improve your mood.
Nanda Home’s Clocky Alarm Clock ($40)
Like the Ruggie, Nanda Home’s Clocky Alarm Clock will also make you get out of bed in order to shut off your alarm. Of course, Clocky’s method isn’t quite as soothing. Instead of swinging your feet off the bed and onto a nice soft mat, Clocky will make you get out of bed and chase down your alarm clock.
While most alarm clock’s use the “snooze” button to, you know, snooze, the button works a little different on Clocky. When you hit the snooze, the alarm clock jumps from your bedside table and starts rolling around the floor. You have to play fetch to hit the button again. Clocky has a pretty standard beeping alarm. If you’d like to have some soothing music as you chase your alarm clock around your house, you should check out Nanda’s other rolling alarm clock option, the Tocky.
Hello Sense and Sleep Pill ($129)
Chasing an alarm clock, standing on a mat, or giving yourself an electric shock might all be effective ways to get out of bed in the morning. However, they don’t really solve the problem of a poor night’s sleep. After all, that is why we hit the snooze in the first place, right? The Hello Sense sleep monitor and the accompanying Sleep Pill can help you get of bed in the morning by ensuring that you get a good night’s sleep.
The Hello Sense and Sleep Pill work in tandem to monitor your sleep. The Sense sits on your bedside table and keeps track the temperature, light, and air quality, and will alert you with a soft glowing orange light if you don’t have ideal conditions for sleep. The Sleep Pill attaches to your pillow and monitors your actual sleep patterns. This information is then used for the device’s “smart alarm,” which will wake you up during a light sleep phase within a half hour of your preferred time. This should help you to wake up refreshed and make you less inclined to reach for the snooze button. Which is a good thing, since the Hello Sense doesn’t have one.
Buy one now from:
Amazon
Smartphone Apps
The alarm clock is one of many products that was partially swallowed up by the smartphone. If you don’t want an extra device cluttering up your bedside table, there are numerous app options (apptions?) that can pull you from the clutches of sleep.
Alarmy is one popular app for both Android and iOS. This app requires you to take a photograph of a certain location in your home in order to shut off its alarm. For instance, if the first thing you do in the morning is make coffee, you can set Alarmy to only turn off when you take a photo of your coffee pot.
I Can’t Wake Up is another aptly named app for Android and iOS. This app also requires you to complete a task in order to shut of its alarm. You can choose from eight tasks to shut off the beeping, including solving a math equation, scanning a bar code, or completing a memory game.
Microsoft’s Mimicker app is another task-based alarm clock. This Android offering makes you play a “fun” game, either Express Yourself, Color Capture, or Tongue Twister, in order to get some peace and quiet. Color Capture requires you to take a photograph of a specific color, Tongue Twister challenges you to string together a coherent sentence, and Express Yourself asks you to strike a pose for a morning a selfie. We just hope your bedmate is a sound sleeper or has to wake up before you do.
Read more about Mimicker here.
