The Best Sunrise Alarm Clock - The New York Times

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Why you should trust us

Who this is for

How we picked and tested

Our pick: Philips SmartSleep Wake-Up Light HF3520

What to look forward to

What about sunrise alarm apps or smart bulbs?

Other sunrise alarm clocks worth considering

The competition

Getting jolted awake by a blaring alarm doesn’t make for the most peaceful morning. If you’re looking for a gentler start to your day, a sunrise alarm clock could help. By gradually emitting light over a period of time, sunrise alarm clocks mimic a natural sunrise, softly rousing you from your sleep. They can also bring some much-needed light to dark winter mornings.

Since 2018, we’ve researched circadian rhythms, measured lux, and woken up with dozens of these devices. We recommend the Philips SmartSleep Wake-Up Light HF3520.

What we looked for

• Bright light

  A sunrise alarm clock should offer enough brightness to rouse you from slumber.

• User-friendliness

  We sought out sunrise alarm clocks that were intuitive to use. No hard-to-access snooze buttons.

• Pleasant alarms

  Mornings shouldn’t feel like a jolt but instead a gentle nudge. We favored options that offered pleasant wake-up sounds.

• Nice-to-haves

  Sunrise alarm clocks with radio and additional soundscapes allow you to further customize your sleep and wake-up routines.

Top pick

The best sunrise alarm clock

Philips SmartSleep Wake-Up Light HF3520

This sleek alarm clock has the most soothing simulated sunrise and sunset, which may help you feel less groggy. It has a good range of alarm sounds and other useful features, but programming the clock is awkward.

$149 from Amazon$115 from Walmart

May be out of stock

Our top pick since 2018, the Philips SmartSleep Wake-Up Light HF3520 consistently outshines its competitors with soothing sunrise simulations that start with a gentle, red-tinted glow that gradually grows into a room-filling bright white light. Research shows this may be more effective at helping you feel less groggy when you start your day because it mimics natural sunrises, signaling to your brain that it’s time to wake up.

The Wake-Up Light also has a sunset simulator, a good range of five pleasant alarm sounds, a backup sound alarm, a backup power source (so your alarm will still function in case of a power outage), and an FM radio. It also looks relatively sleek on a nightstand. But it doesn’t have a companion app, and manually programming the clock can be awkward, especially in the dark.

Why you should trust us

Wirecutter has been researching and testing sunrise alarm clocks since 2018. For this guide:

• We read scientific articles about light therapy and the relationship between light exposure, sleep, and circadian rhythms.
• We measured each sunrise alarm clock with a light meter in a completely dark room to assess its brightness.
• We slept with each model at home for at least two nights, using blackout curtains to ensure a pitch-black environment.
• We closely evaluated the specs of each sunrise alarm clock to determine whether they’re actually worth the investment.

Who this is for

If you live in a home that doesn’t get a lot of natural sunlight or need a little help in the winter as the days grow darker, a sunrise alarm clock may be a good solution to help you wake up feeling less groggy. Biologically, our physiological clocks are set to wake up with the sun. As it sets, our brains start producing melatonin for sleep in the evenings. Sunrise alarm clocks (sometimes called “dawn simulators”) are designed to simulate that sunrise effect, starting with a dim light that gradually builds up to the brilliance of a bright spring day.

You might be wondering how a sunrise alarm clock works, considering that your eyes are closed when you sleep. There are light-sensitive cells inside the retina that detect light changes at dawn and dusk, sensing light even if your eyes are closed. Once detected at dawn, light of sufficient intensity helps to suppress your levels of melatonin and make you feel less tired.

Sunrise alarm clocks can help you readjust from jet lag. They may be helpful for people with seasonal affective disorder (SAD) or a clinically diagnosed case of delayed sleep-phase syndrome (DSPS), but you can’t rely on these clocks alone as treatment. The typical treatment for SAD is bright-light therapy, which requires a medical-grade device that emits light 20 to 50 times brighter than what these alarms provide. A severe case of DSPS requires a regimen prescribed by a sleep doctor.

How we picked and tested

In our most recent round of testing, we tried eight new models against our top pick, the Philips SmartSleep Wake-Up Light HF3520. Here is what we looked for:

• Intense brightness: A sunrise alarm clock needs to be bright enough to wake you up from a deep slumber. We measured each sunrise alarm clock’s maximum brightness level with a light meter and noted which options fell short.
• User-friendliness: It’s important for a sunrise alarm clock to have easy-to-use and accessible buttons (so you can simply hit that snooze button on days where light alone won’t get you up). A companion app that allows you to set your alarms and customize sunrises and sunsets through your phone is a plus.
• An elegant appearance: You can’t help but notice the device on your nightstand, so it’s ideal to have something that can hold its own in a well-kept bedroom. We set out to find a dependable clock that most people would be happy to look at every morning and evening.
• Pleasant alarm tones: These clocks typically have an audio alarm, which kicks in at the height of the light’s brightness. We favored alarm clocks with a variety of sounds to choose from and listened to each one (like a chirping bird or crashing wave) to evaluate the selection and sound quality.

We measured each clock’s brightness level, or lux (a measure of light intensity as picked up by your retina), with a light meter in a completely dark room to determine which models were the brightest of the bunch. Then we slept with each final contender at home for at least two nights, using blackout curtains to ensure a pitch-black environment, and took note of which sunrises helped us get out of bed.

Our pick: Philips SmartSleep Wake-Up Light HF3520

Top pick

The best sunrise alarm clock

Philips SmartSleep Wake-Up Light HF3520

This sleek alarm clock has the most soothing simulated sunrise and sunset, which may help you feel less groggy. It has a good range of alarm sounds and other useful features, but programming the clock is awkward.

$149 from Amazon$115 from Walmart

May be out of stock

The Philips SmartSleep Wake-Up Light HF3520, our top pick since 2018, is one of the most effective sunrise alarm clocks we’ve tested. It offers realistic, red-tinted dawn and dusk simulations, as well as some thoughtful extras like an FM radio, several pleasant alarm tones, and a backup alarm.

It has the brightest light we measured. A sunrise alarm clock needs to be bright enough to wake you up from a deep slumber, and the light on the Wake-Up Light does just that. It has an advertised maximum light intensity of 300 lux, but in our testing, we found it can reach as high as 330 lux on its brightest setting.

That device’s bright light and gradual sunrise simulation was effective at rousing testers from sleep (if even too effective on those days you just want to sleep in and hit the snooze button). The Philips Wake-Up Light was successful even with the deepest sleepers, including one tester who has slept through loud alarms and bumpy car rides.

It features soothing red-toned dawn and dusk simulations. Many sunrise alarms solely use white light to wake you, which can feel just as disruptive in the morning as a beeping alarm. Dimmer, longer-wavelength lights (such as the red light emitted by the Wake-Up Light) more closely mimic the rising of the sun, offering a gentler wake-up and greater efficacy at shifting your internal circadian rhythm. There have been several studies on the relationship between red light exposure and circadian rhythm, with one 2019 study positing that red light exposure can have therapeutic potential for improving sleep inertia.

It has several pleasant alarm sounds and an FM radio. For those days when you’re really exhausted and need extra help from a sound alarm to jolt you awake, the Philips Wake-Up Light offers five alarm tones to supplement the natural sunrise simulation: yoga-ish music with chirping birds, chirping only, chirping with a cuckoo, gentle piano music, and ocean waves with seagulls. The machine also includes a radio, which you can program as an alarm tone, too. If these sounds don’t rouse you from slumber, you can also set a backup alarm.

It’s a good value for the price. In our most recent round of testing, we tried several pricier options, but none of them performed as well as the Philips Wake-Up Light. For example, we tested the Loftie Lamp, which emits only about a third of the brightness as the Philips Wake-Up Light, despite costing three times as much.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

You can program the time and set alarms with touch control on the face of the clock. Michael Murtaugh/NYT WirecutterAlong the rim of the clock, you’ll find buttons for immediate access to the radio, lamp mode, and two preset alarms. Michael Murtaugh/NYT Wirecutter Michael Murtaugh/NYT Wirecutter

Programming the clock is awkward and complicated. Changing the time and settings and programming alarms requires clicking menu/select and +/- buttons for every minute, like a vintage alarm clock would. Turning an alarm on or off, or changing the brightness of the light, requires fiddling with tiny buttons along the rim of the clock, which can be difficult and frustrating, especially in the dark or if you have dexterity issues. One long-term tester, who has been using the Philips Wake-Up Light since 2021 puts it simply: “It’s a great wake-up light. It never fails to wake me up, but interacting with the clock is really annoying.”

Its base can be unstable. We found that the Philips SmartSleep Wake-Up Light can be a bit awkward on a nightstand. According to long-term testers, its shape (a sort of sideways cone) makes it vulnerable to being knocked over if being programmed in the middle of the night or during cleaning.

What to look forward to

We plan to test two new sunrise alarm clocks.

The JALL Wake-Up Light is an affordable option with promising features and some useful additions like an FM radio, USB charging port, and ambient lighting options. We also plan to test the aesthetically-pleasing Rise Centered Sunrise Alarm Clock, made from natural materials like Himalayan salt, wood, and cork. We’ll update this guide soon with our findings.

What about sunrise alarm apps or smart bulbs?

We’ve tested a handful of sunrise alarm apps and found they tended to have mixed reviews and emit meager light compared with a dedicated sunrise alarm clock. As John Hanifin, PhD, assistant professor of neurology at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, explained in an interview, it’s preferable to have a “bedroom-filling” light to wake up—and that’s hard for these apps to do.

To achieve that “bedroom-filling” light for less than a sunrise alarm clock would cost, you could try a smart bulb or network of smart bulbs, such as from Philips Hue. This approach works best if you’re confident about getting up without the help of a just-in-case audio alarm (though you can use a regular alarm clock or your phone as backup, of course). You can use a smart bulb with a regular lamp and control it with an app or smart speaker such as an Amazon Echo or Google Nest.

Other sunrise alarm clocks worth considering

If you’re looking for a sunrise alarm clock with a companion app: Consider the WiiM Wake-Up Light. One of our biggest gripes about our current picks is that programming the clocks with buttons can be awkward at best, or aggravating at worst in the middle of the night when it’s dark and you’re half asleep. The Wiim Wake-Up Light’s app allows users to program alarms, set sleep schedules, and adjust the lighting with ease. However, it’s not as bright as our top pick. In our light measurement tests, the WiiM Wake-Up Light reached maximum levels of around 190 lux (compared with our top pick’s 330 lux and budget pick’s 250 lux). Unless you’re a light sleeper that’s sensitive to light, we think you’re better off with our picks instead.

If you are looking for a chic sunrise alarm clock with curated light colors and soundscapes: The Hatch Restore 2 might be a good option. The second iteration of Hatch’s sunrise alarm clock, the Restore 2 offers far more than sunrises and sunsets: Users can augment their bedtime routines with colorful mood lighting (like turquoise and lilac) and pick from various soundscapes or music, like “Pacific Northwest Riverside” or “Midnight Jazz Piano.” However, the Restore 2’s sunrise simulation failed to wake our deep-sleeping testers and emitted just 180 lux of light. You’ll need a $50 premium membership to access its full catalog of curated soundscapes. With its stylish, earth-toned linen exterior, we think the $170 device is a nice addition to your nightstand but a subpar sunrise alarm clock.

If you want a cheap, bright sunrise alarm clock (and can find it in stock): The Afexoa Sunrise Alarm Clock is worth considering. Despite costing just a quarter of our top pick, this cheap model surpassed our initial expectations, emitting an impressive 250 lux while on its maximum brightness setting in our light measurement tests. Its brightness outshined (pun intended) competitors that cost 10 times as much. For this reason, we had hoped to make it our new budget pick after a new round of testing, but it went out of stock before we could do so. In addition to its bright light, the Afexoa has an FM radio, relaxing soundscapes, and additional mood lighting options. We’ll continue monitoring availability for this model.

The competition

We found that neither the Loftie Lamp nor the Lexon Mina Sunrise, two stylish lamps that offer customizable dawn and dusk simulations, were bright enough in our light measurement tests. The Lexon Mina Sunrise’s light levels, for example, barely reached a disappointing 70 lux. We recommend the Loftie Lamp in our guide to the best bedside lamps, but we don’t think it’s bright enough to wake you up.

Although we liked the Reacher Sunrise Alarm Clock’s sleek wood-grained design, its light output was unimpressive. The brightest setting on the clock was a warm yellow tone and measured only 120 lux, which is about one-third of our top pick’s brightness levels.

The iDealSleep Sunrise Alarm Clock felt conspicuously cheap and dim, even before we assessed its light output with a light meter. The clock barely reached levels of around 100 lux during testing, even on its brightest setting.

The Momilla Smart Sunrise Alarm Clock delivered bright light that rivaled that of our top pick’s, but the machine’s companion app was confusing and hard to navigate. During testing, the sound alarm went off and the machine lit up in the middle of the night, but our tester could not determine what programming was causing the malfunction.

We evaluated three models from Lumie: the Bodyclock Rise 100, the Glow 150, and the Bodyclock Shine 300. Though we liked the futuristic, flat-base design of these clocks, none of them were as bright as our picks in our light measuring tests. We also disliked that each model’s control buttons are inconveniently located on the face of the device, requiring you to stabilize the machine with both hands before pressing any button (no small feat in the middle of the night). The Bodyclock Shine 300, the most expensive model, costs roughly $50 more than our top pick, despite delivering far less brightness.

We liked the Dekala Sunstone’s unobtrusive design, but its sunrise simulation was too dim. In our tests with a light meter, the Sunstone offered roughly just one-third of our top pick’s brightness levels.

We found the Casper Glow Light, a small cylindrical lighting device, fun and intuitive to use. But it doesn’t have a dedicated clock or audio alarm, and we don’t think it has enough useful features to justify its $130 price tag.

Joanne Chen wrote a previous version of this article, first published in 2018. This article was edited by Christina Colizza and Courtney Schley.

Meet your guide

Annie Chou

Associate Staff Writer

What I Cover

I’m a writer that helps Wirecutter update its guides to cameras, games and hobbies, powering and charging accessories, and home-office gear.

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