‘Honestly, it’s life changing’ is a regular series where we talk about the weird and wonderful possessions we can’t imagine life without. Think of it as an ode to the mundane, bizarre and, sometimes, wholly unnecessary products in our lives.
I know what you’re thinking – £75 is a lot of money to spend on an alarm clock when you could just use your phone (or get an analog alarm for a fiver). But hear me out.
Making the switch earlier this year has not only transformed my mornings, but also my evenings. Sleep has never been better. Really.
For years I’d been relying on the shrill chime of my iPhone to wake me up in the mornings. Its abrupt morning summons would repeat every five minutes for about half an hour (yes, I’m one of those people), while I eventually managed to open one eye and frown.
As a freelancer who works part-time in an office and the rest of the week from home, my sleep is a bit all over the place. Sometimes I get up at 6am, others not til 8am and if I’m not doing anything on the weekend it can be as late as 2pm. Don’t judge me, I like sleep.
These inconsistent mornings are coupled with the fact that I’ve never been able to fall asleep easily; if I nod off in an hour, I’d consider that success. I’m under no illusion as to why this is: my phone. I scroll through Instagram, Twitter, Youtube and repeat, endlessly – and while saying I’m “addicted” to my screen seems excessive, it is certainly a bad habit.
By the time I put my phone down my eyes are blurry and every morning I feel knackered.
Enter: Lumie, a brand specialising in wakeup lights, which my friend has been close to evangelical about. The aim of its products is to help people go to sleep and wake up with the help of light, rather than just an alarm noise.
I opt for the mid-range Bodyclock Spark 100 (RRP £74.99), but there are more basic lights for cheaper and more high tech versions at a higher cost.
Once out the box and plugged in, getting it to work is simple. I adjust my alarm time, set the brightness level for when the alarm goes off and pick a volume from one to five for the sound. I select the fourth, a loud enough beeping to rouse me mid-snooze, but not so loud I wake up pissed off.
I also play around with the sunset setting, a 30 minute feature that makes the light of the alarm (that giant dome bit) gradually fade through pink, orange and red then turns itself off, which is supposed to signal your body to ready for sleep and make you drowsy.
The first morning I use it, waking up to the alarm is game-changing. There’s no blaring bleeping to jolt me out of my sleep, instead the light emits a warm glow in my room and the alarm sound starts quietly, eventually getting louder. To snooze it only takes a light tap on the dome, so easy to do without looking at it when you’re buried under your duvet.
But best of all, it stops me from looking at my phone as the last thing I do before I go to bed and the first thing I do when I wake up. I’d got so used to squinting blearily at my screen, trying to turn off the alarm, and its brightness left me feeling more awake than sleepy when I tried to go to bed. Because it’s so gradual, with both sound and light, I now wake up feeling more rested and in a better mood and that’s only continued throughout using it.
I love how it looks on my bedside too, it’s minimal and clean, not to mention easy to clean too. It doesn’t take up a huge amount of space but is plenty big enough to replace your bedside lamp, as when its set on full brightness, can light up a whole room.
We all work hard to earn our money – so it shouldn’t feel like hard work to spend it well. At HuffPost Finds we’ll help you find the best stuff that deserves your cash, from the ultimate lipstick to a durable iron to replace the one that broke (RIP). All our choices are completely independent but we may earn a small commission if you click a link and make a purchase.