What to Look For
Snooze Button
Probably everyone’s favourite feature on an alarm clock, giving you the option of hitting it to silence it for another ten minutes of sleep. But our expert cautions against over use since snoozing 4 times won’t give you as restful a forty minute sleep as just setting your alarm for 40 minutes later. Some alarm clocks will allow you to predetermine the amount of time of each snooze interval.
Battery Backup
In case there’s a power outage, an alarm clock with a battery back up will kick into gear assuring that you’ll still be woken up and not late for work. Just make sure to test the batteries periodically.
Immune to Alarm?
Some people will blame their alarm clock if it doesn’t get them out of bed. But that’s not it at all. These sleepy heads have essentially trained themselves not to wake up and are somehow able to sleep through whatever the clock puts out.
Other Features
- CD player alarm clocks are a great choice for those who want to know exactly what they’re going to wake up and growing in popularity are clocks that incorporate an iPod dock so you can wake up to your pre-selected downloaded music.
- Dual setting alarm clocks allow you to have a programmed wake up time for weekdays and a different one for weekend.
What's Out There
Alarm clocks range from the simple analog (remember those clocks with the hands that tell time?) with a bell system. These days however digital clocks are our awakening mechanisms of choice. The time display is usually an LCD (liquid crystal display) or LED (light emitting diode) allowing you to be able to read the time regardless of light in the room. Most will have a radio feature allowing you to be gently awakened by your favourite radio station. If music is your thing but like to control the tunes then one with either a CD player or a docking system for you MP3 player is probably the best bet. Of course if you need more of a jolt you can always set it to a buzz/beep that is sure to get you out of bed!
In this technological age the clock has had to make room for alarm functions included in devices like iPods, PDAs and cell phones.
Our Tests
Four of us tested each of five alarm clocks for a couple of weeks. We also had a nightmare sleepover together setting each alarm clock at two hour intervals to gain a better group consensus.
Sony
Radio/Alarm
Cost: $15
RCA
Radio/CD/Alarm
Cost: $50
Wake & Shake
Buzz/Shake/Strobe Alarm
Cost: $99
Sunrise
Light/Buzz Alarm
Cost: $99
Clocky
Alarm Clock on wheels
Cost: $56
Test Results
- We found that the sounds and strange movements of Clocky too terrifying to wake up to; first the excessively loud alarm and then if that didn’t get you up he started to wheel away making more noise.
- The Sunrise had its benefits but with only a soft light that brightens over time and no sound all you had to do was pull the covers over head and back to sleep you went.
- Wake and shake; light too bright and illuminated the room making it hard to get to sleep.
- Simple gave the best wake up call for one tester who chose the Sony
- The RCA was preferred by ¾ of our testers for it’s CD capability where you could program which song it would set off to; you could set two different alarm times; and it was the most aesthetically pleasing.
After You Buy
Getting a Good Night’s Sleep
Placement of your clock is important; turn it slightly away from you so you’re not tempted to glance at the time; stressing over what time it is makes it much harder to fall asleep.
Thanks To Our Experts…
Dr. Jonathan Fleming Sleep Specialist
Most will agree that getting woken out of a good sleep in the morning is an irritating way to start the day. Unfortunately with jobs, school and other things calling us out of bed the need to be alerted is a necessary one – hence the alarm clock. We wanted to find out if any alarm clock could do a better job at getting us up or if they all left us cranky.