SmartSleep Wake-up Light, Colored Sunrise and Sunset Simulation, 5 Natural Sounds, FM Radio & Reading Lamp, Tap Snooze, HF3520/60

Read this if you are NOT a morning person. Disclaimer: ahead is an unnecessarily lengthy and entirely over exaggerated description of a mediocre moment in my life. Enjoy! This week I decided I needed a change. I began my search for something refreshing to kick start my mornings. So, I bought a new alarm clock called the Wake Up Light. If you don't know what I'm talking about, prepare to be amazed, dear friend. It's an orb shaped apparatus that you set to the desired wake up time just like a regular alarm clock. However, unlike the traditional concept of inducing a mild heart attack with harsh blaring or ringing, this one will gently wake you by emitting light. This starts 30 minutes before you need to get out of bed and take charge of your life. At the beginning, it starts out as a soft red glow, and gradually increases over those 30 minutes into a bright white light. The idea is for this to simulate a sunrise. Pretty fancy, right? In the words of the great Billy Mays (may he Rest In Peace) "BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE!" This fantastically designed sphere of happiness gives you 5 peaceful alarm options to choose from as well. I chose the birds chirping, because who doesn't want to wake up feeling like Snow White surrounded by her fuzzy critter friends? I am 100% serious when I say that I felt just like that this morning. I wanted to go outside and dance in the puddles while wearing a dress made of rose petals hand stitched by fairies, meanwhile spinning around in circles and singing to all of the cute little forest dwellers. Side note: I don't actually live anywhere near the forest, but you get the point. Before this wonderful ball of light entered my life in an Amazon Prime box by the front door, I was absolutely appalled by my iPhone alarm sounding off every morning. Why? Well, I'm so glad you asked! Simply because every evening, I would beg my iPhone to wake me at 6:30 the following morning. I would open my clock app and politely slide the small grey buttons, revealing a green bubble that indicated my request had been processed and approved. However, despite my nightly requests, the iPhone failed me time after time. (I hate to break it to you Apple, but your alarms are ineffective and no match for a heavy sleeper like me.) Eventually, the amount of green lights illuminating from my cellular device became excessive and quite frankly, annoying. In order for me to wake up at 6:30, my alarms began going off at 5:00 and continued in 5-10 minute increments. I know what you're thinking, and yes, it was absolutely necessary to set that many alarms. Even so, my mornings usually began with my barely open eyes searching for the small rectangle of malevolence called "Audrey's iPhone". My sleepy eyes along with my sheet creased arms would move in unison on the bedside table to try and locate the device. My finger eagerly detected and pressed the side button demanding it cease production of the vile screeches overflowing into my bedroom and filling my ears. Once I had triumphantly silenced the alarms, I would squint at the clock with my tangled hair obstructing my already blurred vision. With hopes of seeing the screen display 6:30, I would be crushed by the reality that I had once again overslept. 7:00 would begin mocking me on the screen, as I fumbled through the dark reciting my traditional panicked morning chant, "Oh, no I'm going to be so late!" This every morning routine was beginning to have a negative impact on my poor husband as well. I am sure he was losing sleep because of this, even though he would never admit it. Not to mention, the funky intro to Brass Monkey on repeat can bring even the biggest Beastie Boys fan to the point of nearing a psychotic break, but I digress. Today was different. Even though I went to sleep at the ungodly hour of 2:00, this morning was an awakening accompanied by true peace and serenity. The light began its ascent to full illumination at 6:00. Although I did not stir at this point, I sat up fully awake at exactly 6:16. This glorious clock had not even fully completed the process of gently pulling me away from my dream, yet there I was, awake, baffled, and overwhelmed with joy. I attempted to fall back asleep and indulge in the remaining 14 minutes of sleep, but, alas, I could not. This clock had defeated me. Without a single shred of resentment toward my new favorite device, I left the comfort of my bed, and let the dogs outside with a smile on my face. I was ready to conquer this Friday, and I had my new alarm to thank for it. No longer are my days of sleeping past the time I should have already been on my way to work. No longer are my days of distaste for the iPhone. No longer are the days I wake up startled and confused. Thank you, Philips for your wonderful, life changing creation. If you are anything like me, please do yourself a favor and purchase one of these immediately. Seriously, you will (obviously) not regret it.

After reading all the reviews about poor design and an extremely complicated set-up, I was a little worried about getting this (because it's so much money to just throw away on something). Now that I've gotten mine, it seems that either Phillips has completely redesigned the directions or everyone was being extremely sarcastic and I didn't realize it. They honestly couldn't make it any easier. It comes with a instruction manual and every page is a different component (i.e how to set an alarm, how to use the light, how to change the brightness) all with written step-by-step instructions as well as pictures. All you have to do is follow along. The only (and I mean ONLY) thing that could slightly screw someone up is that instructions on changing from a 24-hour clock to a 12-hour clock comes after "how to set an alarm" in the manual and should come before, that way you don't have to go back and re-set your alarm. In total, set-up probably took me about 10 minutes tops. The argument about design is also extremely over exaggerated. Yes, the buttons are around the outside of the "circle". None are below the lower half, so the comment on having to pick it up to reach a button doesn't make sense, they are all easily accessible. They are also in my opinion extremely intuitive as to what they do. The alarm button has a picture of an alarm clock. The light button has a picture of a sun with +/- buttons next to it to change brightness. The sound button is a music note with +/- buttons next to it to change volume. And the sunset timer has a little sleeping person on it. Those are the only buttons, so I'm not sure why there is so much confusion. To turn it on, click the alarm button. It will ask you to either confirm or change the time it has in the system and then it's set. To turn it off, click the alarm button. The light will stay on until you hit the light button. Why? Because this is a "sunlight simulator". To all of the people complaining that they can't snooze the light, that would kind of defeat the entire purpose of this product, wouldn't it? You can't snooze the sun in the morning. I bought this product because regular alarm clocks just were not working for me. My old pattern of trying to wake up was setting 3 randomly timed alarms over the course of an hour. When the first one would go off, I would naturally turn it off without even waking up (I wouldn't remember it going off later). When the second one would go off, I would be in that completely disoriented stage of sleep and turn off and go right back to sleep. When the third one would go off, I'm be slightly more awake and would turn it off. Then tell myself "I'll just close my eyes for a couple more minutes" and end up sleeping for another half hour before jolting awake because my body goes "wait, weren't we supposed to go to work today?" This was not a flawless plan. Then I tried setting an alarm across the room. I would wake up, get up and turn the alarm off and turn my lights on at the same time. With my eyes burning, I'd return to bed to "close my eyes while they adjust" only to fall back asleep for another half or whole hour. I've had the Phillips Wake-up light HF3520 for about a month now. My wake-up plan has definitely changed. I can now set the alarm for when I actually need to get up (not 1 hour before for cushion time) meaning that I get more sleep. The light itself wakes me up not fully, but to the point where I'm in that drowsy-half asleep state and fully aware that the day is about to start. I do still need sound to get me fully awake, so I use the radio function. When I open my eyes, they are already adjusted so I don't have that painful piercing burn that I used to get when I'd turn the lights on (and honestly it was worth the $115 just for that function). I turn off the alarm and keep the light on. If I went to bed really late the night before, I sometimes get the urge to lay there for a couple minutes. Unlike when I used to do this, this time I'm fully awake so I can't fall back asleep and just get to chill for a couple minutes. Most days I don't even need to do this, I'm ready to go as soon as I turn the alarm off. We'll see how long it lasts, it has a pretty good warranty so I'm not that worried. Honestly, after 5 years if it breaks I would 100% pay another $115 to replace it. Being able to wake up and not immediately fall back asleep is wonderful.

I've had this wake-up light for about 2 months, and my overall impression is that it's great. With that being said, there are definitely some things to note if you plan on purchasing this item. 1. Why is it so much more expensive than the other wake-up lights out there? As far as I can tell, what you're paying for is the fact that the light starts a deep orange, and fades into a brighter white. The cheaper versions of this light (by Philips and others) only have the white light. The orange does create more of a "sunrise" feeling that the other lamps likely do not. I would guess the technology to have this lamp make the seamless transition from orange to white is why the cost is so much higher. Otherwise, the features seem to be mostly the same from model to model. 2. Are the controls really as confusing as everyone says in the reviews? YES. I am pretty tech savvy, and have all kinds of complex gadgets around the house. However, this one tested my patience. The interface and all of the controls are not very user friendly. There is no way you would successfully set this lamp up without the user manual. (and even then, the manual can be a bit confusing) There are bunch of settings that require tedious menu scrolling to figure out. Including the time the alarm goes off, the length of time it takes for the light to get to full brightness, and how bright you want the light to be (on a scale that you have no frame of reference for... how bright is level 20? How dim is level 1? Will it be bright enough to wake you up? You won't know until you try). After you've figured out all of that, you'll need to decide which sound you want to wake up to after the light has reached full brightness. There are five options, and once you choose one, you'll have to pick a sound level (Again, on a weird scale. Seems like 1-10 is pretty universal, but no...they've gone with 1-20 on this one as well) There are other options you can adjust as well, like the fall asleep timer, which dims the light from full brightness to off in a pre-determined time you've chosen in the menu. (again, lots of scrolling and confusing levels) With all of that being said... once you have figured out your preferred "wake up profile," turning the alarms on or off, or changing the time on the alarm is pretty simple. It's all of the steps leading up to that point that are tricky. Once I settled on my particular wake-up profile, it's been pretty easy to use, and I love not being startled awake by a loud sound. I always wake up before the sound starts playing, which is nice. Another thing to note is the snooze function. There is no snooze button to press. It says to just tap on the front of the light. However, you'll need to figure out the right amount of force to make it snooze. Too light, and nothing happens. It must be based on some sort of vibration, because I've found that even if I smack the table that the lamp is on, that also activates the snooze. Something to know about the snooze: It only snoozes the sound, not the light. You can turn off the light, and the sound portion of the alarm will still work in snooze mode. They are separate functions, and don't really impact one another. You can set the time it takes the lamp to get to full brightness between 20 and 40 minutes. Which means that your lamp will be at full brightness by the time you have the alarm set for. If you have the length at 30 minutes, and your alarm is set for 7am... the lamp will start to turn on at 6:30am, and slowly light up until 7am, at which point, the sound will begin playing. You may also find that you are waking up at a certain point in the lamp's brightness, and it may be earlier or later than you want. If your lamp is set to be at full brightness at 7am, you'll likely be awake before that. Which, you might not want. This is a personal preference thing, and takes some time to adjust and get used to. Overall, this wake-up lamp has really made getting up in the morning easier. The gradual light fading from orange to white has never startled me awake, and I find the slow process of being gently awoken to be refreshing. The choice of sounds that play at the end of the alarm are nice, and soothing, and not jarring at all. (you can also use the radio, but I haven't done that). This light was expensive, but I'm glad I bought. Yes the controls are a pain to navigate and figure out. But, once you've got that all set it's pretty easy to use. I have no idea what would happen if the power went out... if I had to re-learn how to set this all up again, I may go mad. I recommend this lamp, but know that you'll be in for some complicated set up.

This wakeup light had been on my wishlist for at least 13 years prior to purchase. I figured it would help me but was too expensive or felt too much of a risk. I tried more general purpose solutions like automated overhead lights and lamps, even bringing in happy lights by the bed to use upon waking. I’ve had the clock for two days now and I can tell a difference. Logically the most significant change in this vs some other light is how gradual the fade in is and perhaps the hue changes as it brightens. It goes from a reddish color to an orangy white and then to less orange. I think it lands somewhere in the 3500k color temp range at full brightness. The red hue is nearly imperceptible if you run the demo mode under regular lighting. I initially thought I had been sent the wrong product. If you run the demo in a dark room it should be visible. Even with the crazy bird noise as the default, I find myself actually feeling awake by the time I hear it. All my other alarms and light automation are still in play, but this little clock/wake up light seems to have filled a real gap. If this turns out to just be placebo or to wane, I will update this review, but I can tell you from years of experience not-having-this that generally I have some sleep paralysis or lethargy that makes it really hard to get moving first thing in the morning. I haven’t had that the past two days, even without sleeping my optimal number of hours. I’m still figuring out how to use it best. The controls seem pretty straightforward to me, except for turning the alarms on and off. To turn it “off” in the morning instead of snoozing, it seems you have to fully turn off a given alarm. Then if you want it on for tomorrow you have to turn it back on. I suppose you could just let it go off for an hour and time out? I wish it had an old school toggle switch for the alarm state, but that would change the all buttons design. Or heck, maybe just put a dismiss button in it to clear the current active alarm until its next trigger time. This can’t fully replace a lamp for most uses. It’s somewhat directional. That said the sunset type light fadeout is pretty neat. I think that could be a useful part of good sleep hygiene as it acts as a cue subconsciously of time passing and hinting that It’s time to sleep. I did try to buy an older model on eBay ~13 years ago and it was DOA. Some reviews here suggest these aren’t super reliable. Time will tell there. The build quality seems decent, the buttons both physical and capacitive work, and the light quality is decent. There’s no backup battery to remember the time or make the alarm go off during a power outage, but unplugging it and moving it to another room kept the time and settings. Perhaps a capacitor is on board. This model has 5 nature sounds and an FM tuner. I listened to the radio a bit and it was acceptable quality. For the alarm I just left it at the default birds chirping. It works well! This morning I set it later than my other alarms. I dismissed those because I have a day off and slept till this alarm alone woke me up. I was awake enough to not fall back asleep. It’s feels weird that this might have been an easy solution to a real problem that has plagued me for decades now. All my other practices and methods help too, but this was noticeable above and beyond those on the first use. I’m tempted to see if it can help me wake up much earlier, as I’ve never been a morning person. The first morning I used it, it was rainy outside and that’s how I realized /this/ must have made the difference. Rain at wakeup time is basically kryptonite. Even with overhead lights/lamps/etc having tons of clouds and rain is enough to make me sleep late before a painful last minute dose of adrenaline from panic gets me to jolt up in a bid to stay employed. No such problem… I got out of bed before 7 am! Update: 26-06-15, I've had this alarm about a month now and taken it on two trips with me. It appears it can keep the time at least for 3-4 hours in a suitcase. I had a slightly longer drive for the second trip and had to set the time on arrival, but honestly this is one of the easiest clocks to set the time on. It was worth it to take it on the trips. Some notes: To dismiss the alarm, I discovered what's likely the intended method by accident. If you press the sleep timer button twice (the same button for the sunset feature) it will dismiss the alarm and turn off the light without turning off the alarm completely so it's ready for the following day. I have slept through this light alarm a few times; in one case the elevation of the light relative to where my face was was insufficient, in the other my overall sleep routine had been off for other reasons. It's still a net win though for me. This alarm can "roll" if you have cats who like to jump up places. The light diffusion plate got scuffed up thanks to one of my cats knocking it off the nightstand. It still works fine though.

I have tried more than a handful of alarm clocks in the past couple of years and none of them have had all the features I need until I got this one. This alarm clock is the best! Love the red color for the time because it does not wake me or bother me like the harsh white ones do. The dual alarms and the fact that the sunrise light stays on when I hit the snooze button are winning features for me. Finally found the clock for me!

About 2 years ago, my family and I moved a lot further North than I had previously lived. I bought the older model, the HF3470, to help me wake up in the winter darkness. It was wonderful. Now, my 6 year old daughter has been having a very hard time waking up in the mornings for school (we have to get up at 6:15 to get them there in time, and starting in late September, it is still dark at that time). So I bought the new light alarm clock for myself and gave my old HF3470 to her. I am a huge fan of BOTH models. Right on the very first morning that I set the alarm clock in her room, she was up when the alarm went off. No complaints about how early it was, no dragging her out of bed, just an easily awoken child! We haven't even been late to school because I don't have to harass her for 30 minutes to get her going. It was like magic. She is using the light only (no sounds) with a loud clock radio across the room (so she cannot snooze the sound, even if she turns off the light!). It is easy enough to operate that my 6 year old can turn it on and off and use the light. (I did set the time and alarm for her, adjust the brightness, etc). I am also loving my new HF3520 model. It's true that the light at first is very red, then rather orange before it gets bright white. While this is not accurate to a true sunrise, I actually appreciate the color change because when I rouse before the alarm has gone off, but when the light has already begun lighting up, I can tell by the room's redness that it is not time to wake up all the way yet. I don't have to be facing the clock nor do I have to check the time. I like that! With both light-clocks, I have had them on my nightstand beside my bed, right at my eye/mattress level. My husband works swing shift so he often needs to sleep in, while I need to get up and get the kids ready for school and get myself off to work. I really appreciate that the alarms are unobtrusive enough to let him stay asleep, while still waking me up. The first morning I used the new clock, I had it set at brightness level 20 (max setting), and it DID wake him up (which is great to know for times we both WANT to get up at the same time). I set it to level 12 for the next morning, and it has been plenty bright for me and has not woken him since. After 2 years of listening to it, the birds tweeting on the old clock was starting to get on my nerves (but it was better than radio, the other option), but I haven't had the new clock long enough to say whether or not that will happen to me with the new sounds eventually. I was pleased, though, that the bird sounds on the new clock are different than the old clock, and I like the other sounds well enough too. The ONE problem I had with the HF3470 (the bigger, older model) is that the buttons are stiff and the device is light-weight, which means when you go to push the buttons along the front of the device, the whole alarm pushes back. So I end up pushing the device across the nightstand, but the buttons won't click. I had to use two hands: one to hold the device still and the other to push the buttons, until my husband brought me a rubber place mat and put it under my clock. Then it had enough grip to stay put while I was pushing the buttons. This is a minor complaint, though, considering how much I love that clock (and how well it has been working for my daughter!). The new clock does not have the issue with the buttons, which are more like a touch screen and nothing actually pushes inward at all. When I move my finger near the "buttons" on the front, little lights come on showing me where to press for each button (helpful for setting the alarm in the dark). When I withdraw my finger, the lights turn off. I had fun playing with that. It can sense me coming! I like the dimmable display and even though it cannot be turned all the way off, the lowest setting is plenty dim. In conclusion, I have 2 different models, and both are wonderful. I would buy either one again without hesitation. I prefer the large toggle switch on the older model for snoozing and setting the alarm because it's so easy to find, but either clock is great. If money is an issue, get the cheaper one and you still won't be disappointed. The upgraded light colors, buttons, style, and sounds of the newer model are great but might not be worth that much of a price difference for many.

It's an alarm clock. The alarm, with it's gentle light and optional bird sounds, is amazing. The clock, a subtle orange color that adapts to ambient brightness, is fine. But who in their right mind puts alarm clock buttons around the outer edge of a round clock??? It takes two hands to hold the clock still while you turn off the alarm, a hefty expectation from a lying position when you just woke up. AND you can't acknowledge the alarm with a single button -- silencing the sound, suppressing the light, and leaving the alarm set for the next day takes two button clicks. On the upside, the complicated process of turning off the alarm clock ensures you are completely awake.

Although I had to knock off one star for the clunky controls and settings for this wake up light, I have to say that I really love using it. I got tired of waking up to annoying cell phone alarms for years, and wanted to check out this method. It really makes a huge difference using this, because you are not jolted awake with a sense of panic or urgency. You just have the light, which slowly turns on and begins brightening over the course of 30 minutes before the time you set it to wake you. Usually, this is enough to wake me up on its own and I turn it off before the auditory part of the alarm even goes off. But if you wait until it does go off, you wake to the peaceful sound of birds chirping and it feels like you are in nature. You have other options for the audio but that one is my favorite. This was $89.95 when I bought it (it's gone up since then to $108.95 at the time of writing this review), which I still consider expensive for an alarm clock with a light. But I absolutely love it and would buy it again.

普段は朝日で目覚めるので、除雪や早朝出勤のために、冬の日の出前に起きるのが大変でした。 使った初日から、朝日で起きるのと同じ感覚で目覚めることができました。 大変いい商品です。

First a little back story. I grew up with no sleep discipline. As a kid I’d go to bed whenever I was tired and as a teen I often fell asleep past midnight and woke up much past noon. I was also drowsy all the time. With the wake-up light my energy levels are more balanced. Getting out of bed is no longer as dreadful as it used to be (I’m even a morning person now!). I find I’m generally more awake in the morning and my “wakefulness” gradually decreases until I’m in bed again. This wake-up light won’t magically allow you to run on less sleep though. I’m still tired if I sleep for 6 hours when I generally need ~7.5 hours but I won’t feel like I was just hit over the head by a hammer. I found that placing the lamp on my dresser gave me better results because it lit up my whole bed. I can’t hide from the light unless I go under the blanket. When I had the light positioned on my bedside table I found I could roll over and ignore the light. I find the light itself pleasing. I like how the color of the light changes from an orange/red to white light. I do wish it was brighter. I use the highest brightness setting (20) and my room will still “feel” dark when I wake up. This could be because I have it positioned further away. I don’t use the sound alarms. They were pleasing at first but I found my phone alarm worked better for me in terms of actually waking me up and in terms of flexibility. The side buttons can be hard to get used to since they are relatively close together and they feel similar. It took me about a month to commit to muscle memory. When unplugged the clock will forget the time and clock style (12h vs 24h) but it will remember everything else (brightness, alarm times, sound settings etc). The price is high but Amazon has sales every so often making it an easier pill to swallow. This is a great alarm clock and I recommend to everyone who has a hard time waking up in the morning. It really has changed my life for the better.

Muy buen producto, si ayuda a despertar, pero es necesario tenerlo cerca de la cama. Buenos sonidos, buen nivel de luminosidad, y buena calidad. Tiene dos alarmas, yo una la uso para días laborales y la segunda para fines de semana. Las rayas en el video no se ven en persona.

Horribly expensive here in India. But cheaper than an air fare. I bought my original, glass, model (this one is plastic) in UK, but, after some years its buttons are failing. It is part of my wake-up life. Don't know how I could live without it. And, as I said, cheaper than an air fare. Is it worth it to YOU? At this price, probably not.

I had sleeping problems and this was a recommendation of a friend that this product can help! It will rise like a sun in the morning and makes you ready to wake up minutes before you actually wake up, a lot better than all those disturbing alarms! It also has soothing sounds to set as an alarm that goes great with the rising light which makes it easier for you to start your day. you can also benefit from the sunset if you have difficulty going to sleep. Plus radio stations for those who like to listen to radio in bed. I didn't think this product is this much effective but it is!!! I LOVE THIS LIGHT! Highly recommend... It is worth the price although I bought it on a black Friday sales (EVEN BETTER :) )