If you aren’t feeling rested when your alarm goes off, a sunrise alarm clock could change your life. The disruptive jolt of loud beeping and harsh tones isn’t a fun way to start the day, nor is it a natural way to help your body rise. I’m a chronic snooze-button kind of gal, and I find a sunrise clock or wake-up light incredibly helpful for me to actually wake up when I need to and follow a healthier circadian rhythm, since the growing light helps tell my body it’s time to wake up. Plus, a bright light is much, much harder to ignore than a noise I can snooze.
I’ve woken up to the bright hues of nearly a dozen different sunrise alarm clocks over the past two years, and it’s a game changer. Here’s what makes it work, and which ones I recommend the most.
How Do Sunrise Alarm Clocks Work?
Your body is built to wake naturally with the sunrise and feel sleepy as the sun sets. The light at both the beginning and end of the day is a warm, golden tone, unlike the midday bright, slightly blue sunlight that keeps you wide awake. A sunrise alarm clock mimics this transition from morning to bright daytime light, helping to signal your body to wake up (or fall asleep, if the clock also has a sunset option).
A sunrise alarm has a built-in light you can set to brighten at a certain time. It doesn’t happen instantly; it will slowly transition over a period of anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour, and better sunrise alarms let you choose your exact brightening window. I usually choose a half-hour window for the light to start brightening, and let its brightening crescendo slowly wake me.
There are also sound effects. Sunrise alarms have a mix of relaxing and classic sounds that will usually go off when the light starts to brighten, to also help rouse you. I’d actually prefer if the light went first and music activated later, but that isn’t always an option for these lights.
Some sunrise alarms also offer a sunset routine, meaning you can turn them on at night and they’ll slowly dim into darkness to help you feel sleepy. It’s another good visual cue for your brain and body to realize it’s time for bed, and I prefer sunrise alarms like Hatch and Lumie that let you choose when to activate a routine (pushing a button starts the routine to happen over the course of 30 minutes, for example) versus needing to be in bed by a set time to use the routine.
Ultimately, these lights can do a lot. They can double as a sound machine, help you wake up and fall asleep, and even act as a regular bedside lamp if they’re bright enough. Not all sunrise alarms have all of these features, though, so you have to choose how much you want to spend and what features are most important to you.
What Features Should You Look for in a Sunrise Alarm Clock?
You might see a range of features listed for a sunrise alarm, and more expensive ones will include more of these than cheaper models. If you’re not sure what features you want, try this series of questions to figure out what features you need.
Do you struggle to fall asleep? Splurge on a sunrise alarm with a nighttime or wind-down routine. These help build a routine for you to fall asleep to.
Do you need one device that doubles as an alarm and a bedside lamp? Get a brighter sunrise clock that has easy controls to switch it on as a bedside lamp. Not all sunrise clocks have these, so check the details carefully (and reviews like mine!) and note that cheaper, smaller sunrise alarm clocks usually won’t brighten an entire bedroom.
Are you picky about your alarm sounds? Check how many sounds are offered. Just about every sunrise clock has some sound machine features and options, but cheaper ones tend to only have a couple of sounds and might not have the sound you’re looking for.
Do you want app control? Some options in this guide don’t have a partner app or Wi-Fi capabilities, especially some of my favorites. An app doesn’t necessarily make it a better sunrise clock, but it can be convenient to use. If you prefer an app to set up your sunrise lamp, shop the Casper, Hatch, Loftie, and WiiM.
Which Sunrise Alarm Clocks Are Best?
Lumie
Bodyclock Luxe 700FM
This sunrise alarm is my favorite one. It’s big and bright with a stylish exterior, and has a button for lamp mode so you can easily switch it on to use in the evening as a regular lamp, and it was bright enough to fill my bedroom like a normal lamp. It has a nice range of sounds, and not only connects to the radio but allows you to save five stations. There are both sunrise and sunset settings. The biggest downside is it only has a 24-hour clock, and it doesn’t connect to Wi-Fi or an app so you have to set the time manually (and change it manually for daylight saving). If you want to spend less, the Shine 300 ($169) is a little smaller and has fewer sounds, but otherwise is similarly great.
The Hatch Restore 3 and its previous generations are probably the most popular sunrise alarm clock. I constantly see it recommended online from gift guides to TikTok videos, and it’s understandable that it’s so popular. The Restore 3 is controlled by the Hatch app which has a massive range of sounds, lights, and routines you can implement for both mornings and evenings. The Restore 3 came out in early 2025, and has more buttons and controls so once you set up your favorite settings, you can easily toggle them on from the press of a button. The Restore 3 isn’t too large, which is nice for fitting onto bedside tables, but it’s not quite as bright as I’d like to force myself to wake up in the morning. There’s also a paywall to get to all of Hatch’s audio content, requiring a membership to Hatch+, but you can access plenty with the free content.
If you want to spend less but don’t want to lose out on sound and color options, WiiM’s Wake-Up Light is the way to go. It’s one of the smallest I’ve tried, but it was bright enough to still help rouse me and has a range of colors that look similar to a smart light bulb. It connects to the WiiMLight app, which has a huge range of sounds for free—my last count was 102 sounds and stations—and can do both sunrise and sunset routines. It also promises to connect to Alexa, but that didn’t work for me, and it is too small to use as a true bedside lamp. Even without that, the range of features you’ll get for this price can’t be beat.
Honorable Mentions
Blueair Mini Restful Air Purifier Sunrise Clock for $140: This is an air purifier and sunrise alarm clock blended into a single device. The Mini Restful is the smallest air purifier in Blueair’s Sleep Collection, and promises to both gently wake you and to clean the air in your bedroom. You’ll use Blueair’s app and it comes with nine sounds, and you can start your sunrise anywhere between 15 and 30 minutes before your alarm. You can read more in our guide to air purifiers.
Casper Glow Light for $129: This light is cool because it responds to your touch and movement of the light. It turns on or off based on when you flip it over, and when you turn it it will brighten or dim the light. There’s no sound features, but it is battery powered and intuitive to use.
Hatch Baby for $100: The updated version of the popular Hatch Rest is the Hatch Baby, with a new look and app options similar to the Hatch Restore 3 above (previously the app options were much simpler, even though the devices all share the same Hatch Sleep app). This is a fun option for kids, though it doesn’t do gradual sunrises. It does, however, turn on fun colors and play music at certain times and for certain lengths. My 3-year-old looks forward to the “green light” turning on every morning (but this does not, unfortunately, motivate him to not leave his bed for mine at 4 in the morning). You’ll also get a six-month subscription to Hatch+ content.
Loftie Lamp for $280: Loftie’s lamp is gorgeous, and my favorite lamp to fill my bedroom. It has three different light colors and a handful of brightness settings for each. But for the high price, you need the Loftie Alarm to have sound features, and there’s only a nine-minute brightening and dimming window, which doesn’t help me much. It also syncs with Alexa, though.
FAQs
Do Sunrise Alarms Work for Heavy Sleepers?
Yes! I’m an especially heavy sleeper in the morning and these can still help me wake up. You might want to choose the most gradual increase of brightness on the sunrise lamp you choose, so that the slow brightening of the room can better slowly rouse you from that deep sleep.
What’s the Difference Between a Sunrise Clock and a SAD Lamp?
These two gadgets might look similar on the outside, but sunrise clocks and other wake-up style lights are for waking you up, while a SAD or seasonal affective disorder lamp is designed to simulate sunlight for you during the day. SAD lamps perform light therapy to help combat seasonal depression during darker times of the year, while sunrise alarms are just for making morning wake-up less rough. Both can help regulate your circadian rhythm, but in different ways. You could set a sunrise clock to stay on all day to help simulate sunlight, though these don’t promise the same benefits and you might not get the help you’re looking for.
How Does WIRED Choose Sunrise Clocks to Test?
We research all models in advance to see which ones are a fit for testing. We look to ensure they have wake-up features (some SAD lamps will look similar to a sunrise alarm, for example, but if there’s no gradual sunrise to wake up to they don’t qualify for testing with this guide) and look to test a variety of price points and additional features to see what’s really worth buying. We make an effort to select both more affordable options with less features and high-end options to compare and contrast against one another in our testing rounds.
How Does WIRED Test Sunrise Clocks?
I tested each recommended sunrise clock on my bedside in a room with blackout curtains to see how much it could really brighten a room over the course of its sunrise routine. I slept with each model for anywhere between one and seven nights, depending on its performance. I also tried out the various sound options each machine had to offer to both test the speakers and see how pleasant the sounds were to wake up or fall asleep to. If there was a nighttime routine option, I tested that too.
Power up with unlimited access to WIRED. Get best-in-class reporting and exclusive subscriber content that’s too important to ignore. Subscribe Today.