We bought the most popular sunrise alarm clocks and tested them with our lab-grade spectrometer!
In this article, we’ll deeply dive into the data, features, and my thoughts on the best ones.
The Sunrise Alarm Clocks
We’ve tested the Hatch Restore 2, all four Lumie Bodyclocks, the three Philips SmartSleep lamps, Casper Glow, the Loftie Lamp, and the new Philips Hue Twilight. For this review, we also bought some cheaper Amazon budget lamps to try out.
A couple of notable options have been discontinued, namely the Philips SmartSleep HF3670 and the Hatch Restore 1, so we left those out.
Testing the Sunrises
Before we get into what features set these lamps apart let’s go over the sunrise data!
Some other things we’ll go over later are ease of use and customizations, as these are also important factors when considering which one to buy.
Lumens or Total Brightness
The first thing we’ll look at is just how much total light each lamp is capable of putting out. To do this we placed each one inside our integration sphere and used our lab-grade spectrometer to measure all of the light in lumens.
Here’s how they stack up:
Oddly the Lumie Shine 300 is vastly brighter than all of the other Lumie Lights. The Hue Twilight is also very bright overall. These two will light up your whole bedroom better than the others, that’s for sure!
We can also see that the Hatch Restore 2, Loftie Lamp, and a couple of Amazon clocks are pretty dim compared to the rest.
But lumens don’t paint the whole picture. To determine how useful a lamp will be as a sunrise simulator, you’ll want to know roughly how much lux is hitting your eyes at specific distances.
Directional Lux
To check lux, we placed each lamp in front of our spectrometer and measured every 6 inches on various settings.
The results from this test show some interesting results, here’s the lux at 1 foot for each lamp:
Quite a bit has changed! The Hatch Resore 2 has climbed way up the ranks, and the Philips SmartSleep lamps push all the Lumie lamps down except for the Shine 300, which still retains its position with the Hue Twilight.
Even though the Lumie lamps have more lumens, the SmartSleep lamps have higher lux due to their design.
So that’s something to keep in mind!
Distances and Proper Usage
Now. What does this all mean?
In our article about the science of dawn simulation, we recommend starting with about 250 lux. You may end up preferring a higher or lower lux than this, but it’s a good starting point.
To achieve this, however, you need two things:
- A sufficiently bright lamp.
- Enough brightness settings to hone in on the right lux.
On average you’ll probably be about 18 inches from your lamp, some lights like the Loftie Lamp and Casper Glow don’t even come close to hitting 250 lux at this distance, in fact only a few lamps do…
In the article mentioned above, some people preferred a lux of around 120, and some as high as 400.
Sunrise Durations
Since we’re on the topic of usage and studies, it’s worth pointing out that these lamps vary quite a bit in how long you can run the sunrise simulations.
Here’s how they compare:
You’ll see that the Lumie Luxe 700FM and Shine 300 are the only two sunrise lamps that can go beyond 60 minutes and up to 90 minutes. This is interesting because many of the scientific studies that have been done on these use 90-minute sunrises and sometimes much longer than this.
So if you’d like to be able to experiment with longer sunrise durations, one of these two lamps would be your best bet!
You’ll also see that some lamps are very limited in this regard.
Sunrise Curves
A sunrise alarm clock should ideally mimic the lux curve of a real sunrise.
Below are some contour maps of sunrises across seasons in different altitudes:
These are in log of course, so they’re not to scale, but the general takeaway here is that we want to see a very gradual increase in brightness that eventually begins to brighten quicker.
Here’s what that should look like:
But here for example is what the Lofite Lamp sunrises looked like during our testing:
While the Loftie begins somewhat gradually, it suddenly increases a bit too quickly near the end. A sunrise like this can result in a less-than-ideal waking pattern.
So Which Sunrise Curves are the Best?
The Philip SmartSleep lamps have great sunrise curves all around:
The Lumie Bodyclocks are also pretty good:
The Hue Twilight has a great ramp-up curve:
The Casper Glow’s sunrise curve wasn’t too bad either, it’s just a bit dim.
Now the Hatch Restore 2 is a weird one, because, like the Lofite Lamp it has many sunrise options to choose from, however unlike the Lofite, its sunrises vary quite a bit.
Morning in Prague is the best one, and probably the one to go with if you’re going to try out the Hatch Restore 2.
As for the Amazon lamps we tested, the Reacher and JALL lamps have decent curves, but the Jall is the clear winner in brightness so we’re just going to to recommend that one!
Flicker
We like to measure flicker, for anyone concerned about this kind of thing.
LED flicker can cause sensitive individuals to experience fatigue, headaches, and eye strain. However, this may not be as much of an issue given the unique purpose of these products.
The Least Risky
Several lamps had almost no flicker, and a few had a minor amount of high-frequency flicker.
Here are those lamps at 100% brightness:
And here they are at 50%:
The Casper Glow gets a bit riskier than the rest here once it’s dimmed.
The Most Risky
Four lamps made it into our risky category, here are their waveforms at 100% brightness:
These graphs look quite a bit different than the ones above! You’ll see that the Shine 300 looks just fine here, once you dim it, however, it joins the rest:
The takeaway here is to avoid these lamps if flicker is your concern. This isn’t a big deciding factor for me, but it may be for you.
Other Features to Consider
So what else should you know before picking your clock?
Ease of Use
These were all quite easy to use, but there were a few notable exceptions…
By far the most annoying to use was the Philips HF3650, this thing has a lot of options and customizations, which is nice, but the entire menu system is nested in icons only.
To give you an idea:
While not quite as bad as the HF3650, I also found the Lumie Shine 300 a little difficult to use. There’s just a lot of buttons and arrows and it isn’t intuitive which ones control what.
These two are unfortunately some of the most effective sunrise clocks we tested, so you may want to go with one, just be aware that they can be a little annoying setting up for the first time.
Now it’s also worth mentioning here that I tried several “Amazon” generic Chinese budget lamps, and I found most of these annoying to use, some outright impossible with barely readable manuals.
The 3 we ended up testing are okay, but not amazing.
Alarm Scheduling
I advise waking up at a consistent time every morning, but if you need multiple alarms, only a couple of the traditional alarms let you do this.
The Lumie Luxe 700FM and Shine 300 allow you to set a separate alarm for each day of the week. Smart lamps with apps like the Hatch Restore 2, Casper Glow, Hue Twilight, and Loftie will also allow you to do this.
The Lumie Rise 100 and Glow 150, as well as the Philips HF3500 only allow you to set one alarm, which is fine with me since I only ever really use one. However, the Lumie’s have to be reenabled each day. Meaning when it turns off in the morning, you have to turn it back on or it won’t go off the next morning. Yes, it’s as dumb as it sounds.
The Philips HF3520 and HF3650 allow for two alarms if you need a little extra wiggle room.
12 vs 24 Hour
Each of these clocks can switch between 12 and 24 hours, except the Lumie Bodyclocks. These are stuck in 24-hour time only, because Europe. If that annoys you, you’ll want to skip these.
Clock Face Dimming
If you like a pitch-black room, you’ll want a clock that can be turned completely off at night. Luckily every lamp we tested can do this, except one… the Philips SmartSleep HF3500.
Now it does go very dim! But not completely off. It doesn’t auto-dim like many of the others, so you’ll have to operate the side dimming button to see the clock face during the day if you like to keep it dim at night.
Sunset/Nightlight
Just about all of these clocks have some kind of nightlight or sunset feature where the light slowly dims over time. The only one that doesn’t is the HF3500.
I don’t use these features myself as they tend to be a little convoluted to use most of the time. Some lamps like the HF3650 have a super easy-to-use nightlight feature that I found myself using, but other than that, I’m mostly just here for the sunrise.
White Noise
If you’d like your sunrise alarm clock to also be able to play white noise, here’s what you need to know.
The Lumie 150, 300, and 700 all offer a single “White Noise” audio file:
For the best white noise experience, you’ll want to go with the Hatch Restore 2, which has a plethora of noise options fully available in the free version of its app.
There are even some made for the presence of dogs, meaning they’re missing the higher frequencies that would irritate them. How kind!
But many of these are nature sounds with a white noise background, which I thought was a nice touch on the traditional white noise approach.
Which Sunrise Clock Should You Buy?
Here are my recommendations:
- Best Overall: Lumie Bodyclock Shine 300
- Runner-up: Philips SmartSleep HF3650
- Best Budget: JALL Wake Up Light
- Best Smart: Hatch Restore 2
- Best Sunrise: Philips Hue Twilight
Best Overall: Lumie Bodyclock Shine 300
The Shine 300 is the brightest traditional sunrise alarm clock we tested. Combined with the ability to adjust the sunrise duration anywhere from 15 to 90 minutes and 20 brightness settings, it’s easily the most versatile one of the bunch.
The Shine does suffer somewhat from a slightly cumbersome interface, although it’s not that bad once you get used to it. There’s also some 200 Hz flicker once it’s dimmed, this isn’t a concern for me personally, but it may be for you.
Here’s a timelapse of the sunrise effect:
The Shine also has an auto-dimming screen that can be set to turn off automatically in a dark room. And comes with a nightlight and sunset feature as well if you’re interested in that.
Here’s a distance to lux chart to help you find your sweet spot:
Lumie Bodyclock Shine 300
Pros
Cons
Runner-up: Philips SmartSleep HF3650
Trailing just behind the Shine 300 in brightness, the Philips HF3650 has a few features that may sway you. For one, it offers 12-hour time, unlike the Shine that’s stuck in 24-hour time.
While the menu system can be painful to use, some of its features like tapping the top to turn the dim orange nightlight off and on are much easier to use, and I found myself using this regularly.
The alarm sounds were nicer on this one as well and it also has an auto-off clock face so it becomes pitch black at night. Keep in mind the flicker isn’t great though, if thats important to you.
Here’s the sunrise for the HF3650:
One thing that stands out with the HF3650 is that it has a backup alarm. During a power outage, the internal clock and backup alarm function for 8 more hours. If the alarm time is due during a power outage, the alarm will beep for 30 seconds.
So if missed alarms are a worry, this feature might be an anxiety reducer!
Here’s a distance to lux chart to help you find your sweet spot:
Philips SmartSleep HF3650
Pros
Cons
Best Budget: JALL Wake Up Light
Our budget pick! This JALL was surprisingly bright and offered a decent amount of features for the price. The Philips HF3500 is around the same price and is similarly effective, but you can’t turn off the alarm beep on that one! So this is my choice.
With a sunrise duration of 5-60 minutes and 20 brightness settings, the JALL is easily capable of being dialed in for you.
Here’s the sunrise for the JALL:
The JALL also allows you to set two different alarms, unlike the HF3500:
Now the JALL doesn’t have any kind of auto-dimming, so to get that pitch-black room you have to turn it off manually.
Here’s a distance to lux chart to help you find your sweet spot:
Overall, it’s our favorite budget pick!
JALL Wake Up Light
Pros
Cons
Best Smart: Hatch Restore 2
While it’s not the brightest, it is by far the most feature-rich, and despite the subscription model, I found myself adoring it. Even the free model includes all the sunrises and also doubles as a pretty nice white noise machine.
The Hatch Restore 2 is essentially a wind-down routine machine, that doubles as a sunrise alarm clock, with two physical buttons on the top to operate your routines and turn the alarm off and on.
You’ll have to check out our full review here, but basically, you can create all kinds of unwind routines, sleeping cues, white noise, and even wake-up routines using the app. These can even change dynamically from day to day, so they’re not always the same thing you’ve heard before.
The app is seriously well-built, and if having a more structured pre-bed routine sounds appealing to you, it’s worth a try! And like I said, even the free version is an excellent white noise machine, which none of the other lamps are.
Here’s a timelapse of a sunrise from the Restore 2:
Here’s a distance to lux chart to help you find your sweet spot:
Hatch Restore 2 Sunrise Alarm Clock
Pros
Cons
Best Sunrise: Philips Hue Twilight
The Hue Twilight is our brightest sunrise option, but also exceedingly more expensive than my other suggestions at around $280, it’s also not a traditional clock by any means and doesn’t have audio or clock feedback.
But what the Twilight does offer is a very unique sunrise effect, unlike all the others. It starts at a dim blue, like a real sunrise, and slowly shifts to a warm 2000K before climbing back up to 2700 K.
Here’s what that looks like:
It also projects its light down which may add to its effectiveness over the others. Although this may depend on your position relative to the nightstand.
Here’s a timelapse preview of the Hue Twilights’ sunrise transition:
Pretty cool I think! This one allows you to set the sunrise anywhere from 5-60 minutes too which is nice.
A couple of buttons on the top of the lamp allow you to begin a sunset automation or switch between lighting scenes:
You will need an app to set up the Twilight but it works very well over Bluetooth so no need for a hub or anything.
Here’s a distance to lux chart to help you find your sweet spot:
Overall it’s an odd expensive lamp, but the sunrise is top-notch!