OK, so now you know that the brightness of the bulb is an important consideration when choosing the right sunrise alarm clock for you. The better units have high-intensity 60Watt or better lamps in them. They are bright enough to read by. Make sure the unit you get has easily replaceable lamps in it or you may be in for a disappointing surprise when the lamp goes. What other features should you be looking for? Your clock should have variable fade in and fade out times. Normally, clocks of this type come with a 30 minute fade in and fade out time. This simply means that your sunrise will take 30 minutes to go from complete darkness to light.

Some sunrise alarm clocks have more advanced features. Some of these features include the ability to play mp3 files to wake you up. The better units have built-in memory card readers so you can swap your music in seconds. I like this setup because I am easily bored and I want to be able to switch from music files to nature sounds whenever I feel like it without having to plug a computer into the alarm clock. The standard amenities should also be there like a large snooze button to get a little more sleep, seven day alarm settings, an AM/FM radio that actually has good reception and so on.

Just because it is handy, don’t worry, there are lots of available features on your digital travel alarm clock. One really great one is the automatic adjustment for Daylight Savings Time. As you may or may not know, the time jumps back and forth by an hour twice a year. This causes a twice yearly panic to change every single clock in the house. These newer travel alarm clocks have this feature built in so that you don’t have to worry about changing the time back and forth ever again. Another feature that is relatively new is the automatic synchronization to the atomic clock located in Colorado. These clocks receive a 60KHz WWVB time synchronization signal which allows them to set the time automatically.

I have also seen sports versions of these clocks. This type of digital travel alarm clock comes with many features that can be very important out in the wild. An example feature would be a built-in flashlight. Newer flashlights are equipped with white LEDs instead of traditional lamps because LEDs consume much less power and are very hardy. Unlike their fragile glass counterparts, LEDs can survive a five foot drop even when operational. Another feature is a weather radio to tune in and find out if you are about to be caught in a storm. Of course, there are the obligatory AM/FM bands for your favorite news and music stations. Some clocks also feature a temperature display. Now you can see just how cold your air conditioner can get the room.

First of all, the type of lamp inside the unit is an important consideration. Some units are simply too dim to wake you up. What good is a sun alarm clock if it is not bright enough to wake you up? Obviously, it is no good. Some clever manufacturers have a novel solution to this problem. Rather than going with a large wattage bulb inside the clock which may cause heat issues, they include a wall plug that you can plug your own lamp into. You plug your lamp into this device and then plug it into the wall. When it comes time to wake you up, the clock will fade your lamp in and out to simulate sunrise and sunset. This type of arrangement is most efficient and flexible. You are not tied to the internal lamp of the clock which is a good thing because those lamps don’t last forever.

Most people also need sound to wake up in the morning. To accomplish this, a good sun alarm clock will have built in sounds to wake you up. Typical sounds include nature sounds, ocean sounds, rain sounds, etc. In addition to nature sounds, some units allow you to load your mp3 music files into them for added flexibility. Then the standard AM/FM radio is usually included. If you live in an area with poor reception, you’ll be thankful for the built in nature sounds and the option to use your own mp3 files.

One type of alarm clock has a large red bell that is typically used in alarm systems. The giant red metal dome makes for a really loud alarm clock. If that does not do the trick, then you really have some sleep issues. Of course, it works better if you put it slightly out of reach so you have to get up to disable the alarm. Other approaches include beepers that have an unbelievably shrill tone which will cut right through anyone’s sleepy fog. If you cannot awake to an unbelievable racket, then you must look to the root cause. Make sure you keep regular sleep hours. The body will get used to going to sleep and waking up at a specific hour. When your alarm clock goes off at the expected hour, it is much more likely to be successful at waking you up.

There are other approaches to waking the heavy sleeper. We already discussed the red bell dome alarm clock and the shrill beeping clock. There are clocks that simulate ambulance and police sirens. The up and down whooping tones really get the job done. If a loud alarm clock like that doesn’t do it, some of them come with a bed shaker. What’s a bed shaker? It is a device that you place under your pillow or mattress. When the alarm goes off, it vibrates like crazy, waking you up. If an ambulance tone followed by a shaking mattress is not enough to wake you up, then you probably need a live in assistant for live wakeup calls.

There is also a new cell phone alarm clock program that listens to you sleep. Basically, it works like this. The application uses the microphone in your phone to listen to you sleep. When it determines that your sleep is at a shallow point, right before you awake, the phone wakes you up. The software is based upon lots of research into people’s sleep patterns. It is a pretty cool piece of software. Some of you may be concerned about having a cell phone near your head all night. The phone only emits the maximum power during a call, so you need not be overly concerned.

I recently saw another fun gadget called the hotel phone alarm clock. Just like in a hotel room, you get a personalized wakeup call from this phone shaped clock. Unfortunately, the phone does not come with amenities such as room service and sheet turn downs. It does come with an interesting snooze feature, though. It tells you which button to press if you wish to have another 5 minutes of sleep.

There are also some office phones with alarm clock functions built in. You have a choice of up to 3 alarm clock settings. The phone acts as a typical office phone with the capability of reminding you of meetings, to do tasks, etc. These phones have other normal phone functions such as hands free calling, caller id, ant the other normal stuff. I like phones to be phones and alarm clocks to be alarm clocks. I use my alarm clock to wake me up and that is all it does. Too much technology can get tiresome.

Some companies have taken the vibrating alarm clock concept a step further. There is a portable clock designed to slip under your pillow and vibrate your head awake. Yes, it’s true! The idea is that you wake up and your significant other is undisturbed by a noisy alarm clock. It’s brilliant, isn’t it? Well, to me it sounds just a wee bit creepy, but that’s just me. Some line powered ac alarm clocks even come with a buzzing attachment to slip under the pillow. They call this the mega shaker alarm clock. Well I don’t want to wake up every morning thinking an earthquake is going on, thank you.

A vibrating alarm clock is not just a novelty if you are deaf or hard of hearing. A hearing impaired person cannot hear a regular alarm clock no matter how loud it is. To assist in this, there are two types of clocks, the vibrating clock and the strobe clock. The strobe clock works with pulsing light while the vibrating clock vibrates. If a person is sleeping, they might not see the strobe go off so I think that vibration is the way to go. It would be hard to miss if your whole head was buzzing.

If you look around a little, you can find some really innovative LED alarm clock designs. One interesting design I saw was an LED clock inside a block of wood. The clock looked like a plain piece of wood until it lit up. You could plainly see the display behind the wafer thin wood veneer of the front surface. Yep, pretty cool. Another very cool design I saw involved having each digit in its own case connected by fine wires. As such, you could arrange the blocks on your desk any way you like. It is a modern take on the kid’s block toys.

Another step up in coolness and creativity is the scrolling message LED alarm clock. This implementation involves a scrolling marquee that has the option of displaying a series of preprogrammed messages at random intervals between time updates. These LED clocks are also capable of getting news feeds so you can actually get headlines, weather, and time all in one neat package. You can also upload personal messages to the clock so it will greet you with your message of choice. What you do with this LED clock is only limited by your imagination.