Philips 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.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A great way to wake up more naturally I really like this Philips alarm clock! The sunrise feature is probably my favorite because the light gradually gets brighter before the alarm, so waking up feels much less abrupt than being jolted awake by a loud alarm. I also like that you can choose between different nature sounds, and the clock has two separate alarm settings, which is really convenient. The snooze feature is easy to use, and the light gets surprisingly bright if you want to use it as a bedside light. The overall design is clean and easy to use, and I really like having all of these features in one clock instead of relying on my phone. It feels like a much nicer way to start the morning, especially if you're not a fan of harsh alarms. Definitely happy with this purchase!

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.

Great dawn simulator alarm clock. I've used some form of dawn simulator for over 30 years and they keep me functional in Alaska in the winter. The Philips clocks are reliable, adequately bright, and they do all the essential things. Philips is a reliable company that does things like UL listing, and so it is reasonably unlikely that this clock will start a fire. The interface for the clock is fine. It's very easy to change the alarm time. I can customize the length of the sunrise. The sunset feature is very pleasant and I can customize the sunrise. The top snooze tap area is well done, and it silences the sound but does not dim the light. Please allow me to save you a small annoyance. After setting the alarm time, alarm sound, and other alarm settings, you can run a Demo/Test cycle which goes through the process in 90 seconds. At the end of that test cycle, the clock will turn on the radio. If you go back through and make sure that you have selected the nature sounds, rather than the radio, for the alarm sound, and run the test cycle again... the clock will turn on the radio at the end. However, when the alarm goes off for real (rather than a test cycle)... it will turn on the sounds that you selected. If you don't want to wait til tomorrow morning to find out if that works, just set the alarm for 30 minutes in the future. This information isn't in the manual, or I am somehow missing it. I hope this prevents you from experiencing mild frustration while trying to customize your alarm settings. Philips also cautions you against replacing the light. (The light should not die anytime soon. My last Philips clock light made it for over 13 years.) However, if you or a friend have some skills as far as repairs/builds go and are good at searching for information, you can in fact order a replacement bulb from The Internet, go through the mildly tricky process of opening the clock, and replace the bulb.

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.

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 am feeling generous today and giving the overall light a 3. But let me break that down for you. Light Quality - 5 Ability to wake me up - 5 Table stability - 0 Intuitiveness - 0 Industrial design - (-1) Longevity - 0 Modern features (Alexa controlled, or smartphone, etc) - 0 High-level takeaway: the 97 year old CEO of the company (just guessing here) came across his 1957 copy of Popular Mechanics in the early-80's which had an article regarding the benefits of light therapy. The CEO and design team created this light, kept it in a vault until 2013, where it was found after the demolition of an old tool shed on Philips property. The marketing team entranced by its retro design decided it was perfect and started to sell it with zero modernizations. If this is not how it happened in reality, at least it *feels* like it. I am about to embark on purchasing my 3rd one in 3 years (yes, that is one a year). I have not found other cheaper versions that have the same quality of light - they don't compare. This light has so many flaws, but I keep going back to it because the quality of the light is making the difference between a good morning or a bad one. That said, there are many, oh so many, design flaws. First, the shape of the fixture itself. Its roundness may be aesthetically pleasing (in the 1980's), but wholly impractical since it balances on a very narrow base. This lends itself to if you touch the unit wrong, it is going to roll off into your nightstand, or potentially, your floor. Second, there are buttons, oh so many buttons. I am a software research manager, and there are haptic buttons on the glass itself, and flush mount buttons scattered in a random semicircle across the top. Which button does what is a complete mystery to me. I sit with the instructions and program the light, then pray to gawd I don't accidentally touch any of the wrong buttons to trigger a second alarm (which I still haven't found out how to turn off), etc. None of this is intuitive at all. Without the instruction manual in your lap, you just aren't going to intuitively figure it out. Don't get me started on how to turn the radio off besides just turning the volume to 0. I wish Philips can get with the times, and enable this with Alexa where I can tell my light what time I want it to wake me up and it makes it so, or plug into my iPhone and allow me to use practical buttons to program what I want the light to do. Whomever did the industrial design should probably go back to school, or Philips needs to stop using interns for their design work. Despite its magnificent issues and design flaws, will I buy this again? Yep -- they got me in a box here. Because having gone though multiple "wake up lights", this, by far, produces the best light to wake up by. Its expensive, lacks intuitive controls, seems to randomly stop working once a year with no way to troubleshoot or do diagnostics. It just, ta-da, stops working. The one year lifespan is disappointing. I am about to hire the neighbor kid for $10 a morning to come and shine a flashlight in my face before he heads off for school. Costs about the same, and he would be easier to figure out. I wish Philips could capitalize on the great light they have, get with a modern design firm, and knock this light out of the park. Meanwhile, I have got to order yet *another* light, and in the interim hire a neighbor kid with his flashlight.

Wow! What an #amazing# difference in my mood and how I feel about waking up! Normally I am jangled out of a deep sleep by a harsh alarm clock, thrashing around my dark room trying to find it to turn it off. With this alarm clock, I find myself slowly waking up about 20 minutes into the "sunrise", then I just roll over and relax until I hear the "birds" start chirping. I have NEVER been a morning person - like, seriously, don't even smile at me in the morning; now, I get out of bed feeling positive about beginning the day, and there is no zombie-like stupor while I wait for my brain and body to sync up. A few notes: * The light is much larger than I anticipated - it is just a bit smaller than a soccer ball. My bedside table accommodates it with no problem, but if yours is short on space, take this into consideration. * The light is surprisingly bright - at least as bright, if not brighter, than a bedside lamp. Some of the other reviewers described the light as "too white" or "blue-ish" due to the use of LEDs instead of a real bulb. They are crazy. The light has a nice warm, sunny quality to it all through the wake-up cycle as it grows from a barely visible deep orange-red to its full brightness. * Some people complained that it would not work if you were not facing it, or if your bed partner was blocking it. I have found that it still wakes me up quite well even if I'm not facing directly at it because *does* get very bright and lights up the whole room. The only downside might be that it will also wake up your bed partner, most likely. (side note: the fact that it has two alarm settings does not mean it is suitable for 2 people to use, despite what the directions indicate! I use the two alarms to handle weekdays/weekends.) * Possible Cons: The controls are a bit confusing and take some time to learn to use. The manual is almost entirely visual, with very little in the way of explanation. If you are reasonable proficient with technology, probably will pick it up quickly. Your 75 year old granny, probably not so much. That is where my 4 star rating comes in. Bottom line: I would recommend this product to almost anybody.

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.

Ya llevo meses desde que lo utilizo y me encanta. Siento que cada mañana despierto de forma suave y natural y por ser un despertar lento no me duelen los ojos al abrirlos. También me encanta usarlo como lámpara, su luz cálida y suave me recuerdan mucho a las velas y en las noches es una buena opción para meditar si se activa el modo de apagado automático. Una compra qué realmente vale la pena realizar.