Getting up in the morning is a struggle for many of us. This can be especially true if you tend to have a hard time going to sleep at all and may only have had a few hours sleep anyway. But being late for work is a terrible start to the day, so we all want to make sure - as far as possible - at the right time every day.
However you did manage to get to sleep, or however long you have slept, the right alarm can make your morning wake up a little less painful and more efficient.
The days of the standard bedside alarm clock are gone for many of us. And that is possibly a good thing, because now there are a wide variety of apps and gadgets tailored to wake you exactly how you'd like in the morning.
Maybe you're someone who needs an interactive alarm that prevents you from hitting the snooze button a million times, or one that forces you out of bed. Or maybe you want a gentler, elegant alarm, or one that gives you a little affirmation in the morning.
Whatever you need at the start of your day, these innovative alarms will give it to you. From apps that force you to literally walk to stop them, to ones that stop you from having to fumble around for your phone, these are the best high-tech alarm clock solutions out there:
Walk Me Up won’t stop until you start walking.
Walk Me Up is an alarm that doesn't stop until you start walking. It's a neat trick to get you out of bed, and hopefully, once you're up you won't just jump right back in. But before you use this app please note that your phone can't be in silent mode and you have to have notifications enabled.
SpeakToSnooze lets you talk to your alarm instead of fumbling around for it.
This alarm has voice control so you don't have to fumble for your phone to either snooze your alarm or turn it off. Simply say "snooze alarm" to snooze it or "alarm off" to shut it off completely. This is not a great alarm for those who tend to hit the snooze button too often however!
Uhp tells all your Facebook friends if you don't get up.
Uhp's unique feature is that the app can be set to shame you on Facebook or Twitter if you don't get up. You can set it to post if you don't walk away from your bed (with your phone), which is how Uhp determines whether you are up or not.
Alarmy makes you take a picture of a certain object to make sure you're up.
Alarmy is an interactive alarm app that forces you out of bed. You can set it to only turn off if you take a picture of an object in your room — let's say the sink in your bathroom. And there is no snooze button. This may be the best choice for those who really struggle to wake up to a standard alarm.
The Rock Clock will wake you with tough love motivation
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has brought you an app that's part alarm clock, part motivational speaker. Each wake up alarm has prompts written in The Rock's own words, and some sounds are recorded by the actor himself. You can even set the app to The Rock's own schedule — but don't do that unless you want to get up at 4:30 a.m. every day.