PHILIPSWake-Up Light Alarm Clock with Sunrise Simulation and Sunset Fading Night Light, White (HF3510)

If you are not delighted with the way that you wake up each morning, then just go ahead and buy this thing. Wow! It works great!I was waking up to music on my iPad, but now I just wake up to this light. I still keep the iPad alarm on, but I don't really need it anymore. The light comes on very gradually over a 30 minute time frame. I have set the max intensity such that I wake up at the end of that period. It takes a few days of trial and error with the 20 increments of adjustment to get it right where you want it, but it's not very difficult. One other note -- our bedroom windows are covered with thick drapes so that we sleep in a very dark room. If you're having trouble sleeping, that makes a huge difference.Some folks were unhappy with the controls. I can understand that, but it really isn't an issue after using the device for a few days. The fact is that there are a lot of adjustments available, including nature sounds, radio, sleep mode (dims the light gradually as you doze off), and the wake up mode. So, you end up with a lot of buttons. The bird sounds are very good, but let's face it -- birds really are kind of annoying when they wake you up too early in the morning. The sound comes on at the end of the 30 minute wakeup cycle, which works well enough, but I can set my iPad to do that and choose whatever sound I want (I actually have my iPad set to the 35 minute point -- five minutes after the light is full on). Now that I have the light setting right, I am peacefully awake by the time the iPad comes on.With all the light/sleep technology that goes into this thing, you'd think you'd be able to completely black it out. But, you can't. The time display has four settings, none of which is off. So, I have mine pointed at the wall near the bed with an old cassette tape blocking the time display. Works just fine, even in my blacked out room. Even with the light pointed away from the bed, it still wakes me up just fine at setting 17. Setting #20 is really bright -- almost like staring at the sun.Up until now, I've always had a problem with hitting the snooze button for about 20 to 30 minutes after my alarm first goes off. I always realized that this was a waste of good sleep time, but I never found a solution that really worked for me. Waking up with the light only is almost like a reverse snooze. At the end of the 30 minutes, even on a week when I haven't gotten enough sleep (like this week), I'm still ready to get up and get going. That's a huge and beneficial change for me.Some tips:* After you set everything up, make sure you remember to actually turn the alarm function on. I forgot that the first night. Man, I was so disappointed when I woke up with my regular alarm the next morning!* Set the alarm time for the actual time you want to wake up. The cycle will automatically begin 30 minutes before that time, but it probably won't wake you up until close to the end of the cycle.* The light does not have a continuous dimmer circuit -- it adjusts in 20 distinct increments. If you watch closely, you will see the changes. I think I might have found my setting with less experimentation if I had just set it to 19 or 20 the first night and then counted how many more increments it increased after I woke up.Last thoughts:* The nature sounds are very good and you can adjust the volume to whatever you prefer. I really thought they would work well for me. But, I found out that I like the light by itself much better. Years ago, I had a bird in my yard that would start chirping at my window right around sunrise and wake me up. I really hated that bird!* It's pretty darned expensive for an alarm clock. It's worth twice as much to me now that I've tried it.* The light itself is not bright white -- it is slightly yellowish -- more like sunlight. The color tone is very pleasant and natural. I wouldn't bother getting the more expensive model that does a red light at first to simulate the sunrise. You're going to sleep through that anyway, if you set everything up correctly.* I really like this alarm light, but it's not a magic genie or anything. You still have to wake up in the morning and that still is what it is. That said, if you have to wake up to some form of alarm clock, this is likely the best one short of the sunrise on the beach at Cape Hatteras.Feel free to check out my website -- just do a search for The Engineer's Guide To God. Or just remove the spaces, the "The" and the apostrophe, add the www and the dot com, and you'll be there.Ya'll have a great day!

I got this for my wife a few weeks ago after getting fed up with our current digital alarm clock (a.k.a. The Defibrillator - because I felt like I'd been electrocuted every time it blasted me awake in the morning). It was especially bad during the winter, when I'd wake up in pitch black to some horrible local radio ad. I've despised that damned thing for years. I needed an alternative that would help my wife wake up, but not make us both grumpy from shock, so I did some research and settled on this model philips clock.THE GOOD:The clock is fairly customizable in that you can control how bright it gets and how loud it goes. We've opted for one of the two different bird wake up sounds. What happens is the light starts very dim and over the course of around a half hour it slowly gets brighter. We have it set to go on to full intensity light, which is like having a lamp on by your bed- but plenty bright after a night in the dark. If we went to bed at a reasonable hour, we find that we just quietly wake up. Sometimes I'll wake up while the light is still very dim, which is nice because I can nod off for a few more minutes. Either way, the nice thing about the light is when you wake up you're eyes are pretty much acclimated to the brightness in the room so you're not squinting in pain.When you hit your wake up time, the birds fade in and quickly go to full volume (which is also customizable). You can also set the unit to a radio station, which was the one thing that made my mind up about this model - I knew if the light and birds didn't work, we could set it to a loud radio station and still get blasted out of bed - with the added benefit of having the light on.THE BAD (or mildly annoying):Very minor, but in the interest of fair disclosure - I would have knocked off .25 stars combined if I could.* The instructions follow the Ikea model in their simplicty. If that works for you, great.* The writing on the clock face for AM and PM is --very-- small, and not easy to read through smoked plastic if room lights are on. Philips should double the size of those letters, or at least check ADA recommendations on readability. These are much easier to see when the unit's light is on (image attached). Once you've set the clock this ceases to be an issue.* The buttons have symbols, but they are just embossed onto the white plastic and are tiny, so aren't readable when you first start trying to work the thing. I understand philips not wanting to put text on the face of the clock because it would ruin the little "sun" they've created, but maybe recess the design and make the icons dark so they're intelligable.On the plus side, once you memorize where the buttons are (particularly the important ones! Snooze on the top, alarm on/off on the left), the clock is super easy to operate, and the menu system is really easy too after you've done it a couple of times.ON THE WHOLE My wife and I love this clock - and I have never regretted getting it for a second. It's made waking up -so- much more relaxing.This thing is totally worth the money. It's nice waking up to the birds, though we typically find ourselves quietly waking up just a few minutes before the birds start up (which is perfect). Get it - set the clock and familiarize yourself with where the important buttons are.I have noticed the price seems to change here on Amazon. I got mine for $127, but am seeing it for over $200 this morning. Pricing seems to depend on when you get it.Attached images are sample instruction pages, readability of AM/PM sign with light on and off, Sample light settings and example of buttons.