Sleep Cycle’s Smart Alarm clock - Wake up feeling rested and refreshed

Waking up each morning shouldn’t have to be a challenge. We walk you through how to make Sleep Cycle’s Smart Alarm work for you and what sets it apart from a traditional alarm clock.

Sleep Cycle’s now iconic Smart Alarm has helped people worldwide for over a decade to wake up feeling rested and refreshed. The secret lies in the app detecting when the best time to wake up is, by gently waking users up in their lightest sleep phase. If you haven’t tried Sleep Cycle’s Smart Alarm yet, try it to experience the difference for yourself.

Try Sleep Cycle’s Smart Alarm Clock for free today

You can control how you feel each morning

If you find waking up in the mornings grueling. If it’s a struggle to turn off your bullhorn alarm every day. And if you’re feeling stressed before you’ve even gotten out of bed – then it may be time to shake up your wake-up routine.

Sleep Cycle’s Smart Alarm allows for a:

Gradual and Slow Wake Up
A choice of soothing alarm sounds
A wake-up window ranging from 10 minutes to 45 minutes
Detecting and waking you up during your lightest sleep phase

Sleep stages and why it matters for when you wake up

Each night we sleep through several sleep cycles which in turn have different sleep stages. During our lighter sleep stages, we have not yet moved into deep sleep and so it’s easier to wake up. However, once our body and muscles have relaxed into a deep sleep stage, waking up then, can make you feel disorientated, groggy and out of sorts. The deep sleep stage is key for body recovery, but just not optimal for waking up. The Smart Alarm will ring once you’ve hit a lighter sleep stage, allowing you to wake up feeling rested and energized.

A gif showing different wake ups depending on the alarm you use

How the Sleep Cycle’s Smart Alarm Clock works

The Sleep Cycle app uses technology that allows the Smart Alarm to be powered by patented sound detection through your phone’s microphone.

You have three options when choosing an alarm that suits your needs best:

Smart Alarm Clock and Sleep Tracking – this is the most popular option with the smart alarm waking you up in a light sleep phase. You set the wake-up window that suits you and this setting also tracks your sleep. This allows you to see a full sleep analysis for how you slept during the night.
Regular Alarm – some of us still feel more comfortable knowing the exact time we will wake up and don’t want the wake-up window based on our light sleep phase. And that’s OK – Sleep Cycle gives you the option to pick a regular alarm clock, but still access your sleep data for each night and pick a soothing alarm sound to wake you up from our long list of alarm soundtracks.
No Alarm /Only Sleep tracking – as helpful as a Smart Alarm is, sometimes you simply don’t want to wake up to any alarm (the weekend comes to mind). If you, like so many others, would prefer not to set an alarm during the weekend, but also don’t want a gap in your sleep data – you simply pick this option.

Different alarm modes in the Sleep Cycle app

Tip: If your morning mood is causing stress and friction at home, you may want to consider trying Sleep Cycle’s Smart Alarm.

Sleep Cycle’s Smart Alarm Sounds

Another mind-blowing difference between Sleep Cycle’s Smart Alarm and a traditional alarm clock is the vast range of soothing sounds and music pieces you can wake up to. The sounds from a traditional alarm clock are designed to bolt you out of bed, resulting in shrill, loud and fairly stressful sounds to choose from.

Try listening to a few of the sounds from Sleep Cycle’s choice of alarm sounds – the difference and range will amaze you. A staff favorite is Gymnopédie, but listen to them all and find your own favorite:

To snooze or not to snooze

Do you tend to reach out for the snooze button over and over? Sleep Cycle’s Intelligent Snooze feature has raised the bar even further for Smart Alarms. You can choose between:

Intelligent snooze – this lets you snooze until the end of your wake-up phase as it automatically adjusts each snooze to gently wake you up.
Regular snooze – this gives you a defined time between each snooze and you can pick any time between one to twenty minutes.
Vibration – you can choose vibration as a back up if the Smart Alarm isn’t enough to wake you up.

What our users say about our Smart Alarm Clock:

Normal alarms are way too sudden and are actually unhealthy for our well-being, and disturbs how we function during the day. The Sleep Cycle music wakes you up nice and slowly and it’s calming. I always wake up on time
iPhone user, U.S.A

Waking up in the past has felt impossible and created conflict and stress in our household. It has felt crippling. The Sleep Cycle app has been life-changing and is the only alarm clock I will ever need.
iPhone user, Sweden

The best is the wake-up mode during a phase when you are not sleeping deeply. 5 stars!
Android user, Germany

The dynamic alarm is amazing, I wake up fresh everyday
Android user, U.K

Sleep Cycle’s Smart Alarm unique technology will ensure you wake up at the right time. Every time. If you need your alarm clock to make it easier for you to wake up and help you feel happy, rested and refreshed in the mornings, Sleep Cycle’s Smart Alarm Clock could be the game-changing alarm you’ve been looking for.