Are you still being rudely awoken by the grating screech of an alarm clock in the morning? Ditch the din and put this smart home gadgetry to good use to make waking up a gentler and more pleasant experience.
You can achieve most of these with automations or routines that are part of existing smart home ecosystems, or you can get more involved and build elaborate routines with a platform like Home Assistant.
Automate lights to simulate sunrise
Credit: Bertel King / How-To Geek
The easiest and most obvious wake-up routine might also be the cheapest: mimic the rising sun with your existing lights. There are a few ways you can achieve this, from simple dimmable smart bulbs that replace your existing lighting, to smart dimmers (and “dumb” dimmable bulbs) that transform your existing lamps and fittings.
Smart home platforms like Alexa and Google have “Wake-Up Lighting” (Alexa) and “Gentle Wake Up” (Google) that take the pain out of setting this up manually. Though there’s nothing wrong with setting things up manually, it’s a bit of a hassle if you don’t get up at the same time every day.
This is perfect for the winter months, when you’re rising before the sun. You can set your lights to increase in brightness gradually at intervals in the hope that you’ll wake up before your alarm goes off (you’ll definitely still want a regular alarm, just in case).
You can even get color involved, with warmer orange hues mimicking an early sunrise that gradually tapers off to the neutral white we associate with a fully risen sun. If you really want to take this sort of gradual wake-up routine seriously, why not use dedicated lighting like recessed or hidden LED strips that are ideally pointed up at the ceiling?
Running Home Assistant? Use the Sunrise Simulator blueprint to roll out your own automation.
Brand
Cync
Integrations
Matter, Alexa, Apple Home, Google Home, Samasung SmartThings
The Cync Clear Full Color Direct Connect A19 Smart Bulb is a clear version of Cync’s existing full-color smart bulb, making it look much more like a traditional incandescent bulb. Able to be set up via Matter without using a specific companion app, Cync’s bulb is compatible with virtually all smart home ecosystems.
Motorized blinds wake you up with the sun
Credit: Tyler Hayes / How-To Geek
If you’re a late riser or you’re looking for a more pleasant wake-up routine during the summer months, there’s no substitute for real daylight. With motorized blinds, you can carefully control how much daylight is let into your bedroom by raising the blinds just enough to rouse you from your slumber.
For example, you can raise the blinds by 10 or 20%, then let nature do the rest. Alternatively, you can raise by 10% every five minutes until you’re awake. As with lighting, it’s probably a good idea to have a backup alarm for dull and rainy days (or if you just happen to sleep like a lead weight).
Motorized blinds have many other benefits, of course. You can program them throughout the day to block out the sun’s most powerful rays to avoid heating up the room, or in the winter, make sure that they’re open at specific times to get a bit of free heating. You can also automate them at night so that you’re guaranteed privacy from neighbors when the lights are on.
App Compatibility
Apple, Google, Alexa, SmartThings
Battery Life
About 600 uses per charge
BlindsMagic smart shades are designed to work seamlessly with popular smart home systems, such as HomeKit, Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and more. No matter where you are, you can always be in control of your home with your smartphone.
Gradually increase music and other sounds
Credit: Nathaniel Pangaro / How-To Geek
Perhaps you sleep with a mask on, or light just doesn’t do the trick. If you still want a gradual wake-up routine, consider using a smart speaker to play sounds or music that will do the job. This works much in the same way that lights and blinds do, with you creating a routine that plays audio of your choice at a set time, starting off at a low volume and slowly increasing to audible levels as you get closer to your wake-up volume.
This could be anything from a radio broadcast (yes, we still have those) to a wake-up playlist, to relaxing sounds of birds chirping, to a recording you’ve made yourself. All that matters is that it fades in gradually, and hopefully wakes you up gently rather than with a jolt.
To achieve this with Home Assistant, you might want to start with an automation that first sets the volume level on your smart speaker and then starts playing your audio. Now use the delay function to add intervals between volume increases. To enable or disable the alarm, just toggle the automation on or off (you could even expose it via Apple Home).
Turn on a coffee maker for early morning motivation
Credit: IKEA
The old “use a smart plug to get coffee ready early” routine might be the oldest trick in the book, but it’s not a bad idea if you lack the motivation to get out of bed. Unless the coffee maker happens to be in the same room as you (hey, we won’t judge), then the aroma is unlikely to travel the required distance to trigger an olfactory wake-up response.
You’ll need to combine this with one of the other tricks on this list (or resign yourself to the unwelcome sound of your smartphone’s alarm), but knowing that coffee is ready for you before you’ve even gotten out of bed should sweeten the deal somewhat.
To me, coffee is a bit of a ritual and something I really enjoy making myself. Even so, I can see the appeal of having that first cup ready to go as I shuffle into the kitchen. If you prefer tea to coffee, then you could combine this with an electric kettle, which you’ll need to prime the night before, but which is designed to turn itself off once the boiling temperature has been reached.
Did you know you can even automate things based on your presence in your own bed? This is possible using one of the lesser-known weird smart home sensors on the market.
