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Oh please please please make a smart alarm that will make me up by only vibrating on my wrist. I want to be able to wake up early for stuff without having to wa

by dchuk 9y ago

Oh please please please make a smart alarm that will make me up by only vibrating on my wrist. I want to be able to wake up early for stuff without having to wake up my wife and dogs. I want an alarm app on my Apple Watch that: 1) Wakes me up when I'm in light sleep rather than REM 2) Only vibrates on my wrist at first (let's say for 5 minutes) and then falls back to a traditional alarm sound so I get my ass up just in case I've gotten to the point of almost buying some Udemy courses on Apple Watch development to build the damn thing myself. Only thing really holding me back is figuring out the algorithm for sleep tracking, but I'm sure that wouldn't be really hard to do. Maybe I'll just do it still.

rockshassa 9y ago
i'm an iOS engineer, i'll write it for a case of beer. did not plan on rhyming that..
schainks 9y ago
You might be interested in Garmin Vivosmart HR+ (I have one). While Garmin's app is a horrible walled garden (no google fit integration, or integration with other Android APIs, like alarms), it does let you set an alarm that syncs to the watch. The watch vibrates with increasing intensity in order to wake you up. Works as advertised.
BoorishBears 9y ago
I'm shocked that doesn't exist, even my old Pebble had an app for that
- saagarjha 9y ago
  A big part in this comes from the fact that most people take off the watch when they sleep to charge it, making it useless for sleep tracking.
  - icanhackit 9y ago
    With gen 2 Apple Watch that shouldn't be necessary - I wear mine diligently and interact with it frequently yet the battery never gets below 70% at the end of the day, often only getting down to 90%, and the charge time is quite rapid. Stick it on the charger when going for a shower or some other short routine and you should have it back to fully charged when you're done. Get the Milanese Loop band and it'll be even less of a pain because you can quickly put the watch on and take it off because it's magnetic. A lot easier than a buckle or pin fastener. For anyone interested the sleep tracking app I use, Sleep Watch, automatically figures out when you're sleeping and awake so you don't have to manually initiate the app. I guess it interprets movement data from the accelerometer and can tell the difference between slight movements in a sleeping state and respite during wakeful periods.
    - saagarjha 9y ago
      I find that the battery stays pretty high (around 80%) if I don't exercise with it. If I start any workouts, however, and the battery dips down to ~50% by the end of the day. Nothing that a quick top-off during the day wouldn't fix, but it's still far from the Pebble's week long battery life.
      - icanhackit 9y ago
        Does the Pebble have an integrated GPS or does it rely on a phone with GPS? I wonder if the form of exercise also has an impact. I'm averaging 12.5km walking/running per day or 7.5+ miles but my primary form of exercise is weight lifting which wouldn't be very taxing on the watch at all. On the other hand someone doing jumping jacks and various other flail-y cardio exercises might be triggering the screen to turn on an off and making the accelerometer work for its supper. Rapid changes in air-pressure might also be triggering the mic/DSP to listen for speech.
  - MBCook 9y ago
    On the series 2 it's not an issue at all. I believe David Smith, the developer of Sleep++, said that on the original Apple Watch he wore it all day and all night and simply charged it in the morning and in the evening while taking a shower or doing the dishes or something like that. It doesn't take that long to charge the thing up all the way, so two short charges while you're doing other things would be enough to top it off. On the series 2 the battery life is so good that just charging it while you take a shower in the morning is probably more than enough.
    - niix 9y ago
      This is what I do. I charge the watch in the morning when I get to my office and wear it all day (and to sleep, for the silent alarm feature).
woodruffw 9y ago
I bought a steeply discounted Pebble Time a few days ago. It's basically a dead-end product now that Pebble has been acquired/cannibalized by Fitbit, but mine does exactly what you want: it wakes me by vibrating on my wrist, and uses a smart alarm to calculate my sleep cycle and avoid deep sleep alarms if possible. Coupled with the week-long battery life, this has made my mornings a lot nicer. I wonder if Apple is withholding a smart alarm app as a sort of carrot for future models.
- m-p-3 9y ago
  I'm so sad that Pebble went under. They made the best smartwatch in my opinion.
  - rtpg 9y ago
    I'm sad too. I'm actually really worried about my pebble breaking, so have been looking into making a homebrew smartwatch. My biggest issue right now is finding a screen with similar specs to the Pebble Time in terms of resolution and power usage. If anyone has any advice on how I could get wearable screens like JDI[0] has (without having to buy 100 of them) I'd love to hear it! I'm not super well versed in electronics procurement [0]:http://www.j-display.com/english/product/wearable.html http://www.j-display.com/english/product/wearable.html
    - ClassyJacket 9y ago
      ...Buy everyone's old Pebbles? :p
    - memmcgee 9y ago
      I don't have this, but this book is supposed to be good for procurement: https://www.crowdsupply.com/sutajio-kosagi/the-essential-guide-to-electronics-in-shenzhen https://www.crowdsupply.com/sutajio-kosagi/the-essential-gui...
      - janekm 9y ago
        It won't help for the screen... Those are made by Sharp and would be exceedingly hard to get hold of in Shenzhen.
nscalf 9y ago
...does this really not exist yet? That's so simple and such a seemingly necessary feature. That and a heart rate monitory seem like the only two reasons to get a watch.
mahyarm 9y ago
That is probably not possible on an apple watch. You might have more luck with an android watch or a pebble. Apple watch dev is pretty bad, almost nobody uses the apps.
- MBCook 9y ago
  As an Apple Watch user I found a few that are quite useful. The big problem is that many companies seem to try and shove their main app onto the Watch without any thought. What's the point of an eBay app? Do I really need to check the status of my auctions that often? I mean if something sells they can't just push a notification?
  - gvurrdon 9y ago
    Indeed. There are some iPhone applications which could do with an Apple Watch equivalent and don't have one, such as Google Inbox, though.
slg 9y ago
It seems like Apple actively discourages the use of the Apple watch in this way with no native sleep tracking and no real mode to disable notifications overnight. Maybe this purchase signifies a change in that regard, but they are already behind all their competitors in sleep tracking.
- calvinbhai 9y ago
  is there a reference for this? I have seen a few apps that do watch + sleep tracking (Sleep++ is a nice watch app)
  - slg 9y ago
    A reference for what in particular? Yes, there are third party apps like Sleep++ that do this, but there is nothing native. Those third party apps also can't change system settings likes adjusting notifications. That means that your wrist will vibrate every time you receive an email overnight. The idea that this is intentional to discourage sleep tracking was just conjecture by me.
    - MBCook 9y ago
      I think there's a big difference between actively discouraging and just not having a native app. As other commenters have mentioned your phone can automatically going to do not disturb mode which will also set the watch thus turning off all notifications, but honestly the idea of my watch buzzing every time I get an email even during the day sounds terrible. I have an Apple Watch and I love it, but I don't have that many things notify me on it.
      - brlewis 9y ago
        If you're in DND mode how will the third-party app wake you up?
        calvinbhai 9y ago
        not mirror the DND on watch. I just keep very few apps on watch, so that way, only the app I have on the watch can tap me.
vvanders 9y ago
That's Pebble time to a T. Shame they're no longer made.
zitterbewegung 9y ago
How does a pulse oximeter figure out how to guess you are in a REM state which can usually be done by EEG ? (Or the pebble can this be done by a accelerometer ?) I have taken sleep studies where you would have to do at least something like the beddit device but even then I don't understand how they do it?
- coredog64 9y ago
  REM is characterized by lack of movement and variable respiration rate. So I would imagine the signal is erratic oxygen saturation. You'll get better results if you can correlate that with an accelerometer. Disclosure: I worked on a sleep tracking device that is a competitor to Beddit.
  - dchuk 9y ago
    Can you shed light on whether there are a common set of algorithms that sleep trackers use or if they are generally all proprietary?
    - fleetingmoments 9y ago
      There are some common algorithms for sleep/wake classification from accelerometer input, but sleep stages algorithms are all proprietary as far as I know.
      - antisthenes 9y ago
        Which is another way of saying "no way to verify if they're bullshit or not".
        fleetingmoments 9y ago
        Not true, anyone could take them to a sleep lab and compare to Polysomnograph-based sleep scoring. I'd love to see a large, independent study on this for a couple of the leading trackers.
rikf 9y ago
Surely the reason this isn't a thing is because the watch needs to be charged every night?
- rtkwe 9y ago
  Yeah. What they need is a true full day's charge and a fast charge so you can charge it in the morning while you get ready (and maybe a top off at night). Or for a lot of people you can probably do it now by taking it off when you get home and charging it until you go to bed then wearing it overnight. There's an opportunity in the morning to top off the charge again if it's not making it through the day. A sleep mode could also make over night wear more feasible. Really you don't want any notifications coming through anyways so all the wireless connectivity can be turned off along with the screen and the processor clocked waaaay down.
  - djrogers 9y ago
    > What they need is a true full day's charge and a fast charge so you can charge it in the morning while you get ready (and maybe a top off at night). That's precisely what the series 2 gives you...
- pilif 9y ago
  At least for Series 2 this isn't that much of an issue any more: despite tracking a 2 hour workout every day, the battery easily lasts through the day and the night. And it recharges fully while I'm showering on the next day. I could easily use the watch for sleep tracking, but the SDK is a bit limited for 3rd party apps to be able to automatically start and stop tracking. I hope Apple will either improve the SDK or add a built-in sleep tracker and alarm feature as described by OP (though in my case the point is moot as I have a very efficient fur-based alarm clock that will claw my face on the first sign of daylight in order to be fed)
  - veidr 9y ago
    I agree; I charge it while I'm in the shower and so does everybody I know who actually uses their Apple watch (which means, about 15% of those people I know who bought one). The battery (in the second version of the product) now lasts long enough to make that work — except sometimes on the weekend when I might go a day without a shower. I also want the smart sleep tracking app badly. The reason I bought this crappy watch was solely for the vibration-on-wrist when you have to make a turn when using navigation. Unfortunately, that iOS feature is horribly broken — it automatically switches to "car mode" when you go faster than a brisk walk, which means it doesn't work for navigating on a bicycle, skateboard, foot scooter, or even just running. So the device has very little utility for me as it stands — but a sleep-cycle-aware, vibrate-only alarm clock would make it worth the purchase price for me. And Apple (since I know you clearly must lurk on every hacker news thread waiting for unsolicited advice from strangers on how to fix your lame products): fixing the stupid "automatically switch to car mode" misfeature would also make the watch worth its price to me.
djrogers 9y ago
The original jawbone Up bracelet thingy did that, and I LOVED it. Sadly they broke easily and Aliph (now Jawbone) stopped making them. I had an original pebble, and kept hoping for a feature like that but it never came (or came after I stopped wearing the pebble). I've used Sleep Cycle on my iPhone for this, but it's not as accurate- especially with 2 people in the bed. Long/short is that to this day is still haven't found anything as good as the Up, which Was near perfect when it wasn't physically broken.
thisjustinm 9y ago
My Fitbit charge hr (latest version) does exactly this and I love it. The only trick is that having an alarm on your wrist means that the snooze button is always within reach.
- wapz 9y ago
  Is this the charge 2? I think there's only one version of "charge HR".
  - zubspace 9y ago
    Well, I own a fitbit charge 2 and one reason I bought it was the vibration alarm clock. It's a very light watch and I don't mind having it on my arm while sleeping. You define multiple alarms on your desktop/mobile, for specific weekdays, synced with bluetooth and you can disable/enable each one of them on the watch, which I really like. But there are some minor problems with this watch: 1) the vibration alarm is not very strong. If I have an important meeting, I use a fallback alarm clock. There are various complaints on fitbit forums. 2) The alarm lasts only 15 secs and it repeats 2 (or 3?) times after 9 minutes. Unfortunately you can't change this behaviour. Moreover, when I'm dizzy I sometimes confirm the alarm and fall back asleep, which happens too easily while lying in bed... 3) other topic, but annoying: the watch is not waterproof so always keep a fallback alarm. but otherwise it's a great watch.
    - lloeki 9y ago
      The Charge HR does exactly that, but doesn't do any effort WRT alarm during light sleep (dunno about Charge 2)
- cs2818 9y ago
  I've been using my Fitbit Charge HR as my primary alarm for almost 2 years now and it works great. I also use it to set alarms as reminders if I have an important meeting or event.
  - criddell 9y ago
rdl 9y ago
I solved this (when sleeping in a military transient housing bay or something) by sleeping on top of my phone, in airplane mode, with a vibrate-only alarm set for one time, and then a separate phone or alarm set for audio alarm 5 minutes later. Direct vibration onto skull is pretty effective way to wake up.
- coldtea 9y ago
  Missing calls while sleeping on airplane mode, though, is not really compelling...
  - toomanybeersies 9y ago
    I always put my phone on silent before I go to bed. There's no way I'm getting woken up to someone ringing me.
    - ciaranm 9y ago
      I use do not disturb mode between 11pm and 9am. If you're in my contacts list it'll ring (silent), otherwise you're going straight to voicemail. The concept of being woken up by phone a phone call (other than being actively on call for some reason) is crazy.
      - dancryer 9y ago
        Do you never worry about missing a family emergency call? Like an accident or death or similar? I don't accept general calls overnight, but I'd hate to miss the call.
        tnorthcutt 9y ago
        That's what the "do not disturb" mode is for in iOS - you can let either contacts, or favorites, through IIRC.
        9y ago
ashark 9y ago
> 2) Only vibrates on my wrist at first (let's say for 5 minutes) and then falls back to a traditional alarm sound so I get my ass up just in case Considering how often I feel phantom phone vibrations on my leg even when I don't have my phone in my pocket, I'm guessing I'd end up "feeling" this any time I half woke up for a second. We used to have an alarm that played ocean wave sounds. It'd start very quiet and get louder. I'd "hear" what sounded like it starting when there were hours left 'till it'd actually go off.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
dfabulich 9y ago
Have I got good news for you! http://www.thesleepwatch.com/ http://www.thesleepwatch.com/ It's $150, takes a CR2032 battery that lasts 12 months; $50 if you can live without the vibration. I used one for a couple of years, before I had a kid (who wakes me up by jumping on the bed). I really liked it. I woke up feeling noticeably more refreshed. It's not life changing, but it's quite nice. (Despite its name, it's not really all that good for tracking your sleep, because it has no wireless support, but the alarm feature is all I need anyway. Get a Fitbit if you want wireless tracking, I guess.)
EddieSpeaks 9y ago
The Microsoft Band did exactly this, but it didn't have enough sales so they canned it
sien 9y ago
After finding out that the main thing I used my Fitbit Charge HR for was exactly this and the Fitbit breaking after 18 months because it's not well made I got a Xiaomi Band 2 which can be obtained for ~$US 20 and it does the vibrating alarm well. It doesn't wake me up only in light sleep rather than REM, but other than that this device fits your requirements and is the cost of a good lunch. The battery life is also a week plus. Also I don't really care that much if this one breaks.
j7ake 9y ago
Fitbit does this.
- EE84M3i 9y ago
  Does it? I have a Fitbit and have only figured out how to configure a constant-time alarm. I know it tracks my sleep, but can I set a smart alarm? I'm pretty sure it can't.
tough_luck 9y ago
A cheap mi band can do this and more quite easily. A phone under the pillow with a silent alarm tone can do this.
Nullabillity 9y ago
If I remember correctly then Sleep as Android can do this.
superasn 9y ago
My MI band v1 used to do that and it was like $10. It had both these features (vibrating wrist alarm and REM sleep detection alarm) and the battery lasted for a month on a single recharge. I don't know the compatibility with iOS but you can buy it and put it on every night to solve your problem.
jlebrech 9y ago
I just get woken up by sunlight or my bladder
peterclary 9y ago
For clarity: The Apple Watch does have a built-in Alarm which will wake you by Vibrating on your wrist. If you've muted the watch (swipe up from the watch face and tap the Mute icon) then you won't get a corresponding alarm noise. I like the suggestions for #1 and #2 though. Not sure how you'd track light vs REM sleep. a. Accelerometer: As I understand it, people don't move at all when in REM sleep, but I don't think it follows that people are guaranteed to move often (or at all) during light sleep, so I'm not sure that the accelerometer could be used to determine that. Source: http://www.brainfacts.org/about-neuroscience/ask-an-expert/articles/2012/sleep-movement/ http://www.brainfacts.org/about-neuroscience/ask-an-expert/a... b. Pulse monitoring: Apparently pulse rate is steady during light sleep but variable during REM sleep or when awake. Again, I'm not sure that's enough to reliably determine things. Source: http://healthysleep.med.harvard.edu/healthy/science/what/characteristics http://healthysleep.med.harvard.edu/healthy/science/what/cha... Perhaps combining the two?
kayoone 9y ago
dont people usually charge their apple(smart) watch at night anyway ?
- robinson-wall 9y ago
  Specifically for the Apple watch, people did with the original, but the newest model has enough battery to survive longer than 24 hours. I sleep with mine on for (3rd party) sleep tracking and charge it while I'm in the shower.
  - kayoone 9y ago
    interesting, does it charge fast enough so it holds the charge until the next shower? I got my girlfriend an Apple Watch S1 which is usually at around 50-60% in the evening, but she always charges overnight and my feeling was that the inductive charging is rather slow.
    - robinson-wall 9y ago
      Sometimes not if I'm quick or it's been used for exercise tracking the day before, but by "shower" I really mean "morning routine". Take it off when I get out of bed and then put it on as I leave the house for work. It's always at 100% in that case, and I'd guess it's usually charging for 45 minutes to an hour.
      - kayoone 9y ago
        True, tried this and it works fine, lesson learned, thanks :)
drinchev 9y ago
Wonder what will happen when you need to charge your Apple Watch ( as I am doing this every night ). Point No. 2, you can achieve with FitBit ( I still use Flex 1 - which has a superb battery life - 6-7 days ) in a combination with good ol' phone alarm set to 5 minutes after FitBit's alarm.
- covercash 9y ago
  I charge my watch every morning for 60-90 minutes while I do my morning routine. That usually gets me through the day + night, unless I do over 2 hours of exercise. I also only use my watch for activity/sleep tracking and notifications so I only have default apps running on it. That likely helps my battery life make it through the day & night.
mstade 9y ago
Having tried a number of sleep tracking solutions to get this whole "wake up when your body is most ready for it" thing I'm not sure it works for me. To me, it seems the only way for me to wake up and actually get up is: 1. Someone or something wakes me up 2. I get the hell up; no snoozing allowed It doesn't seem to matter when or how I'm woken, if I don't just get out of bed I simply won't truly wake up. Snoozing is the bane of my existence. I've gone from trying to use these fancy sleep tracking devices and apps and what not, to just sleeping with my Apple watch on my wrist and have an alarm set every day, including weekends. It's the same time, and I only turn it off under special circumstances, like I had to stay up all night for some reason or other. I never get woken up by notifications, because do-not-disturb is on during sleeping hours, and when the watch is on my wrist it wakes me up by vibrating at the set time. This alone has done more to improve my sleeping habits I think, because something gently vibrating my wrist is a quite nice way to wake up, as opposed to blaring a war signal horn in my ear. When I don't have my watch with me or available, I do what someone else around here tipped about: sleep with my phone under my pillow and have it vibrate at a set hour. There's probably some serious scientific fact around waking people up during light sleep making for better sleep or whatever, but it just hasn't worked out for me.
- TeMPOraL 9y ago
  > Snoozing is the bane of my existence. For me it's not snoozing, it's auto-snoozing. Who the hell had the idea that an alarm clock should _stop_ after a minute or so? I want an app that does not turn off alarm "due to inactivity", I want it blasting away until I wake up (or my neighbours wake me up by knocking to the doors).
  - annnnd 9y ago
    I think the idea is that people sometimes make mistakes... They leave home early and forget that alarm is still turned on, and then get home in the afternoon to find the front doors broken by angry neighbors. But yeah, if that watch could measure heartbeat... ;)
    - TeMPOraL 9y ago
coldtea 9y ago
>Oh please please please make a smart alarm that will make me up by only vibrating on my wrist. I want to be able to wake up early for stuff without having to wake up my wife and dogs. I bought a Withings watch (Nokia owned, they also make scales) basically for that feature. The main caveat is that the control app (the watch has no buttons) only supports setting 1 alert p -- and you even have to change it manually if you want a different hour the next day, can't preprogram different alerts for various weekdays. That said, it was just $100, and Nokia is supposed to revamp the models soon-ish. I'll go for an Apple Watch next though...
piyush_soni 9y ago
The Cheap Mi Band from Xiaomi does that perfectly.
maneesh 9y ago
Pavlok can do this! It's a wearable that vibrates, beeps, and can release electric stimuli. It also has motion detection to know if you're out of bed (depending on alarm, you can turn it off only by doing jumping jacks). http://pavlok.com http://pavlok.com and the sister product, Shock Clock: https://buy.pavlok.com/products/shocking-alarm-clock https://buy.pavlok.com/products/shocking-alarm-clock
- iplaw 9y ago
  This comment reminded me of a guy in my college dorm who would not wake up to traditional alarms. It was some sort of sleep disorder. His mom used to slap him in the face a few times and drag him out of bed immediately. He'd sleep through traditional alarms, no matter how loud and piercing. This alarm clock had a bed-sized pressure pad (so he couldn't merely roll off of it) that went under the sheets and the alarm clock wouldn't stop with the wake-up procedures until he was out of bed. The alarm clock controlled an extremely bright flood light that was pointed directly at his face a couple of feet over his bed. If that didn't wake him up, there was an adjustable water spray nozzle that would spray his face with water. THe pressure pad also had some sort of semi-painful tactile feedback, similar to a massage chair with really pokey deep tissue nodules. I felt bad for his roommate.
andrepd 9y ago
I use "Sleep as Android". Absolute shit ton of features. The obsessive customiser in me loves these kinds of software; it's a pity that being able to customise your software like this is getting more and more uncommon. Anyway I'm pretty sure you can do that in Sleep as Android. If I had a smartband I would.
- KJKingJ 9y ago
  You can indeed do this with Sleep as Android - I use it in combination with a Pebble Time to feed Sleep as Android accelerometer data (for sleep phases), and then the watch vibrates for an alarm - falling back to an audible alarm on the phone if I don't deactivate it in time. The only downside is that the vibration motor in the Pebble Time is a little bit loud, but still much quieter than an audible alarm on the phone itself.
- tokenizerrr 9y ago
  You most certainly can. I have been doing this with my Moto 360 2nd gen and it works great. Unfortunately it turns out I hate sleeping with something on my wrist, so I don't do it anymore. It also slowly turns on my smartlights when the alarm goes off.
- emodendroket 9y ago
  When do you charge it if not while you sleep?
  - remybach 9y ago
    I charge my watch when I get home since I hardly really need it between then and bed time where I can either glance at one of the clocks around the house, or take care of notifications and what-not on the phone itself. I then put it back on charge between getting up and leaving the house in the morning. It sounds like a lot, but it's very quickly become routine.
  - dec0dedab0de 9y ago
    I charge my fitbit when i shower
niix 9y ago
I use the Apple Watch's silent alarm feature to wake me up every morning. Just make sure the haptics and sound are turned all the way down, and the watch is set on silent and DnD mode.
technofiend 9y ago
Sleep as Android + Pebble with heartrate tracking. Hopefully Apple catches up because this is a killer combination.
ziikutv 9y ago
Up until the last paragraph about Udemy courses, I thought you were being sarcastic.
raghus 9y ago
"Oh please please please make a smart alarm that will make me up by only vibrating on my wrist" - Fitbit has done this for a while now. You can even snooze it. Fitbit calls them Silent Alarms.
- qualalu 9y ago
  Fitbit does not provide a smart alarm, that wakes you in a light sleep phase. Jawbone Up does.
yabatopia 9y ago
I'm looking for a similar solution, but I'm more interested device that isn't tied to a particular platform. Integration with an app is not high on my priority list, I just want to wake up without waking up my wife. So far, the more interesting devices I found are: - Sonic Alert Sonic Bomb: A digital clock with a bed shaker. I would turn of the extra loud alarm and just use the bed shaker (a vibrating disc you can place under your pillow). Highly rated on Amazon. Link: https://www.amazon.com/Sonic-Alert-SBB500SS-Alarm-Shaker/dp/B000OOWZUK/ https://www.amazon.com/Sonic-Alert-SBB500SS-Alarm-Shaker/dp/... - Shake-n-Wake: A vibrating wrist watch style alarm. It's fairly bulky compared to fitness trackers, but it's quit cheap. Only 3 stars on Amazon, has apparently some quality issues. Link: https://www.amazon.com/Silent-Vibrating-Personal-Alarm-Shake-N-Wake/dp/B0027A573Q/ https://www.amazon.com/Silent-Vibrating-Personal-Alarm-Shake... - iLuv Smartshaker 2: just a bed shaker, a vibrating disk with sound alarm. You need an app for it though, available for Android or iOS. 3,5 starts on Amazon, so not a clear winner. Link: https://www.amazon.com/Smartshaker-iLuv-Portable-Vibrating-Multiple/dp/B01EHEIGOG/ https://www.amazon.com/Smartshaker-iLuv-Portable-Vibrating-M... I've tried a Fitbit fitness tracker, but the vibration isn't always strong enough to wake me up. And you have to remember to charge it (enough!) before you go to bed. Just forget the Lifemax 331 Under Pillow Vibration Alarm Clock: it's really crap. Any suggestions, experiences or recommendations are welcome!
- bstrong 9y ago
  I have a Garmin Fenix 3, and the vibration wakes me up easily. It also goes well over a week between charges, even using the GPS heavily. Long battery life is important for a watch you are going to use as an alarm, since you lose the convenience of charging overnight.
jcdreads 9y ago
Any wrist-mounted Fitbit will do this, even the tiny ones without a screen. I've been using one as my only alarm for about a year, and it works great. Disclaimer: I work for Fitbit. Edit: Also, the battery needs a 90-minute charge only once or twice a week.
- jwong_ 9y ago
  Fitbits don't do smart alarms, which is what he's asking for. He wants an alarm to wake up him roughly around the end of a sleep cycle. No fitbit currently has this feature at all. I was confused since I was sure it didn't have this feature. Had to look it up to make sure.
jahewson 9y ago
The Fitbit Alta can do this. It's a great feature, I use it exactly as you describe.
shalmanese 9y ago
If you wear your Apple watch while you sleep, when do you charge it?

by dchuk 9y ago

rockshassa 9y ago

i'm an iOS engineer, i'll write it for a case of beer. did not plan on rhyming that..

schainks 9y ago

You might be interested in Garmin Vivosmart HR+ (I have one). While Garmin's app is a horrible walled garden (no google fit integration, or integration with other Android APIs, like alarms), it does let you set an alarm that syncs to the watch. The watch vibrates with increasing intensity in order to wake you up. Works as advertised.

BoorishBears 9y ago

I'm shocked that doesn't exist, even my old Pebble had an app for that

saagarjha 9y ago
A big part in this comes from the fact that most people take off the watch when they sleep to charge it, making it useless for sleep tracking.
- icanhackit 9y ago
  With gen 2 Apple Watch that shouldn't be necessary - I wear mine diligently and interact with it frequently yet the battery never gets below 70% at the end of the day, often only getting down to 90%, and the charge time is quite rapid. Stick it on the charger when going for a shower or some other short routine and you should have it back to fully charged when you're done. Get the Milanese Loop band and it'll be even less of a pain because you can quickly put the watch on and take it off because it's magnetic. A lot easier than a buckle or pin fastener. For anyone interested the sleep tracking app I use, Sleep Watch, automatically figures out when you're sleeping and awake so you don't have to manually initiate the app. I guess it interprets movement data from the accelerometer and can tell the difference between slight movements in a sleeping state and respite during wakeful periods.
  - saagarjha 9y ago
    I find that the battery stays pretty high (around 80%) if I don't exercise with it. If I start any workouts, however, and the battery dips down to ~50% by the end of the day. Nothing that a quick top-off during the day wouldn't fix, but it's still far from the Pebble's week long battery life.
    - icanhackit 9y ago
      Does the Pebble have an integrated GPS or does it rely on a phone with GPS? I wonder if the form of exercise also has an impact. I'm averaging 12.5km walking/running per day or 7.5+ miles but my primary form of exercise is weight lifting which wouldn't be very taxing on the watch at all. On the other hand someone doing jumping jacks and various other flail-y cardio exercises might be triggering the screen to turn on an off and making the accelerometer work for its supper. Rapid changes in air-pressure might also be triggering the mic/DSP to listen for speech.
- MBCook 9y ago
  On the series 2 it's not an issue at all. I believe David Smith, the developer of Sleep++, said that on the original Apple Watch he wore it all day and all night and simply charged it in the morning and in the evening while taking a shower or doing the dishes or something like that. It doesn't take that long to charge the thing up all the way, so two short charges while you're doing other things would be enough to top it off. On the series 2 the battery life is so good that just charging it while you take a shower in the morning is probably more than enough.
  - niix 9y ago
    This is what I do. I charge the watch in the morning when I get to my office and wear it all day (and to sleep, for the silent alarm feature).

woodruffw 9y ago

I bought a steeply discounted Pebble Time a few days ago. It's basically a dead-end product now that Pebble has been acquired/cannibalized by Fitbit, but mine does exactly what you want: it wakes me by vibrating on my wrist, and uses a smart alarm to calculate my sleep cycle and avoid deep sleep alarms if possible. Coupled with the week-long battery life, this has made my mornings a lot nicer. I wonder if Apple is withholding a smart alarm app as a sort of carrot for future models.

m-p-3 9y ago
I'm so sad that Pebble went under. They made the best smartwatch in my opinion.
- rtpg 9y ago
  I'm sad too. I'm actually really worried about my pebble breaking, so have been looking into making a homebrew smartwatch. My biggest issue right now is finding a screen with similar specs to the Pebble Time in terms of resolution and power usage. If anyone has any advice on how I could get wearable screens like JDI[0] has (without having to buy 100 of them) I'd love to hear it! I'm not super well versed in electronics procurement [0]:http://www.j-display.com/english/product/wearable.html http://www.j-display.com/english/product/wearable.html
  - ClassyJacket 9y ago
    ...Buy everyone's old Pebbles? :p
  - memmcgee 9y ago
    I don't have this, but this book is supposed to be good for procurement: https://www.crowdsupply.com/sutajio-kosagi/the-essential-guide-to-electronics-in-shenzhen https://www.crowdsupply.com/sutajio-kosagi/the-essential-gui...
    - janekm 9y ago
      It won't help for the screen... Those are made by Sharp and would be exceedingly hard to get hold of in Shenzhen.

nscalf 9y ago

...does this really not exist yet? That's so simple and such a seemingly necessary feature. That and a heart rate monitory seem like the only two reasons to get a watch.

mahyarm 9y ago

That is probably not possible on an apple watch. You might have more luck with an android watch or a pebble. Apple watch dev is pretty bad, almost nobody uses the apps.

MBCook 9y ago
As an Apple Watch user I found a few that are quite useful. The big problem is that many companies seem to try and shove their main app onto the Watch without any thought. What's the point of an eBay app? Do I really need to check the status of my auctions that often? I mean if something sells they can't just push a notification?
- gvurrdon 9y ago
  Indeed. There are some iPhone applications which could do with an Apple Watch equivalent and don't have one, such as Google Inbox, though.

slg 9y ago

It seems like Apple actively discourages the use of the Apple watch in this way with no native sleep tracking and no real mode to disable notifications overnight. Maybe this purchase signifies a change in that regard, but they are already behind all their competitors in sleep tracking.

calvinbhai 9y ago
is there a reference for this? I have seen a few apps that do watch + sleep tracking (Sleep++ is a nice watch app)
- slg 9y ago
  A reference for what in particular? Yes, there are third party apps like Sleep++ that do this, but there is nothing native. Those third party apps also can't change system settings likes adjusting notifications. That means that your wrist will vibrate every time you receive an email overnight. The idea that this is intentional to discourage sleep tracking was just conjecture by me.
  - MBCook 9y ago
    I think there's a big difference between actively discouraging and just not having a native app. As other commenters have mentioned your phone can automatically going to do not disturb mode which will also set the watch thus turning off all notifications, but honestly the idea of my watch buzzing every time I get an email even during the day sounds terrible. I have an Apple Watch and I love it, but I don't have that many things notify me on it.
    - brlewis 9y ago
      If you're in DND mode how will the third-party app wake you up?
      - calvinbhai 9y ago
        not mirror the DND on watch. I just keep very few apps on watch, so that way, only the app I have on the watch can tap me.

vvanders 9y ago

That's Pebble time to a T. Shame they're no longer made.

zitterbewegung 9y ago

How does a pulse oximeter figure out how to guess you are in a REM state which can usually be done by EEG ? (Or the pebble can this be done by a accelerometer ?) I have taken sleep studies where you would have to do at least something like the beddit device but even then I don't understand how they do it?

coredog64 9y ago
REM is characterized by lack of movement and variable respiration rate. So I would imagine the signal is erratic oxygen saturation. You'll get better results if you can correlate that with an accelerometer. Disclosure: I worked on a sleep tracking device that is a competitor to Beddit.
- dchuk 9y ago
  Can you shed light on whether there are a common set of algorithms that sleep trackers use or if they are generally all proprietary?
  - fleetingmoments 9y ago
    There are some common algorithms for sleep/wake classification from accelerometer input, but sleep stages algorithms are all proprietary as far as I know.
    - antisthenes 9y ago
      Which is another way of saying "no way to verify if they're bullshit or not".
      - fleetingmoments 9y ago
        Not true, anyone could take them to a sleep lab and compare to Polysomnograph-based sleep scoring. I'd love to see a large, independent study on this for a couple of the leading trackers.

rikf 9y ago

Surely the reason this isn't a thing is because the watch needs to be charged every night?

rtkwe 9y ago
Yeah. What they need is a true full day's charge and a fast charge so you can charge it in the morning while you get ready (and maybe a top off at night). Or for a lot of people you can probably do it now by taking it off when you get home and charging it until you go to bed then wearing it overnight. There's an opportunity in the morning to top off the charge again if it's not making it through the day. A sleep mode could also make over night wear more feasible. Really you don't want any notifications coming through anyways so all the wireless connectivity can be turned off along with the screen and the processor clocked waaaay down.
- djrogers 9y ago
  > What they need is a true full day's charge and a fast charge so you can charge it in the morning while you get ready (and maybe a top off at night). That's precisely what the series 2 gives you...
pilif 9y ago
At least for Series 2 this isn't that much of an issue any more: despite tracking a 2 hour workout every day, the battery easily lasts through the day and the night. And it recharges fully while I'm showering on the next day. I could easily use the watch for sleep tracking, but the SDK is a bit limited for 3rd party apps to be able to automatically start and stop tracking. I hope Apple will either improve the SDK or add a built-in sleep tracker and alarm feature as described by OP (though in my case the point is moot as I have a very efficient fur-based alarm clock that will claw my face on the first sign of daylight in order to be fed)
- veidr 9y ago
  I agree; I charge it while I'm in the shower and so does everybody I know who actually uses their Apple watch (which means, about 15% of those people I know who bought one). The battery (in the second version of the product) now lasts long enough to make that work — except sometimes on the weekend when I might go a day without a shower. I also want the smart sleep tracking app badly. The reason I bought this crappy watch was solely for the vibration-on-wrist when you have to make a turn when using navigation. Unfortunately, that iOS feature is horribly broken — it automatically switches to "car mode" when you go faster than a brisk walk, which means it doesn't work for navigating on a bicycle, skateboard, foot scooter, or even just running. So the device has very little utility for me as it stands — but a sleep-cycle-aware, vibrate-only alarm clock would make it worth the purchase price for me. And Apple (since I know you clearly must lurk on every hacker news thread waiting for unsolicited advice from strangers on how to fix your lame products): fixing the stupid "automatically switch to car mode" misfeature would also make the watch worth its price to me.

djrogers 9y ago

The original jawbone Up bracelet thingy did that, and I LOVED it. Sadly they broke easily and Aliph (now Jawbone) stopped making them. I had an original pebble, and kept hoping for a feature like that but it never came (or came after I stopped wearing the pebble). I've used Sleep Cycle on my iPhone for this, but it's not as accurate- especially with 2 people in the bed. Long/short is that to this day is still haven't found anything as good as the Up, which Was near perfect when it wasn't physically broken.

thisjustinm 9y ago

My Fitbit charge hr (latest version) does exactly this and I love it. The only trick is that having an alarm on your wrist means that the snooze button is always within reach.

wapz 9y ago
Is this the charge 2? I think there's only one version of "charge HR".
- zubspace 9y ago
  Well, I own a fitbit charge 2 and one reason I bought it was the vibration alarm clock. It's a very light watch and I don't mind having it on my arm while sleeping. You define multiple alarms on your desktop/mobile, for specific weekdays, synced with bluetooth and you can disable/enable each one of them on the watch, which I really like. But there are some minor problems with this watch: 1) the vibration alarm is not very strong. If I have an important meeting, I use a fallback alarm clock. There are various complaints on fitbit forums. 2) The alarm lasts only 15 secs and it repeats 2 (or 3?) times after 9 minutes. Unfortunately you can't change this behaviour. Moreover, when I'm dizzy I sometimes confirm the alarm and fall back asleep, which happens too easily while lying in bed... 3) other topic, but annoying: the watch is not waterproof so always keep a fallback alarm. but otherwise it's a great watch.
  - lloeki 9y ago
    The Charge HR does exactly that, but doesn't do any effort WRT alarm during light sleep (dunno about Charge 2)
cs2818 9y ago
I've been using my Fitbit Charge HR as my primary alarm for almost 2 years now and it works great. I also use it to set alarms as reminders if I have an important meeting or event.
- criddell 9y ago

rdl 9y ago

I solved this (when sleeping in a military transient housing bay or something) by sleeping on top of my phone, in airplane mode, with a vibrate-only alarm set for one time, and then a separate phone or alarm set for audio alarm 5 minutes later. Direct vibration onto skull is pretty effective way to wake up.

coldtea 9y ago
Missing calls while sleeping on airplane mode, though, is not really compelling...
- toomanybeersies 9y ago
  I always put my phone on silent before I go to bed. There's no way I'm getting woken up to someone ringing me.
  - ciaranm 9y ago
    I use do not disturb mode between 11pm and 9am. If you're in my contacts list it'll ring (silent), otherwise you're going straight to voicemail. The concept of being woken up by phone a phone call (other than being actively on call for some reason) is crazy.
    - dancryer 9y ago
      Do you never worry about missing a family emergency call? Like an accident or death or similar? I don't accept general calls overnight, but I'd hate to miss the call.
      - tnorthcutt 9y ago
        That's what the "do not disturb" mode is for in iOS - you can let either contacts, or favorites, through IIRC.
        9y ago

ashark 9y ago

> 2) Only vibrates on my wrist at first (let's say for 5 minutes) and then falls back to a traditional alarm sound so I get my ass up just in case Considering how often I feel phantom phone vibrations on my leg even when I don't have my phone in my pocket, I'm guessing I'd end up "feeling" this any time I half woke up for a second. We used to have an alarm that played ocean wave sounds. It'd start very quiet and get louder. I'd "hear" what sounded like it starting when there were hours left 'till it'd actually go off.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

dfabulich 9y ago

Have I got good news for you! http://www.thesleepwatch.com/ http://www.thesleepwatch.com/ It's $150, takes a CR2032 battery that lasts 12 months; $50 if you can live without the vibration. I used one for a couple of years, before I had a kid (who wakes me up by jumping on the bed). I really liked it. I woke up feeling noticeably more refreshed. It's not life changing, but it's quite nice. (Despite its name, it's not really all that good for tracking your sleep, because it has no wireless support, but the alarm feature is all I need anyway. Get a Fitbit if you want wireless tracking, I guess.)

EddieSpeaks 9y ago

The Microsoft Band did exactly this, but it didn't have enough sales so they canned it

sien 9y ago

After finding out that the main thing I used my Fitbit Charge HR for was exactly this and the Fitbit breaking after 18 months because it's not well made I got a Xiaomi Band 2 which can be obtained for ~$US 20 and it does the vibrating alarm well. It doesn't wake me up only in light sleep rather than REM, but other than that this device fits your requirements and is the cost of a good lunch. The battery life is also a week plus. Also I don't really care that much if this one breaks.

j7ake 9y ago

Fitbit does this.

EE84M3i 9y ago
Does it? I have a Fitbit and have only figured out how to configure a constant-time alarm. I know it tracks my sleep, but can I set a smart alarm? I'm pretty sure it can't.

tough_luck 9y ago

A cheap mi band can do this and more quite easily. A phone under the pillow with a silent alarm tone can do this.

Nullabillity 9y ago

If I remember correctly then Sleep as Android can do this.

superasn 9y ago

My MI band v1 used to do that and it was like $10. It had both these features (vibrating wrist alarm and REM sleep detection alarm) and the battery lasted for a month on a single recharge. I don't know the compatibility with iOS but you can buy it and put it on every night to solve your problem.

jlebrech 9y ago

I just get woken up by sunlight or my bladder

peterclary 9y ago

For clarity: The Apple Watch does have a built-in Alarm which will wake you by Vibrating on your wrist. If you've muted the watch (swipe up from the watch face and tap the Mute icon) then you won't get a corresponding alarm noise. I like the suggestions for #1 and #2 though. Not sure how you'd track light vs REM sleep. a. Accelerometer: As I understand it, people don't move at all when in REM sleep, but I don't think it follows that people are guaranteed to move often (or at all) during light sleep, so I'm not sure that the accelerometer could be used to determine that. Source: http://www.brainfacts.org/about-neuroscience/ask-an-expert/articles/2012/sleep-movement/ http://www.brainfacts.org/about-neuroscience/ask-an-expert/a... b. Pulse monitoring: Apparently pulse rate is steady during light sleep but variable during REM sleep or when awake. Again, I'm not sure that's enough to reliably determine things. Source: http://healthysleep.med.harvard.edu/healthy/science/what/characteristics http://healthysleep.med.harvard.edu/healthy/science/what/cha... Perhaps combining the two?

kayoone 9y ago

dont people usually charge their apple(smart) watch at night anyway ?

robinson-wall 9y ago
Specifically for the Apple watch, people did with the original, but the newest model has enough battery to survive longer than 24 hours. I sleep with mine on for (3rd party) sleep tracking and charge it while I'm in the shower.
- kayoone 9y ago
  interesting, does it charge fast enough so it holds the charge until the next shower? I got my girlfriend an Apple Watch S1 which is usually at around 50-60% in the evening, but she always charges overnight and my feeling was that the inductive charging is rather slow.
  - robinson-wall 9y ago
    Sometimes not if I'm quick or it's been used for exercise tracking the day before, but by "shower" I really mean "morning routine". Take it off when I get out of bed and then put it on as I leave the house for work. It's always at 100% in that case, and I'd guess it's usually charging for 45 minutes to an hour.
    - kayoone 9y ago
      True, tried this and it works fine, lesson learned, thanks :)

drinchev 9y ago

Wonder what will happen when you need to charge your Apple Watch ( as I am doing this every night ). Point No. 2, you can achieve with FitBit ( I still use Flex 1 - which has a superb battery life - 6-7 days ) in a combination with good ol' phone alarm set to 5 minutes after FitBit's alarm.

covercash 9y ago
I charge my watch every morning for 60-90 minutes while I do my morning routine. That usually gets me through the day + night, unless I do over 2 hours of exercise. I also only use my watch for activity/sleep tracking and notifications so I only have default apps running on it. That likely helps my battery life make it through the day & night.

mstade 9y ago

Having tried a number of sleep tracking solutions to get this whole "wake up when your body is most ready for it" thing I'm not sure it works for me. To me, it seems the only way for me to wake up and actually get up is: 1. Someone or something wakes me up 2. I get the hell up; no snoozing allowed It doesn't seem to matter when or how I'm woken, if I don't just get out of bed I simply won't truly wake up. Snoozing is the bane of my existence. I've gone from trying to use these fancy sleep tracking devices and apps and what not, to just sleeping with my Apple watch on my wrist and have an alarm set every day, including weekends. It's the same time, and I only turn it off under special circumstances, like I had to stay up all night for some reason or other. I never get woken up by notifications, because do-not-disturb is on during sleeping hours, and when the watch is on my wrist it wakes me up by vibrating at the set time. This alone has done more to improve my sleeping habits I think, because something gently vibrating my wrist is a quite nice way to wake up, as opposed to blaring a war signal horn in my ear. When I don't have my watch with me or available, I do what someone else around here tipped about: sleep with my phone under my pillow and have it vibrate at a set hour. There's probably some serious scientific fact around waking people up during light sleep making for better sleep or whatever, but it just hasn't worked out for me.

TeMPOraL 9y ago
> Snoozing is the bane of my existence. For me it's not snoozing, it's auto-snoozing. Who the hell had the idea that an alarm clock should _stop_ after a minute or so? I want an app that does not turn off alarm "due to inactivity", I want it blasting away until I wake up (or my neighbours wake me up by knocking to the doors).
- annnnd 9y ago
  I think the idea is that people sometimes make mistakes... They leave home early and forget that alarm is still turned on, and then get home in the afternoon to find the front doors broken by angry neighbors. But yeah, if that watch could measure heartbeat... ;)
  - TeMPOraL 9y ago

coldtea 9y ago

>Oh please please please make a smart alarm that will make me up by only vibrating on my wrist. I want to be able to wake up early for stuff without having to wake up my wife and dogs. I bought a Withings watch (Nokia owned, they also make scales) basically for that feature. The main caveat is that the control app (the watch has no buttons) only supports setting 1 alert p -- and you even have to change it manually if you want a different hour the next day, can't preprogram different alerts for various weekdays. That said, it was just $100, and Nokia is supposed to revamp the models soon-ish. I'll go for an Apple Watch next though...

piyush_soni 9y ago

The Cheap Mi Band from Xiaomi does that perfectly.

maneesh 9y ago

Pavlok can do this! It's a wearable that vibrates, beeps, and can release electric stimuli. It also has motion detection to know if you're out of bed (depending on alarm, you can turn it off only by doing jumping jacks). http://pavlok.com http://pavlok.com and the sister product, Shock Clock: https://buy.pavlok.com/products/shocking-alarm-clock https://buy.pavlok.com/products/shocking-alarm-clock

iplaw 9y ago
This comment reminded me of a guy in my college dorm who would not wake up to traditional alarms. It was some sort of sleep disorder. His mom used to slap him in the face a few times and drag him out of bed immediately. He'd sleep through traditional alarms, no matter how loud and piercing. This alarm clock had a bed-sized pressure pad (so he couldn't merely roll off of it) that went under the sheets and the alarm clock wouldn't stop with the wake-up procedures until he was out of bed. The alarm clock controlled an extremely bright flood light that was pointed directly at his face a couple of feet over his bed. If that didn't wake him up, there was an adjustable water spray nozzle that would spray his face with water. THe pressure pad also had some sort of semi-painful tactile feedback, similar to a massage chair with really pokey deep tissue nodules. I felt bad for his roommate.

andrepd 9y ago

I use "Sleep as Android". Absolute shit ton of features. The obsessive customiser in me loves these kinds of software; it's a pity that being able to customise your software like this is getting more and more uncommon. Anyway I'm pretty sure you can do that in Sleep as Android. If I had a smartband I would.

KJKingJ 9y ago
You can indeed do this with Sleep as Android - I use it in combination with a Pebble Time to feed Sleep as Android accelerometer data (for sleep phases), and then the watch vibrates for an alarm - falling back to an audible alarm on the phone if I don't deactivate it in time. The only downside is that the vibration motor in the Pebble Time is a little bit loud, but still much quieter than an audible alarm on the phone itself.
tokenizerrr 9y ago
You most certainly can. I have been doing this with my Moto 360 2nd gen and it works great. Unfortunately it turns out I hate sleeping with something on my wrist, so I don't do it anymore. It also slowly turns on my smartlights when the alarm goes off.
emodendroket 9y ago
When do you charge it if not while you sleep?
- remybach 9y ago
  I charge my watch when I get home since I hardly really need it between then and bed time where I can either glance at one of the clocks around the house, or take care of notifications and what-not on the phone itself. I then put it back on charge between getting up and leaving the house in the morning. It sounds like a lot, but it's very quickly become routine.
- dec0dedab0de 9y ago
  I charge my fitbit when i shower

niix 9y ago

I use the Apple Watch's silent alarm feature to wake me up every morning. Just make sure the haptics and sound are turned all the way down, and the watch is set on silent and DnD mode.

technofiend 9y ago

Sleep as Android + Pebble with heartrate tracking. Hopefully Apple catches up because this is a killer combination.

ziikutv 9y ago

Up until the last paragraph about Udemy courses, I thought you were being sarcastic.

raghus 9y ago

"Oh please please please make a smart alarm that will make me up by only vibrating on my wrist" - Fitbit has done this for a while now. You can even snooze it. Fitbit calls them Silent Alarms.

qualalu 9y ago
Fitbit does not provide a smart alarm, that wakes you in a light sleep phase. Jawbone Up does.

yabatopia 9y ago

I'm looking for a similar solution, but I'm more interested device that isn't tied to a particular platform. Integration with an app is not high on my priority list, I just want to wake up without waking up my wife. So far, the more interesting devices I found are: - Sonic Alert Sonic Bomb: A digital clock with a bed shaker. I would turn of the extra loud alarm and just use the bed shaker (a vibrating disc you can place under your pillow). Highly rated on Amazon. Link: https://www.amazon.com/Sonic-Alert-SBB500SS-Alarm-Shaker/dp/B000OOWZUK/ https://www.amazon.com/Sonic-Alert-SBB500SS-Alarm-Shaker/dp/... - Shake-n-Wake: A vibrating wrist watch style alarm. It's fairly bulky compared to fitness trackers, but it's quit cheap. Only 3 stars on Amazon, has apparently some quality issues. Link: https://www.amazon.com/Silent-Vibrating-Personal-Alarm-Shake-N-Wake/dp/B0027A573Q/ https://www.amazon.com/Silent-Vibrating-Personal-Alarm-Shake... - iLuv Smartshaker 2: just a bed shaker, a vibrating disk with sound alarm. You need an app for it though, available for Android or iOS. 3,5 starts on Amazon, so not a clear winner. Link: https://www.amazon.com/Smartshaker-iLuv-Portable-Vibrating-Multiple/dp/B01EHEIGOG/ https://www.amazon.com/Smartshaker-iLuv-Portable-Vibrating-M... I've tried a Fitbit fitness tracker, but the vibration isn't always strong enough to wake me up. And you have to remember to charge it (enough!) before you go to bed. Just forget the Lifemax 331 Under Pillow Vibration Alarm Clock: it's really crap. Any suggestions, experiences or recommendations are welcome!

bstrong 9y ago
I have a Garmin Fenix 3, and the vibration wakes me up easily. It also goes well over a week between charges, even using the GPS heavily. Long battery life is important for a watch you are going to use as an alarm, since you lose the convenience of charging overnight.

jcdreads 9y ago

Any wrist-mounted Fitbit will do this, even the tiny ones without a screen. I've been using one as my only alarm for about a year, and it works great. Disclaimer: I work for Fitbit. Edit: Also, the battery needs a 90-minute charge only once or twice a week.

jwong_ 9y ago
Fitbits don't do smart alarms, which is what he's asking for. He wants an alarm to wake up him roughly around the end of a sleep cycle. No fitbit currently has this feature at all. I was confused since I was sure it didn't have this feature. Had to look it up to make sure.

jahewson 9y ago

The Fitbit Alta can do this. It's a great feature, I use it exactly as you describe.

shalmanese 9y ago

If you wear your Apple watch while you sleep, when do you charge it?