I’ve been on a mission for the past two years.  The mission seems simple and straightforward enough, but has proven to be both frustrating and unbelievably difficult.  My mission?  To find an alarm clock that functions well, is relatively easy to set, and has a lighted face that can be seen in the dark if necessary, but won’t keep me awake when I’m supposed to be sleeping.  Also important is durability, as we have two curious young children who have been known to explore our bedside table electronics with all of the gusto of a scientist working in his lab.

As a result of this long and time consuming project, we have a pileup of discarded alarm clocks clogging the upper shelf of our master bedroom closet.  Clocks with CD players, clocks with flashing weather reports, clocks that shine the time and temperature on the ceiling, clocks with large face numbers, clocks with blue numbers, green numbers, and yellow numbers: all seemed like good ideas at the time, but none offered a workable solution to our sleeping and waking needs.  Remember, we weren’t looking for perfection, we were merely interested in basic functionality combined with durability and reliability.  I had all but given up the quest, settling for a combination of brightly lit numbers (with a book carefully leaned over the face to block out the unnecessary light at night) and a broken CD player.  But then I had the opportunity to review the Apollo Health Daybreak Duo Sunrise/Sunset Simulator for Qwowi.com and I decided it might be worth it to try just one more clock.  I am delighted to tell you that the pileup of clocks in the bedroom closet is being thrown out, and the Daybreak Duo has moved into its rightful place beside our bed.  This alarm clock is a keeper.

Not Just An Alarm Clock

The Daybreak Duo is an alarm clock that uses light to help ease your body into wakefulness.  Using your existing bedside lamp (incandescent light only, 100 watts preferred) and internal dimming technology, it slowly raises the light in your bedroom before you wake, reaching full brightness at the time when your alarm clock is set to go off, and mimicking the sunrise that would wake you naturally if you didn’t need to use an alarm clock.

“8 of 10 adults struggle to get out of bed in the morning, and have problems sleeping at night. Traditional alarm clocks wake you with a sudden jolt of noise that interrupts your final stage of sleep, causing a condition known as sleep latency that makes it hard to get out of bed. The effects of sleep latency can last all day. The Daybreak Duo simulates a natural sunrise, allowing your sleep cycle to finish and you awaken gradually without sleep latency.” (source: www.lighttherapy.com)

Not only does the Daybreak Duo raise the “sun” for you when you need to wake up, it helps you fall asleep by mimicking a natural sunset.  No more laying in bed waiting to fall asleep, perhaps counting sheep as the minutes and hours tick by.  The Daybreak Duo slowly sets the “sun” in your bedroom with increments too subtle to notice until you are lulled into a natural sleep.

“…[The] Daybreak Duo also provides sunset simulation, a gradual decrease in light that tells your body clock to slow down by replicating nature’s signal that it’s time to go to sleep.” (source: www.lighttherapy.com)

Trying It Out

When my Daybreak Duo alarm clock arrived the first thing I noticed was its heft.  This is not a cheap plastic alarm clock that feels as though it would shatter if dropped, rather it feels like the electronics of days gone by: solid, weighty, and built to last.  I noticed the aesthetics of the clock as well (probably because I already have a small heap of discarded alarm clocks stashed in my closet), finding it modern and attractive.  I have the black model, shown below:

Setting up the clock was simple.  It comes with a backup battery that will hold your settings for up to 24 hours if electricity is lost, something that will certainly come in handy where I live as we seem to lose power with alarming frequency.  After properly inserting the battery I plug my existing bedside lamp into the back of the clock, then plug the clock into my electrical outlet.  The Daybreak Duo has many setting options that allow you to tailor and personalize your usage.  Along with the standard clock time setting, the Daybreak Duo also includes settings for:

• 2 Wake Times, great for two person usage or different wake times for weekdays and weekends
• Wake Modes for each of the 2 wake times, including sunrise, chime, radio, and off; also allowing combinations of sunrise/chime and sunrise/radio.
• Sunrise Duration, factory set for 30 minutes but able to be personalized in 15 minute increments from 15-120 minutes
• Sunset Duration, factory set for 30 minutes but able to be personalized in 15 minute increments from 15-120 minutes
• Digital Radio Station Tuning, with three programmable presets so you can store your favorite stations
• Adjustable display brightness

Working my way through the User Guide I was able to program my clock within minutes; the touchscreen display makes the programming very easy and user-friendly, and when I made mistakes it took only seconds to correct them.  I eagerly awaited my first sunset and sunrise with the Daybreak Duo; the first night when I got into bed I simply pressed the SUNSET button, which I had previously set to a 15 minute sunset duration, and waited for the lights to get dim with obvious drops in light.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that the light didn’t suddenly drop in a way that was startling, rather it was barely noticeable.  I was able to read my book for the first 8-10 minutes, but then I found my eyelids getting droopy and my yawns became more frequent, even though I had not felt particularly tired when I got into bed.  That first night I was sound asleep before the light went off completely, which means I fell asleep within 15 minutes of going to bed, something that had not happened in years!

Waking to my first simulated sunrise was pleasant.  I didn’t notice the light coming on in my sleep, but when my alarm sounded and I opened my eyes the light, a full 100 watts, did not seem glaring as it would have had someone thrown on the lights on a normal predawn winter morning.  I felt quite awake when my alarm sounded and for the first time in years I didn’t push snooze (although there is a snooze button, large and well-placed at the front  front and center of the top of the clock, which allows one to sleep in for additional 9 minute segments).

Conclusive Evidence

After decades of being woken up with a jolt by my alarm clock radio, hitting snooze, and drifting back into dreamland, I was used to waking up feeling tired and out of sorts, as if I just couldn’t shake off my morning grogginess; I have even been known to nod off over my morning cup of tea, only waking when the sloshing hot liquid startles me out of sleep.  While nodding off over my morning cup of tea didn’t seem quite right, I never connected my waking-up habits to my morning (or all day) exhaustion until the Daybreak Duo alarm clock arrived at my house.  After the first few days of using the Daybreak Duo I found myself waking with ease and feeling better throughout my entire day.  Suddenly I had more energy, I was accomplishing more during my day, and my mood was remarkably improved.

I am aware that my first experiences with the Daybreak Duo sound too good to be true, which is why I kept using the clock for nearly a month before writing this review.  I, too, kept waiting for the light simulation to stop working for my body, for my mornings to once again be groggy and my bedtimes to once again include tossing and turning, trying to relax enough to fall asleep.  After a month I can tell you this: it works.  I wake each morning feeling well rested and ready for the day, even when I have stayed up a little bit too late.  I fall asleep at night within 15 minutes, my eyelids often too heavy to witness the final dimness of my bedside lamp.  Without changing any of my other habits I feel as though I am getting a better quality of sleep and I am waking feeling refreshed rather than run down.

Other Features Worthy of Mention

LAMP USE Lest you think it might be a major pain to have your bedside lamp plugged into your alarm clock, you should know that the big thinkers at Apollo Health have thought of everything:  the Daybreak Duo alarm clock has a manual lamp operation button, labeled on the clock as LAMP, which allows you to turn your light on through the clock.  Even better, the LAMP button has three varying degrees of intensity: dim, medium, and bright.  If you don’t like the factory presets for these three settings you can adjust them by using the up and down arrows on the touchscreen.

NAPPING In my mind, there is nothing quite so decadent as having a late afternoon nap while the sun spills across my bed, and the Daybreak Duo can help out with this, too.  Pressing the SNOOZE/NAP button allows you to adjust your nap duration on the touchscreen, after which you can doze off until the clock’s backup alarm sounds at the end of your preset time.

RADIO Once in awhile we all like to have a little bit of music while we lie in bed, and unlike many alarm clock radios, the radio on the Daybreak Duo sounds good.  For manual use, the radio can be turned on/off by pressing the RADIO button.

DISPLAY Aside from the sunrise and sunset simulation, my favorite feature of the Daybreak Duo is the adjustable display brightness.  During the day the display is brighter so you can see it even in a sunlit room.  Eight hours before your first scheduled wake time the display dims to a low light level so that the light from the display won’t keep you from sleeping soundly.

FACEPLATES I told you the big thinkers at Apollo Health had everything covered, didn’t I?  They even realized that we each have our own sense of style and that our interiors might not be best suited by a plain black or white clock.  The Daybreak Duo can be customized  to your look by changing out the faceplate that surrounds the touchscreen display and the SNOOZE/NAP button.  Additional faceplate covers cost $10 for a 2-pack.

Mission: Complete

Simply put, the Daybreak Duo redefined the term ‘alarm clock’ for me.  I’ll never be able to go back to the old standard of cheap plastic and too-bright displays.  Waking up and going to sleep with the Daybreak Duo has made a remarkable difference in the quality and duration of our sleep, and I honestly feel as though my mood has taken a solid upturn since I began its use (I am quite certain my family would agree).  When it’s time to purchase your next alarm clock, look no further than the Daybreak Duo and you, too, will be amazed at how well it works.

The Daybreak Duo Alarm Clock retails for around $150 and is available online at Amazon.com.