7 Best Sunrise Alarm Clocks to Snag Before the Fall 2025 Time Change

Your body is built to wake naturally with the sunrise and feel sleepy as the sun sets. The light at both the beginning and end of the day is a warm, golden tone, unlike the midday bright, slightly blue sunlight that keeps you wide awake. A sunrise alarm clock mimics this transition from morning to bright daytime light, helping to signal your body to wake up (or fall asleep, if the clock also has a sunset option).

Each model we recommend offers a sunrise routine, meaning you choose a time to wake up and then the sunrise clock will start displaying a deep orange glow and transition to a bright light by the time your audio alarm is set for. Some offer customization, allowing you to choose how long you want that artificial sunrise to be, while others have set timers. Some also allow the reverse option with a sunset routine and can double as sound machines. Most of these plug into the wall like a classic alarm clock and stay put, though sometimes there’s a companion app or recharging capabilities (if it’s not mentioned, though, assume it doesn’t).

There’s a lot of features to consider in a sunrise lamp, but which ones that you’ll like best vary by person.

If you struggle to fall asleep: splurge on a sunrise alarm with a nighttime or wind-down routine. These help build a routine for you to fall asleep to.

If you need a bedside lamp and sunrise clock: get a brighter sunrise clock that has easy controls to switch it on as a bedside lamp. Not all sunrise clocks have these, so check the details carefully (and reviews like ours)

If you want a specific bedside sound: check how many sounds are offered. Just about every sunrise clock has some sound machine features and options, but cheaper ones tend to only have a couple of sounds and might not have the sound you’re looking for.

If you want app control: some options in this guide don’t have a partner app or Wi-Fi capabilities, especially some of my favorites. An app doesn’t necessarily make it a better sunrise clock, but it can be convenient to use. If you prefer an app to set up your sunrise lamp, shop the Casper, Hatch, Loftie, and WiiM.

Yes! I’m an especially heavy sleeper in the morning and these can still help me wake up. You might want to choose the most gradual increase of brightness on the sunrise lamp you choose, so that the slow brightening of the room can better slowly rouse you from that deep sleep.

These two gadgets might look similar on the outside, but sunrise clocks and other wake-up style lights are for waking you up, while a SAD or seasonal affective disorder lamp is designed to simulate sunlight for you during the day. SAD lamps perform light therapy to help combat seasonal depression during darker times of the year, while sunrise alarms are just for making morning wake-up less rough. Both can help regulate your circadian rhythm, but in different ways. You could set a sunrise clock to stay on all day to help simulate sunlight, though these don’t promise the same benefits and you might not get the help you’re looking for.

From my testing, I would say no, especially if you’re both deep sleepers or struggle with waking up in the morning. While my sunrise alarm does brighten up the room to a certain extent, not all of them brighten the room fully. Even for the ones that do, the light is the strongest on the bedside table next to my face, and it wouldn’t be the same experience without what feels to be bright sunlight shining through my closed eyelids. You’ll both want your own wake-up light, and some lights are cheaper to buy in a pair like the Casper.

We research all models in advance to see which ones are a fit for testing. We look to ensure they have wake-up features (some SAD lamps will look similar to a sunrise alarm, for example, but if there’s no gradual sunrise to wake up to they don’t qualify for testing with this guide) and look to test a variety of price points and additional features to see what’s really worth buying. We make an effort to select both more affordable options with less features and high-end options to compare and contrast against one another in our testing rounds.

I tested each recommended sunrise clock on my bedside in a room with blackout curtains to see how much it could really brighten a room over the course of its sunrise routine. I slept with each model for anywhere between one and seven nights, depending on its performance. I also tried out the various sound options each machine had to offer to both test the speakers and see how pleasant the sounds were to wake up or fall asleep to. If there was a nighttime routine option, I tested that too.