The 5 best sunrise alarm clocks (updated August 2026)

The Restore 3 combines sunrise light, a sound machine and a reading light in a device that looks like a lamp, and crucially it has real physical buttons, so running your wind-down routine does not require picking up your phone. 40 sounds and 20 lighting presets are included free.

The catch is the Hatch+ subscription at $4.99 a month for the full content library. You do not need it, the free library covers most people, but know going in that Hatch will keep offering it to you.

Lumie has been making wake-up lights longer than almost anyone, and the Shine 300 shows it where it counts: sunrise and sunset run from 15 to 90 minutes in 5 minute steps, with warm white, orange and red LEDs blending smoothly instead of jumping between fixed colors. It carries a 3 year warranty and a 45 day trial.

There is no app and no Bluetooth, just FM radio and 15 built-in sounds, and setting alarms through the single-button menu is genuinely fiddly. Buy it for the light, not the interface.

Philips has been selling wake-up lights longer than anyone else here, and the Wake-up Light Plus is the mid model in the line. The light builds gradually over 30 minutes to a stated 250 lux, four built-in wake sounds fade up over about 90 seconds, and a touch-sensitive surface handles snooze. It also runs the ramp in reverse as a dusk simulation for winding down, and plays your own audio over USB.

Philips's US page does not publish the finer detail, exact ramp options, dimensions, so there is less to check than with Lumie, and there is no app or smart home control at all. At $169.99 it is about $40 more than Philips's base HF3471 model, which wakes you with the same kind of light ramp without the sunset feature.

For under $35 the JALL packs a 10 to 60 minute adjustable sunrise ramp, 25 sounds, 17 light modes and a Bluetooth speaker. Feature for feature it embarrasses clocks at three times the price, which is why it tops the sales charts.

The build is plasticky and some users find the display too bright even dimmed. As a way to find out whether sunrise waking works for you before spending Hatch money, it is the obvious starting point.

The iBT32 adds a proper Bluetooth speaker, FM radio, a USB charging port and battery backup to its sunrise lamp, making it the more versatile bedside unit of the two budget picks.

Independent testing has flagged durability concerns over time, so treat it as an entry point rather than a long-term investment.