EZ Wake Digital SunRise Alarm Clock - Sea Green

Comment: I've had this alarm for about 10 months now - I got it on sale for about $40. I'm a nursing student on a crazy sleep schedule and while this doesn't solve all my sleep problems, it does certain turn on and turn off as advertised with a gradual brightening or dimming, making waking up much easier and gentler if I'm deeply asleep. It's most vital during the fall/winter/spring months whenever my schedule requires me to get up before 6 AM. The gentle extra alarm is nice too, if I happen to sleep past the brightening light. In my old bedroom which was dark even at midday (about 10 feet away from a neighbor's house, with a 100-year-old tree blocking most sunlight) it was vital to helping me wake up regardless of the time of year. But the light it gave off was kind of weird, even though it was 60 watts, the same as my bedside lamp had been. And...it was ugly. Luckily, though, I figured out a way to "hack" the alarm mechanism to use it with any plug-in lamp. I put a socket widener in the base to enlarge the bulb size from a candleabra to a normal bulb, and then put a converter in that to turn the bulb socket into an outlet. Then I plugged in my old bedside lamp with a 60 watt incandescent bulb. It works PERFECTLY, and while the base unit is still ugly, it's less obvious than the weird-shaped "sun" device was. And - it was MUCH cheaper than other good dawn simulators out there!

Note: one reviewer talked about the lamp coming on "all of a sudden" and then having the alarm go off within seconds. That sounds like a malfunction, but I believe this is supposed to happen with the unit as a "Snooze" mechanism? Sometimes in my sleep I will dim the light when it starts to turn on; when I do this the buzzer will still go off at the appointed time, but the lamp will brighten within 20 seconds instead of over 30 minutes.

Comment: But if I sleep behind the back of my fiancee I have too much shadow to wake up. It needs to be right at your face.

Comment: Worked perfectly to help combat time zone changes. Makes getting up in a dark room bareable.

Comment: This product does not work at all as advertised. The light does not come on gradually, but appears all of a sudden at the set alarm time and then turns off moments later. This is usually not enough to wake someone up.

The plastic seems cheap and the light is not very bright, it might be an interesting novelty to try for $20 but at these prices, I was expecting something more "high end" and this product just seems cheaply designed and poorly manufactured.

Comment: I love this idea, and it is nice waking to light instead of sound, however I think this product is quite overpriced for what it does. For the price, I expected much higher quality; it's all made of cheap plastic with cheap buttons that feel like they're going to break. I'm tempted to return it and just use a wall timer with a regular lamp. The only added feature of the EZ Wake is the claim that it gradually wakes you over 30 minutes of increased light, however this feature seams to be broken on mine as the light just goes to full intensity instantly. Also, the sunset feature which supposedly decreases light intensity from full to dark over 30 minutes seems to be malfunctioning. It fades to almost dark within 5-10 minutes, and is off in 15 minutes. Considering other reviews, I'm confident the manufacturer will take care of this. However, if these features aren't extremely important to you, just get a wall timer for $10 and plug in your own lamp! 5 stars for idea and some functions I like, 1 star for quality considering the price.