Jul 1, 2024 8:00 AM

The Best Extreme Alarm Clocks

From runaway robots to “sonic bombs,” we reviewed offbeat alarm clocks designed to awaken even the heaviest sleepers.

Heavy sleepers know how easy it is to snooze through the overly genteel alarms on your phone. For people who can’t get out of bed without a bigger jolt, extreme alarms have popped up in recent years—from relatively simple puzzle-alarm phone apps to alarms on wheels to alarms that shake the bed. Not only are these an innovative way to get chronic snoozers out of bed, but they can be great for those who are hard of hearing, utilizing different frequencies and pitches as well as movement through vibration.

I’m a very heavy sleeper, so I tried each of these nontraditional extreme alarms every day for a full workweek. I chose the extreme alarms that were the most rated or reviewed online, found most often on online retailers like Amazon and in the app store, and tried to get a versatile range of options that focused on different areas, whether it be sound or activity. While I can say that they worked better at getting me out and helping me stay out of bed, most mornings I woke up with anxiety—like I was being hunted for sport. Be forewarned that some of these extreme alarm clocks are not for the faint of heart.

Check out our other guides for everything sleep-related, including Best Sunrise Alarms, Phone Bedside Alarms, Sleep Trackers, Best Mattresses, and Best Pillows guides.

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Which Extreme Alarm Is for You?

This all depends on your problem with getting out of bed.

If you are a chronic snooze-pusher, opt for alarms that physically make you get out of bed. Many types incorporate movement to get your blood pumping and shake off some of that sleepy grogginess—like Clocky, the alarm on wheels, or an alarm clock that requires you to shoot a target to turn it off.

If you are hard of hearing, some of these alarms have adjustable pitch and volume, which are useful for hearing loss in certain ranges. Some of these alarms also have a vibration pad, which can be inserted between the mattress and box spring or under the top sheet, that wakes the sleeper via vibrational movement. There’s even a wrist clock that shocks the sleeper, which can be helpful for those sleeping with partners who don’t want to be disturbed by noises.

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Photograph: Molly Higgins
Best for Deep Sleepers
Sonic Bomb
There’s a lot going on with the Sonic Bomb alarm clock. It has a small 12-volt buzz-pad insert that vibrates the surface it’s touching—it can be placed under a pillow or fitted sheet, or between the mattress and box spring. It has a 113-decibel alarm for heavy sleepers (a standard alarm clock hovers at about 60 decibels), and the volume and pitch can be adjusted—helpful for folks with hearing loss in certain pitches or ranges. The alarm’s settings are pretty customizable—with high or low settings and adjustable pitch, volume, snooze length, alarm duration, and even brightness on the clock face itself. Although the vibration hovers at one level, you can choose between a vibration, buzz, or vibrate/buzz combo. In between the mattress and box spring it was most comfortable and still shook me awake. The hard, circular surface was uncomfortable beneath my pillow and under the fitted sheet, but the vibration buzz felt stronger and more rattling.
The alarm also has a place for a battery so it doesn’t have to be plugged in to work and ensures that if the power goes out when plugged in, the alarm will still go off. The noise it makes is a loud beeping, which isn’t too different from regular alarms. Even when the pitch was changed between different levels, from low to high, the alarm didn’t feel egregiously loud. The vibration didn’t feel as powerful as when it was between my mattress and box spring (although it was a lot more comfortable that way), but I would be curious if hard-of-hearing folks would be easily woken just through the sensation of the vibration. I’d recommend this alarm for anyone who is hard of hearing or a deep sleeper—it’s highly customizable, which makes it adaptable for almost any type of snoozer.
$42 at Amazon
$42 at Walmart
$40 at Sonic Alert
Photograph: Molly Higgins
Best for Hard-of-Hearing People
Super Loud Vibrating Alarm Clock
Another vibrating alarm clock, this Roxicosly clock is one of the most reviewed nontraditional alarm clocks on Amazon. It’s much simpler than the Sonic Bomb and has a more powerful vibration. This alarm is semi-customizable, as the buzzer goes up to 106 decibels with a bed shaker that can be used separately or together with the alarm. The vibrations provide a more subtle way to wake up by forgoing the jarring alarm sounds, and the escalating pattern of the buzzing helps ease the snoozer into wakefulness. The Roxicosly allows two set alarm times, and the snooze goes off every nine minutes. The dual alarms have five volume levels, with 106 decibels as the loudest, and the clock face has adjustable brightness in five levels. The alarm also has optional battery backup (which requires two AAA batteries, not included) in case of power outage, plus a USB charging port. Setting the time and alarm is simple and the alarm “off” button doesn’t stick out, which minimizes the temptation to just turn off the alarm.
The vibrations, along with the noise and adjustable intensity, helped me wake up more easily than other buzzing alarms—without making me feel like I needed to immediately turn it off so I didn’t have a cardiac event. It is a good deal at $19, and I woke up without hitting the snooze button too much or turning off the alarm altogether throughout the week. However, my cats were not too pleased with the bed shaker, and one morning my cat flew off the bed, hit the dresser, and hid under the bed—so pet parents, beware.
~~$24~~ $20 at Amazon

Photograph: Molly Higgins
Best for Snoozers
Clocky
Clocky is a robotlike alarm clock on wheels that rolls away from you and falls from whatever surface you put it on. As the alarm sounds in a high-pitched R2D2-esque beeping pattern, the wheels begin to spin, so the alarm is “running away” and you’re forced to physically get out of bed to turn it off. It’s a good idea in theory, as it forces the sleeper to have to track the robot down (sort of a reverse Terminator situation).
The alarm itself is pleasantly comical. Clocky catapults itself off a surface and the wheels spin backward and forward to move around the room—it could go right into that vat of molten steel if you have one around! It doesn’t seem to have a huge range of motion, just a lot of comical beeping and whirring, which makes it seem more chaotic than it actually is.
While I never really had to go far to chase the alarm, it was overall successful in getting me out of bed and making me physically move, which helped me wake up for the day. The device feels cheaply made, and other reviewers cited problems with the clock actually keeping the set time and the alarm turning itself off while sounding. The alarm doesn’t come with batteries and runs on 4 AAAs rather than a rechargeable battery or plug-in. A screwdriver is needed to put the batteries in the chamber, so make sure you have a tiny screwdriver around. Overall, I’d say Clocky was mostly successful in actually getting me up and out of bed.
$36 at Amazon
$29 at Walmart
Photograph: Molly Higgins
Best for People With Partners
Shock Clock 3
The Shock Clock 3 is a wearable wrist alarm clock that is extremely customizable—it vibrates, beeps, and zaps, and each setting has multiple strength settings and one to five repetitions. You can also customize the intervals at which the stimulus goes off. In these settings, the alarm vibrates for a set amount of times first, then beeps (if you opt for noise), and then finishes by zapping your wrist however many times you’ve set it for—the zaps at full strength can be quite painful and feel like a mild electric shock. The user can turn off the beeps and have a silent alarm through touch, which is good for hard-of-hearing people or couples sharing a bed with different wakeup times.
There are also advanced options to ensure you’re awake—you can set it to prompt you to do one to 20 jumping jacks, or if you have a printer, print out a QR code and put it elsewhere in the house so that you’re physically forced to move to take a picture of it—the alarm won’t stop sounding (or shocking) until you have completed the task. The Shock Clock 3 is a rechargeable bracelet that charges via USB—I found myself charging it every five days or so.
This alarm got me up every day, but the biggest con was how glitchy it could be. Sometimes the zaps or other customizations I made wouldn’t engage despite being shown as “on,” and twice while wearing it during the week, the device unpaired from Bluetooth while I was being shocked and I had no way to stop the zaps until the device repaired to the app, which took a (painful) moment. This alarm is pricey at $165, and many other reviews noted the connectivity issues with the Bluetooth, which shouldn’t be occurring at this price point. But it woke me up every day—my skin had the red marks from zapping to prove it.
$150 at Amazon
$150 at Pavlok

Photograph: Molly Higgins
Best App
Alarmy
This alarm clock app from Alarmy is extremely customizable, requiring a variety of tasks at differing levels of intensity and intervals in order to turn off the alarm, helping any type of snoozer out of bed. There are memory puzzles, typing challenges that require repeating phrases of varying difficulty, and math problems ranging from “very easy” to “hell mode,” including ones where the user has to figure out missing symbols in an equation. As if working your mind weren’t enough, there are also challenges to move your body: step challenges, shake challenges where you must shake the phone a number of times before the alarm will turn off, squats, and a challenge where you take a picture of an object in your house that is part of your morning routine (like a toothbrush or the sink) to ensure you have to physically get up to see the object in order to turn off the alarm.
The alarms themselves are super customizable with different intervals, volumes, reminders, and sounds. There’s also a wake-up check to make sure you’re actually awake. The alarm also has a sleep tracker to measure sleep quality, deep sleep, snoring, and more. The premium version starts at $5/month and increases to $7.50/month depending on extra features wanted (there are also yearly bundles to save money). There is a free version, but the user can only do one challenge a day, and it doesn’t include the typing, missing symbol, steps, and squat challenges, or the wake-up check. Out of every alarm on the list, this one helped me get up and stay up the most consistently. Given the app’s nearly endless options of wake-up tasks, I’ll probably continue using it to help me get out (and stay out) of bed.
Buy at Alarmy
Photograph: Molly Higgins
Alarms to Avoid
Snooze on These Clocks
Not every clock deserves a spot on your nightstand. Here are a few we've tried that didn't work as well as they should have.
Flying Alarm Clock for $20: The idea behind this alarm is funny—when the alarm goes off, a propeller ejects from the top and the sleeper is forced to get up, find the propeller, and place it back on the top to get the alarm to stop beeping. However, during the week I used it, the alarm did not stop beeping when the propeller was placed back on the top, when the snooze button was pressed, or when the alarm button was switched off. The only way to get it to stop was to find a screwdriver and take out one of the five required AA batteries (not included). By the end of the week, I had my screwdriver handy in the mornings. At least it kept me up, but not for the right reasons.
Alarm Clock App (In-App Purchases): This is a puzzle-style alarm app similar to Alarmy’s, but it has fewer features and is buggier. The alarm lets you hit snooze three times before it forces you to actually complete a task, which wasn’t helpful for a chronic snoozer like me. The biggest issue, though, was that the alarm didn't sound when in vibrate or silent mode. For this reason, I had to have a backup alarm throughout the majority of the week I tested. When I did remember to turn on the ringer, the app glitched almost every morning and either froze or shut down the app entirely.
EC VISION Lock N' Load Gun Alarm Clock for $31: Another gimmicky clock meant to be a fun, interactive alarm. You set it up across the room, the alarm sounds off, and a target springs up—the sleeper must then shoot the target with a toy gun to activate the snooze feature. However, shooting the alarm just controls the snooze; to turn off the alarm, the sleeper has to press an actual button on the alarm clock—making the whole shooting part ultimately unnecessary to the clock’s functionality. Even by placing the alarm on the other side of the room and using the aiming and shooting element, this clock didn’t really force me out of bed like some of the others on this list.

Molly Higgins is a product reviewer and contributing producer at WIRED. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English from UCLA and an MFA in creative nonfiction writing from the University of Missouri–Kansas City.

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TopicsShopping buying guides household alarm clocks Bedroom Sleep

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