Cicadian or Sunrise Alarm Clocks?

I looked into these kind of lamps / timers last winter, and was ultimately put off by the price. (Good selection http://www.lighttherapyproducts.com/dawn_simulator.aspx, by the way). Like gjc above, I went with a low-budget solution: a simple outlet timer hooked up to a lamp next to my bed. Although you lose the 'progressive illumination' aspect of dawn simulators, it still worked quite well for me. And I could use what I already had around the house. For my particular lamp, it helped if the light was somewhat indirect -- I put the lamp slightly behind my bedframe so that when it turned on, the light was gentler than full-blast. I could also imagine putting some kind of semi-opaque diffuser (a bit of frosted plexiglass?) between the lamp and the bed to better simulate the evenness of sunlight.

... must ... resist ... insect ... pun ... Actually, if you can arrange a few nights in a very quiet, very dark room, with no obligations in the morning, learn your own sleep cycle by keeping track of your natural wake-up points. I found out I wake up naturally at intervals of 4 hours 20 minutes, which explained a whole lot of stuff (why 8 hours was never right for me, and how my deadline-related half-night's-sleeps work at all, and why I'm 'off' all day if I sleep past 9 hours, even if I was tired enough to need it, because I'm not about to go to 13 ...). I think everyone should try it. I suspect that the Sleeptracker would confirm my observations, and I've thought about getting one. Any more experiences from MeFites? After the failure of my third cheap alarm clock in nine months, I acquired the 'I will wake up' trick. It probably helped that I was rising and retiring at the same time every day, without exception, and that sunrise was near my wake-up time. But I would literally pop awake at 6 AM, pick up my pocketwatch, drop off again, and pop awake again at 6:30 on the nose to get up. Weird experience for this chronic snooze-junkie. Watching thread with interest.

I swear by our http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0002TISOE/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/. I have SAD, or rather *had* SAD before we got this thing. It's very much regulated our sleep schedule (and even that of our cats, to a certain extent :) ), to the point that we wake up at close to the same time whether it's used or not that morning. My husband used to need two alarm clocks to wake up and get moving in the morning; now, we wake up about halfway through the cycle, and that's it. (As a bonus, it has a beeper alarm at the end of the wake cycle if you don't turn it off beforehand. We've used it once in almost 5 years.)

gentle: we've all got http://www.amazon.co.uk/Philips-HF3461-Wake-Up-Light-Alarm/dp/B000VI7K2C. Bloody ugly but they do the job.

Despite the bad reviews, I've been pretty happy with the http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0002TISOE/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/one. It definitely makes for a happier wakeup. But, it rarely wakes me up. I need to use the radio setting.

I think the word you're looking for is "circadian," not "cicadian." (I only mention it because you'll probably find more and better info in your research if you're googling the right word.) I don't have any personal experience with these types of alarms, but I'm a snooze-junky who has been meaning to look into them for a long time. Thanks for asking this question.

I have owned a http://www.bodykind.com/productdetails/CatIDx67/ProdIDx463/dawn-simulator-natural-alarm-clock-1x.htm for a number of years, and I find that I wake up easily, and in a much better mood than with a regular audible alarm. This model is a bit different from most of the other dawn clocks I've seen, in that it doesn't have a built-in light -- it controls any lamp that you plug into it. I do have to say that the interface on this clock was designed by someone who had apparently never used an alarm clock before, and certainly never tried to use the one they were designing. So, I highly recommend dawn clocks in general, but not this model.

I have SAD and thought the clock I had tried (I borrowed one for a few months) which simulated a sunrise was nifty but it did nothing for my sad. The only thing that has changed the way I wake up and which has affected my SAD was the skylight that we installed above our bed in our current house. It is installed in the north-facing side of the roof and is directly above me. I thought I would hate it but I'm shocked to find that, after two years of sleeping under it, my SAD is hardly noticeable. Unlike the first 39 years of my life, which were miserable in the darker months.

http://www.hammacher.com/publish/70460.asp I have that. I wouldn't recommend it, the progressiveness isn't all that progressive. However, it works great for me - I notice a difference in how happy I am in the morning when I use it. However, my wife hates it and refuses to let me use it - she wakes up as soon as it first starts, about a half an hour before it's time to get up. So now it's just a crappy reading light and weird smell machine. Oh, and it makes noises which were cool until my wife told me where in the track it loops. *sigh* The point is - the progressive light type of alarm may work well for you, and I'd recommend getting one. However, be warned that it has the potential to not work well for both people in the bed.