The dream: An alarm clock that helps me sleep

I turn Data off on my phone at night. === Alarm - keywords to search on are 'dimmer' or 'brightness' so you can find one with brightness control. Then I'd possibly put some red over the top to dim further: http://www.curbly.com/users/chrisjob/posts/9898-how-to-calm-your-alarm-clock-s-display-and-sleep-better-for-25-cents Then combine with something that takes mp3 recordings so you can choose your own: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00LSS3HU8/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/ (with built in nature sounds) or http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B001TP8NKO/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/

I've got http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B003ARSOWQ/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/ that I got mostly because the display is red (blue light can mess with your sleep). It's got a built-in li-ion battery backup, the alarm (beeps or radio) can start quiet and get progressively louder, you can set two different alarms and each one can be set to be weekday only, weekend only, or every day so you can set one of the alarms to get you up on weekdays and then just leave it on all the time (except for holidays/vacations) without having to remember to turn it on before you go to bed every night. My SO has this http://www.britebox.com/dawn-simulators/15-philips-hf347001-wake-up-light-dawn-simulator-075020012142.html that we like, especially during the winter months. My SO still needs an audible alarm (she uses the radio) but I think I would be fine with just the light (which is an option).

I use a projection clock- the time is displayed on my ceiling. It helps me so much with my insomnia to know how much more time I have left in the night and I barely have to roll over to look for it. The light is minimal and is not distracting. These clocks always come with an alarm.

I can't recommend an alarm clock but my wife had this sleep issue and it largely cleared up when she did some mindfulness meditation every night after she went to bed. If you're interested PM me and I'll ask her the source of the mp3 she used.

How do you feel about ticking? http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00AJXF2SI/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/ with just hands and an alarm would be an easy solution but the alarm sound isn't particularly nice. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B003D3N7JW/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/ might be better along those lines. You have a lot of options but if ticking is a no-go you should consider that. Relatedly, I found that the best thing for my stress-related insomnia was to never check the time in the middle of the night for any reason, and so I use my phone as an alarm clock and just put it across the room from me. Obviously you know what's best for you, but it might be worth seeing if that helps at all.

Oh and my app of choice is iHandy's Alarm Clock Pro. You can pick your own sound or song for the alarm, and you can have it ramp up in volume.

I came to say that as an insomniac I really love my projection clock. I look up, see what time it is, assess. The not having to move helps SO much more than I expected. I keep the projection in red because it's the least light emitting.

Airplane mode at night is definitely the simplest, cheapest way to do this. You can also either turn off data selectively or disable push notifications, at least on Android phones, if you still want to get phone calls.