Lifeline

7.30 AM. Your room is pitch-black because it’s freaking winter and the sun is still sleeping. Your suprachiasmatic nucleus thinks you should also still be sleeping, but the university disagrees. Education > sleep, right? Most students use an alarm clock to fight nature and still wake up at an ungodly hour. Luckily, there are numerous alarm clocks and everyone prefers something different, but which one is deemed the absolute best? Lifeline took one for the team and reviewed the alarm clocks of their members, which included a wide variety of sounds! Hurry up and read along so your mornings will be heavenly.

We attentively listened to each sound and graded each alarm noise on its pleasantness, wakeability, roommate-friendliness, catchiness, and buildup, from 1-10. 1 is the lowest/worst and 10 is the highest/best, you know the drill. 

First off, the alarm clock of yours truly. The first thing I hear when I wake up? Crickets (more likely, cicadas, as Ella cleverly noticed). Lifeline members were not huge fans of the crickets, leading to a pleasantness score of only 4.5. The sound is roommate friendly though, but the majority doubts whether this will wake them up. Not very catchy, nor is there buildup, but a pretty decent alarm clock nonetheless.

Then Lisanne, who has developed an ingenious strategy to wake up using 3 (!) different alarm clocks so she knows how much time has passed since snoozing. For practical reasons, we only reviewed her first alarm which serves the function of waking her slowly up. The bird sounds were rated as very pleasant by the Lifeliners, also for your roommates, and the buildup was amazing (the volume slowly increases). It isn’t very catchy though, but hey, a small price to pay. 

Next up is Ella’s alarm clock. If we could review her suprachiasmatic nucleus we would have, as she doesn’t normally use her phone alarm clock! Still, we reviewed the one she “has used at least one time.” Cecile: “It’s kinda like a waiting room song?”. Marit: “Weirdly resembles the Mii song on the Nintendo Wii”. The sound is super catchy but not the most roommate-friendly unless they enjoy an upbeat Mii dancing session in the early mornings. You would wake up from this though, but most of Lifeline would be pretty annoyed, despite the high grade on catchiness. 

Moving on we have our lovely chair, Anette. She likes to wake up with a very mystical vibe. Cecile: “Ting tong”. Lisanne and Marit admire the catchiness of the sound, but most members agree that the buildup is not really there. Will we wake up from it though? Probably, but for the heaviest of sleepers, this alarm might not do the trick. Pretty roommate-friendly as well, as long as you don’t let it ring for toooooo long ;)

We arrived at our seccie’s alarm. What the actual fuck is this. Lisanne: “It’s like you’re in a horror movie and a super creepy clown comes?!”. The sound created some polarization in our committee, as some of us loved the sound, but others couldn’t stand it. They slightly agree that this isn’t the most roommate-friendly one among all these sounds though, especially when you let it be for a few seconds. Kinda catchy though (if you’re Pennywise ed.). We promise you that you will wake up from this though!

Next up, Alessia’s alarm. This newbie likes to wake up to fairy sounds every morning. Again, some polarization occurred: while the sound was pleasant and a nice brain scratch for some, others couldn’t stand it (“It hurts my brain!”). Most of us would wake up to the alarm, but Eva still has her doubts. Your roommates will definitely not hate you when this goes off at 7 AM, but don’t expect them to dance to this sound, as it lacks some catchiness. Amazing buildup though, and if it doesn’t hurt your brain, Lifeline highly recommends it.

Moving on, we have Michelle’s alarm. You will most definitely wake up from this, partially due to the amazing buildup. It’s catchy though, but most Lifeliners agree it’s also not that pleasant, thus your roommates won’t be too happy with this alarm. 

Then Eva’s alarm. She likes to wake up to this weird-ass pop song (just kidding, nothing but love for Eva). Although she swears by it, some Lifeliners doubt its pleasantness. All agree that we would definitely wake up from this catchy sound. If you and your roommate like to dance, it’s roommate-friendly as well!!

Last but not least, Jelle’s alarm. No sound this time, but this Lifeliner has a much more ingenious alarm clock: a daylight lamp. On his phone, Jelle sets his alarm and around half an hour before this time, his lightbulb in his room will slowly brighten to naturally wake him up. Less drowsiness and less scariness caused by pop songs or creepy clown music in the morning! Thus, buildup is high, but the alarm clock is not very catchy. It’s super roommate-friendly though and also (according to Jelle) very pleasant to wake up to. Win win win!

How one would like to wake up in the early hours of the day is of course very personal. However, Lifeline highly recommends trying out the daylight lamp alarm from Jelle. A quick google will do the trick and it’s also not too expensive!! If you’d rather have some auditory cues to rise and shine, Lisanne’s alarm clock was on average deemed the most pleasant. So pick your favourite way of waking up and hopefully Lifeline makes your mornings a little bit easier.