I’ve had insomnia for as long as I can remember. Every night, it takes me hours to fall asleep. Over the years, I’ve tried all sorts of different remedies: melatonin gummies, avoiding caffeine and alcohol, meditation – nothing has worked.
When my fiancé surprised me with the Hatch Restore 3 Sunrise alarm clock, I was excited to try it. I’d been wanting to buy it, but the price tag had held me back. I have been using the Hatch alarm clock for several weeks now and have never slept better. It has literally cured my insomnia.
In my pre-Hatch life, my phone served as my alarm clock. I charged it at night right next to my bed and also used a nightlight app because pitch blackness freaks me out. Since my phone was arm’s length from my bed, I both started and ended each day by checking my emails and scrolling social media. Occasionally, text alarms would go off during the night because I didn’t have the self-control to put it on airplane mode.
But now I had Hatch. The first step to setting it up is downloading the app. Then, you can decide how you want to use the alarm clock to wind down and wake up. You don’t need your phone to turn the alarm clock on or off, just to set up your bedtime and morning routines.
When I got my Hatch, I decided to charge my phone in a whole other room at night. Instead of my usual pre-bedtime routine (scrolling social media until I was so tired that getting up to turn off the light seemed like an immense effort), I decided to try one of the many “unwind” options the Hatch alarm clock offers.
Hatch subscribers who pay $5 a month or $50 a year have access to an extensive library of grown-up bedtime stories, meditations and sleep sounds, but even without the subscription, there is a lot to choose from. I decided to try a sound bath, which plays for 30 minutes before moving into your pre-selected sleep sound.
I’ve learned firsthand that replacing endless scrolling with a gentle nighttime and morning routine is powerful; how you fall asleep and how you wake up matters.
The sound bath didn’t put me to sleep, but it did serve as a nice transition between wake and sleep. Usually, as soon as I turn the lights off and go to bed, my mind starts reeling; it’s the first and only time of the day I’m left alone with my thoughts and not actively doing something or consuming some sort of content. I found that this is what happened as I listened to the instrumental soundtrack of the sound bath, which was beneficial because by the time it was over 30 minutes later, my mind wasn’t as active. During the sound bath, the alarm clock also changed colors, including a vibrant orange and sunset pinkish-red, which was nice to look at when I did have my eyes open.
The sound bath is the only unwind routine I’ve tried so far, but one of my friends says that she has hers programmed to play jazz music in the evening, which seems like a nice way to wind down too.
For my sleep sound, I’ve experimented with several of the many options. My friends are into the white noise and pink noise options, but I have two current favorites: Stormy Sea and Crackling Campfire. Both provide just enough background noise to drown out other noises (like outside traffic), but aren’t loud enough to keep you up. You can also adjust the volume on the alarm clock to set it to your preference.
I admit, I was worried that the slowly brightening light (made to mimic the sunrise) wouldn’t actually wake me up. (After 30 minutes, birds start chirping, so there is some sound, just in case.) So far, it hasn’t been a problem. Instead of my phone’s God-awful alarm shocking me awake, waking up now feels more natural. And since my phone isn’t on my nightstand, sometimes a full 15 minutes pass before I go into the other room to get it, which for me is a pretty big feat.
I’ve been using the Hatch alarm clock for several weeks now and while I still have the occasional sleepless night, it generally doesn’t take me hours to fall asleep like it used to. I’ve learned firsthand that replacing endless scrolling with a gentle nighttime and morning routine is powerful; how you fall asleep and how you wake up matters. Is $170 a lot for an alarm clock? Yes. But it’s a small price to pay for the priceless reward of better sleep.