If you’re finding it out to get out of bed when your alarm rings, then maybe your room getting lit up may force you up, but you can’t always expect that will work. In this guide, we will show you a few methods you can use to automate your lights to make them turn on with your alarm.
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Making our room lights turn on at a specific time is quite open-ended and as such, there are a couple of different ways you can get this done. Some of these solutions are complex and some are super simple. This guide will highlight a few to try to help you see what you can come up with.
Use Your Phone Screen to Wake You Up (For Android Users)
The first method we will go through involves using something you probably have already —an Android phone. The Google Clock app comes with a “Sunrise Alarm” feature. What this feature does is slowly transition your phone’s screen from black to red, to orange, to yellow, gradually getting brighter as well all in the span of 15 minutes.
The Sunrise Alarm is one of the many features stacked in the “Bedtime Mode” suite of features in the Google Clock app. If you use an Android phone or tablet, you can get the Google Clock app from the Google Play Store. Once you have enabled this feature, all you need to do is prop your Android device up on your bedside table and you have yourself a sunrise alarm clock to wake you up in the morning.
Smart Bulbs and Smart Plugs
Another method that is a bit more advanced than using your phone’s screen involves using some actual lightbulbs. To achieve this, you can either get a smart light bulb or add a smart plug to your existing light bulb.
The market is flooded with many different types of smart bulbs and plugs. If you prefer to go for something cheaper, you can start off with a simple Wi-Fi bulb. Of course, you’d be better off going for a bulb that allows you to dim it. Another feature you may look out for is bulbs with colors and color temperature effects as this can be useful for this purpose.
The best overall smart bulb you can go for in our opinion is the Philips Hue. The Philips Hue smart bulb connects to your mobile phone via Bluetooth so you do not need a hub. It can also integrate with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. This allows you to control it using your voice as well as set routines.
The Philips Hue comes with everything you would expect from a smart bulb including tunable white lights, colored lights that can cycle through 16 million colors. It is definitely the best in terms of quality, product range, and flexibility.
There is also the Philips Hue app which can be installed on your Android or iOS device. With this app, you can create a simple alarm to turn the light on at a time of your choosing. Now, depending on the number of Philips Hue bulbs you have, you can use this setting for a single lamp or your entire bedroom.
Philips is just one brand and you can find this feature in most smart home device apps. If you get a smart bulb or smart plug that can integrate with Google Home, you can consolidate it into a single app.
Make Your Own Artificial Sun
Okay, now let’s go for something even more fantastic. A phone screen and a couple of light bulbs are cool, but what do you think about making your own sun? Well, you can do this with the help of a little DIY and some strip lights.
You can make your sun using a couple of different methods. You can go all out by building a fake window and then program the smart lights so that they shine in the color temperature that a rising sun would shine in your location. If you are interested in doing something like this, you can check out this guide on SmartThings on how to build an artificial natural light window.
If you are interested in a more low-key approach, you can purchase a couple of Wi-Fi strip lights and a shadowbox frame. In this method, you will use the app just like we did in the method above with the Philips Hue bulbs to create an alarm. When your alarm rings and the lights turn on, it will be a big box that looks like a window. You can let your creative juices take this concept to even the next level.
Depending on the part of the world you stay in and what time of the year it is, your mornings can be pretty dark, and hopefully, this guide will prove helpful in helping light up your mornings, literally.
