I’m a Hardcore Night Owl, but This Sleep Device Made Me Not Despise Waking Up in the Morning

Welcome to Skimm Tested, where we put products to the test and then give them a report card. (Check out all of our tried-and-tested faves here.)

The assignment…

To see if the Hatch Restore 2 ($199.99) can help me build better bedtime habits, get better quality rest, and wake up not as groggy. And maybe turn me from a full-fledged night owl into just a little more of a morning person.

What I tested...

• Hatch Restore 2, available in three colors 

• Hatch+ subscription, available monthly or annually

Straight A’s in…

• Customization. This thing is truly customizable. And while there’s a definite learning curve, both for using the app and finding your best settings, once I found the ones I liked, it was a dream. The color, brightness, and duration (how long the “sun” takes to rise or set) of the light feature are all adjustable, and you can choose from a library of sounds at your chosen volume. You can also adjust the overnight settings to use the Restore 2 as a night-light.

• Sleep sounds. I live in a city apartment that gets some street and upstairs neighbor noise in the morning. The brown noise feature — at only medium volume — did a pretty good job of blocking out sounds. Since things tend to get noisier around 5 a.m. (aka waaaay before I wake up), I chose to leave mine on until my wake-up alarm, but you can set a custom duration if you’d rather this turn off once you fall asleep. There’s also a library of sounds to choose from if green noise or the ocean or a dryer (yes, like a washer-dryer) is more your speed. 

• Simplicity of buttons. There are only two real buttons on this thing: rest and rise. Hitting the rest button once starts your nighttime routine (which can include sunset lighting and/or unwind audio), and twice activates your overnight settings (sleep sounds and/or night-light). You can change the volume by touching the right or left corners, and I set mine so that the time isn’t displayed unless I tap it. I wasn’t sure about this feature at first, but if you’ve ever woken up in the middle of the night and accidentally seen the time, and then done mental gymnastics to calculate how much time you have left in bed, it’s a total game changer.

• Reduction in snoozing. My sleep habits were…not great going into this. Usually, I have my alarm set to way before I need to truly get out of bed to accommodate several snoozes, so one of my biggest goals has been to hit that button less. While the Hatch Restore 2 didn’t stop my snoozing altogether (because let’s face it, that might be impossible), it did shorten how long it takes me to get up after the first alarm. The credit for this goes mainly to the light feature which, unlike the wake-up alarm sound, stays on during the snooze period. I had a very love-hate relationship with the persistent brightness at first, but I think the light is what prevented me from falling fully back to sleep, which made it easier for me to get up. It’s annoying in a good way.

• Ability to wake me up. I’ll admit that as a very heavy sleeper, I had some concerns about whether this thing would really be able to wake me up. But once I found the settings that work for me (and after one dicey morning learning that bird sounds are too gentle for my sleeping self), it got me up and kept me awake — and feeling less groggy — every day.

Room for growth…

• App integration. The app has lots of cool features, but there’s a bit of a learning curve when getting everything set up. And once it is, being able to adjust your settings directly on the machine if you’ve left your phone across the room, or changes being offline if the Wi-Fi goes out, could be inconvenient.

• Price. At $199.99, this is on the pricier end of the spectrum. But it’s hard to put a price on better sleep, and this has upped my sleep game in a way other devices and apps haven’t.

• Subscription. This goes hand-in-hand with price, but to unlock all the features, there’s a subscription fee of $4.99/month or $49.99/year. You definitely get the most out of the machine with the full suite of sounds and sunrises, but the device is still usable with basic features.

Works best for…

• Anyone who is trying to upgrade their morning routine; looking to build better sleep habits; wants to leave their phone on the other side of the room when they sleep; wants to wake up to sunlight in the winter months; is trying to become more of a morning person.

Gets extra credit for…

• Aesthetic. This is a sleek, elevated look you don’t get with your typical alarm clock or other bulky sleep machines. So fear not, you can sleep better without messing with your bedroom decor.

• Trial period. You can put the Hatch Restore 2 to the test for up to two months to see how it holds up against your real bedtime routine. If it doesn’t work out, you can return it for a full refund.

How I did my homework…

• I used the Hatch Restore 2 daily for two weeks. I used it as a bedside clock, overnight sound machine, and sunlight and audio alarm. And look, actually converting me to a morning person would have been a pretty big (read: impossible) ask in just 14 days, but this is absolutely the closest I’ve ever been.

Footnotes…

• Hatch Restore 2 ($199.99) 

• Hatch+ subscription ($4.99/month or $49.99/year)

• Comes with the device, power cord, and quick-start guide

• 60-night, money-back guarantee so you can test it for yourself risk-free

• Available in three colors: latte, putty and slate