Cool and Unusual Alarm Clocks

I'm one of the fortunate people that doesn't really need an alarm to wake up. No matter what time I go to bed, I can almost always wake up when I'm supposed to. I do still set the alarm just in case and there have been the odd exceptions that would certainly have caused chaos without a trusty alarm.

My daughter and my husband sleep through anything. Alarms do not work for them at all. I am their alarm. Without me, neither of them would arrive anywhere on time. People like them are annoyance to people like me. Of course, I guess that means I'm as equally annoying to them.

I stumbled upon a really neat alarm clock a few months ago which led me to a number of discoveries that I thought you'd be interested in as well. 

These unusual alarm clocks will make great Christmas gifts for those hard-to-buy-for people on your Christmas list.

This is the alarm clock I discovered first. It is called Clocky. You have the option of allowing one snooze or no snoozes. If you choose no snooze, when your alarm goes off Clocky will jump, yes jump, off your nightstand up to 3 feet high and run around your bedroom. Hopefully you don't keep a glass of water or a prize lamp next to your bed! I'm not real sure how Clocky keeps from landing on the bed once he jumps either. If you choose the one snooze option he will jump off the nightstand after the alarm goes off the second time. How do you silence Clocky? You have to chase him down all while he's beeping like the robotic R2D2 from Star Wars.

Cool features:

• You can turn customize the snooze time up to 9 minutes
• You can turn off Clocky's wheels on mornings you don't want to have to chase him around the room
• Clocky has a backlight to assist you in seeing him at night
• Cool colors-Raspberry, Aqua, Chrome, Cream White and Coco

The Laser Target Alarm Clock will not stop until you successfully hit the center of the target. This cute target has a laser beam aimed at the center. I don't know about you, but this would could take me a while to hit. It didn't seem like this alarm was very loud from watching the demonstration of this one on YouTube.

When the alarm goes off on the Flying Alarm Clock the helicopter flies into the air. The helicopter carries the key away that you need to silence the alarm. You're forced to get out of bed to find it.

The following clocks were found on Ubergizmo.

• The Puzzle Alarm Clock-This clock has four puzzle pieces that sit on top of the clock. These pieces are automatically ejected when the alarm goes off. You are not able to quiet the incessant wailing until you find all four pieces and place them back where they belong.
• The Finger Dance Alarm Clock-The Finger Dance Alarm Clock seems to be fashioned after the ever-popular Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) game. It features a small dance floor designed for your fingers to tap out the light sequence in order to shut off the alarm. The alarm will continue to sound until you have correctly mimicked the sequence.
• Dynamite Alarm Clock-This colorful clock requires quick reflexes to 'defuse' it. Otherwise it begins to let out a really explosive wail sure to wake up even the neighbors.

This one is one of my favorites. The SleepTracker is worn like a watch with several style to chose from.

Sleeptracker monitors your sleep cycles for optimal waking moments during the preset alarm window. It determines those almost awake moments and gently wakes you up when you're most alert. This allows you to wake up refreshed instead of groggy.

I found all of the above mentioned clocks, except the FInger Dance Clock, on YouTube if you'd like to see how any of them work. I didn't include the videos here since many of them were home movies where people fail to realize how long a minute is when videotaping. Most of them had about a minute's worth of awkward silence while waiting on the alarm to go off. But, I encourage you to watch the videos of the models you like. There are several cute videos with dogs reacting to Clocky.