It's almost tragic that sleeping well can have such positive benefits to our health, and yet it's increasingly hard to actually get eight hours of sleep a day. Better sleep hygiene is one thing, but what about getting out of bed in the first place? Speaking from experience, it's a little too easy to hit snooze on a bedside alarm clock.
The best way to make sure you wake up on time and have the tools to actually sleep better the next night is investing in a wearable, smart alarm watch. Fitness trackers, smartwatches, and other health tracking devices can give you insights into how you sleep and help you wake up in the best way possible by timing themselves to your circadian rhythm. And you don't even have to spend an arm-and-a-leg getting one. We've picked some of the best smart alarm watches that cover the gamut of price, looks, and features and there's bound to be one that can help you. So whether you're reinventing your sleeping habits or just trying to wake up on time, check out our picks below.
Our picks for the best smart alarm watch
Fitbit Charge 5
The perfect balance
The Fitbit Charge 5 strikes the right balance between streamlined design and feature packed software. It can track your sleep and wake you up at just the right time so you'll get up feeling refreshed.
- All the sleep tracking you'll need
- Comfortable fit
- Useful for more then sleep
- Fitbit Premium required for some features
- Always-on display cuts into battery life
The Fitbit Charge 5 isn't Fitbit's newest fitness tracker, but this simple circular band manages to hit the perfect sweet spot for size, comfort, compatibility, and critical to our purposes, sleep tracking features. Now that it's further along in its life, it's also frequently discounted. The Charge 5 will track your sleep, determine how long you spend in each of the sleep stages (personally, I get a disconcertingly low amount of REM sleep), and award you a sleep score that you can track as you adjust your habits.
It's smart wake alarm will try to wake you up in an optimal period where you won't feel groggy getting out of bed, and if you decide to pay for a Fitbit Premium subscription ($9.99 per month or $79.99 per year at the time of writing), you can even get assigned a personalised sleep profile that shows how your sleep style lines up with other sleepers.
Whoop 4.0
In-depth sleep data
The Whoop 4.0 costs a pretty penny thanks to its required subscription, but offers tons of in-depth data on your sleep quality and what you should be doing to improve it.
- In-depth data on sleep and more
- Comfortable
- Distraction-free without screen
- Subscription required
The Whoop 4.0 is for the serious athlete, or really anyone who's trying to go deep on their health. The band itself is simple. Whoop offers several colours and styles, though fabric is the default, and the actual capsule of sensors that makes up the bulk of the device can be completely removed and slipped into compatible clothing if wearing something on your wrist is inconvenient.
Whoop offers sleep stage tracking, calculates what should be the optimal amount of sleep for your health and daily activity, and assigns you a sleep score, just like Fitbit. It also includes a silent alarm that will vibrate you awake based on your optimal sleep schedule. The major disadvantage is Whoop's payment scheme. Rather than buy a Whoop 4.0, you essentially receive the tracker for free when you sign up for a monthly or yearly subscription. There's no other way to buy the device.
Fitbit Inspire 3
Small but mighty
The small Fitbit Inspire 3 is the ideal, low-cost vehicle for Fitbit's excellent sleep tracking features.
- Compact and easy to wear
- Sleep tracking software has everything you need
- Useful during the day too
- Always-on display affects battery
- Fitbit Premium required for some features
The Fitbit Inspire 3 gets you all the features that matter in the Fitbit Charge 5, for an even cheaper price. If the Charge 5 straddles the line between fitness tracker and smartwatch with its larger screen, the Inspire 3 is proudly an entry-level device. It's small and can even receive notifications from your phone if you really want it to, but you should buy it for Fitbit's sleep tracking features.
Like the Charge 5, that includes the ability to identify and track sleep stages, offer a sleep score, and wake up at just the right time with the smart wake alarm. When you're not using it to make sure you wake up rested, it'll work just as well on runs or at the gym.
Google Pixel Watch
Premium smartwatch with Fitbit built-in
Google's Pixel Watch is a premium, beautifully-made smartwatch that just so happens to ship with Fitbit software integration onboard for all of your smart wake alarm needs.
- Beautiful design
- Replaceable bands
- Access to Fitbit sleep tracking features
- Weak battery life
- Fitbit Premium required for some features
The Google Pixel Watch is the company's first stab at a first-party smartwatch experience, and out of the gate it's great at tracking sleep thanks to its integration with Fitbit. You'll get all the same features you'd get out of a dedicated Fitbit tracker, including the sleep score, option for a sleep profile with a subscription, and all the other health tracking features Fitbit specialises in.
It's worth noting however, that as a smartwatch, the Pixel Watch doesn't have the best battery life, especially when compared to something with a smaller screen, or no screen at all, like the Whoop 4.0. You'll want to top up your watch before heading to bed if you want it to be able to guarantee it will actually wake you up in the morning.
Apple Watch Series 8
Basic but capable
Could the Apple Watch Series 8 do more when it comes to improving your sleep? Yes. Is its simple system of bedtimes, wake-up times, and vibrating alarms effective? Also yes.
- Multiple band options for optimal comfort
- Simple setup
- Reliable battery life
- Apple's sleep traking features are limited
Apple offers a barebones sleep tracking and alarm system on the Apple Watch Series 8, but if you already own an iPhone and are trying to get a handle on your sleep, it's pretty hard to ignore. The Apple Watch Series 8 can track the time you spend asleep and identify sleep stages, but otherwise your alarms and focus modes will be based on the times you manually enter for when you want to go to bed and when you want to wake up.
There are other sleep tracking and alarm apps you can download for your iPhone and Apple Watch, but the default built in to Apple's Health and Clock apps are the simplest, already available, and don't require a subscription. There's also a huge selection of Apple Watch bands to choose from, so you're bound to find one that will give you optimal comfort while you sleep. (I suggest the Braided Solo Loop.)
Samsung Galaxy Watch 6
A smartwatch that does a little bit of everything
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 tries to do a little bit of everything when it comes to helping improve your sleep quality, including sleep profiles, and recording your snores.
- Snore detection
- Sleep tracking features cover the basics
- Notifications and health features when you're awake
- You'll have to switch to Samsung's apps
Samsung's Galaxy Watch 6 combines Apple and Fitbit's approach to sleep tracking into a single device. There's sleep profiles themed around specific animals. There's sleep stage tracking. There's silent, vibration-based alarms. But where Samsung stands out is its snoring detection, and its sleep coaching. The Galaxy Watch's sleep coaching feature will assign you daily goals, offer you videos that can guide you towards improving your sleep hygiene, and instruct you through relaxation exercises before falling asleep.
Besides the added cost of buying a smartwatch rather than just a fitness tracker, investing in a Galaxy Watch, even if you're not on a Galaxy phone, means investing in Samsung's health and fitness apps to get the full suite of features. Not exactly ideal for the picky app user.
Pavlok Shock Clock 2
Shockingly effective
The Pavlok Shock Clock 2 can vibrate you awake, and when that fails, it can apply an electric current to your wrist to try and do the same.
- Shock alarm
- Silent vibration alarm
- App is underdeveloped
- Limited sleep tracking
The Pavlok Shock Clock 2 is the most unusual watch on this list, and one of the few that doesn't actually tell the time. The Shock Clock is meant to brute force habit change, by actually shocking it into you. You can set an alarm that will safely shock your wrist with an electric current to wake you up. If that's not quite your speed, it can also just vibrate to achieve more or less the same effect.
Sleep tracking stats are viewable in the Shock Clock 2's companion app, and be warned, the app is rough around the edges. But if waking up is the hardest part of the sleep equation for you to solve, it's hard to find a wearable sleep device that goes as far as Pavlok's does to get you out of bed.
The best smart alarm watch: Bottom line
When a normal alarm clock won't cut it, you have to get a little bit more up-close and personal. A fitness tracker like the Fitbit Charge 5 covers all the basic sleep tracking features handily, and includes an alarm that tries to wake you up at the optimal time, so you're able to get up easily.
Fitbit Charge 5
Perfectly balanced fitness tracker
The Fitbit Charge 5 strikes the right balance between streamlined design and feature packed software. It can track your sleep and wake you up at just the right time so you'll get up feeling refreshed.
The Whoop 4.0 might be pricey, but if you want the extra data, this wearable can go in depth on your sleep habits and help you identify how much sleep you actually need to feel well rested.
But you don't need to spend that much money if you don't want to. The Fitbit Inspire 3 will cover all your bases, from sleep stage tracking to a smart wake alarm, and all for less than $100.
How we picked smart alarm watches
Sleep tracking and smart alarms aren't often the focal point of a wearable, but they're present on plenty of them, and the good ones do both well. Pocket-lint has reviewed and tested countless smartwatches, fitness trackers, and sleep tracking tools, following the changes as wearables have gotten better and better and helping us get better sleep.
We compared past and present devices and selected picks that would offer a variety of options with regard to price, looks, and features so that you'd be able to find the best smart alarm watch for you.
What should you look for in a smart alarm watch?
If you're trying to find something to help you track your sleep and wake up easier, here are a couple of things to look for.
Sleep comfort: Do you think you could fall asleep wearing it? If not, is there a replaceable wristband that would make it more pleasant to wear? The best smart alarm watch is the one that will stay on all night without getting in the way of you actually falling asleep.
Software suite: Outside of buzzing your wrist in the morning, what does the watch do? What kind of additional insights can it give into your sleep habits? Both Samsung and Fitbit take a hands-on, instructional approach to coaching you towards better sleep. Apple is far more hands-off. Only you know what you'll actually prefer.
Cost: The reality for most people is that they don't need to spend any money to get a better night's sleep, they need to change their habits. You should buy a device where you know the money you’re spending is going towards features that will help you sleep better and longer.