Alarm clock with tasks: how it gets you out of bed

“Is there an alarm clock with tasks that makes you get out of bed?” Almost: it only switches off once you’ve done something you can’t do in bed. In Wakea, that’s squats, push-ups or making your bed, and your phone’s camera checks it right on the device.

No alarm clock can force you. But it takes the decision away from your half-asleep self, and Wakea is set up in a few minutes. The limits are further down.

You know the evening: “One more video.” The next one plays by itself, the group chat is still going, and suddenly it’s past midnight. In Germany, almost four in ten adults say they sleep less than seven hours on weeknights.

Then the alarm rings, and your thumb switches it off before you’re properly awake. At 6:30 a.m. it’s not your head that decides, it’s your hand. And the moment the alarm is off, your phone is already in your hand: just a quick look at the news, one video, and the bed has you again.

That isn’t laziness. Right after waking up you’re often groggy for half an hour, sometimes longer, and your thumb is faster than your head. In one small study, people got moving faster when the alarm only stopped after a task such as taking a photo in the room. For Wakea itself, there are no such numbers.

An alarm clock with tasks like Wakea only switches off once you’ve completed one of three missions. You choose it for each alarm separately. There is no snooze button in the app.

• Squats: The front camera counts your reps live. Place your phone so that your hips and knees are in the frame.
• Push-ups: the tougher start. The phone stands to the side, with your arms and upper body in the frame.
• Make your bed: You make the bed and take a photo of it, as with a photo alarm clock. The camera checks on the device whether it’s made.

In the morning it goes like this: the alarm rings, you start the mission, the camera counts or checks, then the alarm switches off. Camera recognition runs right on the device. Photos and videos are not saved or uploaded.

Why movement, of all things? Puzzles or math can be solved lying down. All three missions require you to get out of bed. That’s a plausible idea, not proof.

You can set up an alarm with a mission in a few minutes:

1. 1Pick a mission and a time. Create a new alarm, choose a mission, set the time and, under “Repeat”, choose “Daily” or “Weekdays”. A similar wake-up time on days off supports your sleep rhythm, too.
2. 2Start easy. You choose the difficulty per alarm for squats and push-ups. Start on easy and step up only once it feels solid. A mission that annoys you gets deleted fast.
3. 3Allow notifications and camera. Without notifications, no alarm rings, even with the app open. Without camera access, an alarm with a camera mission is paused.
4. 4Check on iPhone. Allow time-sensitive notifications so your alarm still reaches you in a sleep focus. The silent switch can keep the alarm quiet, so check it in the evening, too.
5. 5Check on Android. “Boost volume when ringing” raises the alarm volume when it rings.
6. 6Tap “Test alarm”. Run it through in the evening with the lights on, with your phone a little way from the bed so you have to stand up, but with your hips and knees in the frame. It feels silly at night, but it saves you the shock in the morning.

A camera has a harder time in the dim light of a bedroom. How well recognition works there can’t be promised; a bright test room is easier than a room at dawn.

So: lights on before the mission starts, put the phone down firmly and straight, and follow the hints on the screen, such as “step back a little”. For squats and push-ups, one level easier helps when in doubt. For making your bed, the difficulty can’t be set: the whole bed has to be in the frame, so step back a little. Test once in dim light, too.

Wakea doesn’t force you in the literal sense, and that’s on purpose. There is an emergency exit so that nobody is locked in. Whoever uses it hasn’t completed the mission, and that morning doesn’t count toward your streak. The ringing also stops by itself after a while.

And after the mission? Wakea checks the mission, not what comes next. So you can lie back down. A fixed if-then plan helps: “When the mission is done, I turn on the light and go to the kitchen.”

A new habit typically takes about two months, a little less for some people, longer for others. A single missed day barely sets you back. With the mission you’ve already achieved something before the day has properly begun.