Instant Wake Up - Réveil 4+

9 out of 10 times, this application is truly brilliant and is one of the few (free) mobile solutions I’ve found that are able to get hard sleepers like myself to get up. The app itself is easy to use, feature-rich, and has an interface with a great balance between cleanliness and customizability. I like it so much that I decided to pay to get the ad-free version of the app.

However, I have had a couple of days where the application crashes in the middle of the night and is unable to work with any of my alarms, missions or not. Thank goodness I had set backup alarms in the stock iPhone Clock app and that these application failures were on days where I did not have work. That said, I am fearful to use this application as a standalone solution to “crushing” my sleep, so to say, given the fairly high risk for app failure and an interruption of the function of background mode for unknown reasons. So for now, I will have to resort to using it as more of an adjunct to the stock alarms until a future update (hopefully) reduces the frequency of crashes.

I hate this app. I routinely delete it every morning and redownload it before I go to bed. I’m writing this review as it redownloads. I wake up at 3:30am everyday for work. The sound this app makes sends me into immediate panic and disparity. I forcefully hold the volume button down while also occupying the “the don’t wake my spouse” button out of shear terror the sound will go off again before I complete my math equations. I often forget I’m supposed to pay attention to the color patterns and stare into the abyss as the colors change wondering why, that’s all. Just “why” eventually I come too and am angry again. I’m not happy until I some how unlock my phone and get to the Home Screen to delete this app. The peace in the silence after I hit the delete app button is undeniable. I suppose for now, I will continue to delete and redownload. Deleting the app before the alarm goes off again is my only sense of success and after spending the first 10 minutes of my day in the most competitive and enraging competition of my life, I’m numb enough to start my day of work on time. Thank you.

I absolutely loathe this alarm. The procedural noises mean I can't get used to the sound and so it can wake me up out of a dead sleep, the multiple 'games' to shut it off jar my groggy brain into a semi-wakeful state, and the forced advertisements make my blood boil, which shakes off pretty much any remaining sleepiness.

Which is why I rarely let it go off. I have this alarm set for 9:05, and my main alarm set for 9:00. When I hear my first alarm I am jolted awake because I know if I don't wake up I'll have to deal with the Sleep Crusher alarm - and that is ample motivation to get up! I'm not sure if I'm the only one who gets the most use out of this app by avoiding using it, but hey - it works! On the rare occasions when I do sleep through my first alarm the Sleep Crusher alarm is almost always there for me - it does have a tendency to crash once in a while, so I recommend having a backup alarm just in case, but on the whole it works incredibly well.