Reviews for LARK Un-Alarm Clock and Sleep Sensor

I saw this in the Apple store last fall and thought that it would be helpful as my sleep patterns are very erratic. So I was pretty happy when I opened a Christmas present and found this.

I used it for a three week trial and was given the same result each time. They did give suggestions on helping to improve my sleep patterns. You are only given one 7 day trial for free. So I registered my wife and she also did the 7 day trial, then my 18 year old daughter did as well. What was interesting is that all three of us pretty much received the same summary (other than a few word changes) and let me tell you my wife and daughter sleep far better than I do.

I admit it. Without my hearing aids, I'm lost. Thus prior to the Lark, I had a siren with strobe light that also vibrated the bed. It would wake the dead and the deaf! Unfortunately, it would also wake my normal-of-hearing husband. I didn't realize how stressed we both were by waking this way until I decided to spring for the Lark. What!!! Waking up with a gentle tap on the wrist instead of being screamed at, strobed, and shaken??? How civilized is this? The addition of the sleep data is really quite nice since you get a good handle on your sleep patterns, but the main selling point is the absolutely delightful way to wake up with a gentle tap on the wrist. I'm now buying a second one for my husband's Christmas stocking. If you like having a buzzer or alarm go off next to your head, then by all means continue with the traditional alarm clock. If you prefer the idea of being gently tapped to wake, then run don't walk to buy this thing. If you are hard of hearing--don't EVEN think about it. Just get it.

Actually, for any cost, I'm unimpressed.
The first night, I set it up, I used it, but it couldn't get into my account because apparently my password was wrong. Tried to reset the password, was prompted that a new password reset would be sent to my mail. Never arrived. Tried again a few days later, email never arrived. Even switched email addresses thinking it was an error in my email... still nothing.

In the meantime though, you can use it solely as an alarm rather than sleep tracker. So that's what I did. Set the Lark, with a backup just in case. I was not lulled out of sleep in the morning. I was jolted by how strong the vibrations were.

Next night, tried it again. No back up alarm. The battery died and suffice it to say, did not wake me up and I missed the first 1.5 hours of work that day.

It has now been 10 nights, and it has not lasted through the night yet. Went online, and this is a topic of theirs on their troubleshooting tab, so clearly I'm not the only one. Says to update the app. Well, there's no update available for that app.

So far, very annoyed that LARK would create, and apple would selling something so unreliable. Waiting to hear back from the email to their support staff.

The product needs work. The first night, the battery ran out in less than 5 hours, the 2nd night, it would not allow alarm to be set (Bluetooth connection made but the app said it was.not connected). I doubt a connection between this and another app enabled accessory purchased at the same time, but neither worked. If you are going to give it a shot, I recommend purchasing online unless you live close to an Apple store.

This device is simply amazing! i recommend it to anyone. The only trouble I had was the connection and getting started. All I did was google my problem and it gave me instructions right away. I love the lark alarm clock so much that I just want to sleep all day just to see how well I slept. Even waking up is great! The vibration on the wrist band wakes you up so you feel like you have woken your self up. This is a great buy!

Ok first I have to say it works. Meaning that first It can wake me up. Second I didn't notice any blue tooth com problem with my iPhone 4. But I notice some sync problems with web account . Don't know why. Finally I believe that is quit accurate on sleep quality issue. That the main reason I have one of those gadgets... It is an interesting gadget

Seriously my wife and I never fight over my incessant snoozing. Now that I have the lark every morning is a happy one. A Real Thank you to the team who invented this. Keep them coming

I had a problem with my LARK sensor (dog chewed it up), there were no similar problems on the FAQ's. I contacted tech support. They were helpful and very timely in their response. It's nice to know LARK backs up it's product with more than just talk. The alarm is intuitive to use and performed as advertised.

Signed,
A satisfied Luddite.

For someone like me who has strived for years to get more sleep, the last month with Lark has been wonderful. If you're like me and you just think to yourself "I gotta get more sleep," then what I've found is that nothing changes. An occasional sleep-in is nice but what I really want to have is someone at my side reminding me and giving me more clues about how I've been sleeping and what I can do little by little to improve.

When I started using the Lark vibrating alarm, I found the instant daily feedback (via the accompanying iPhone app) was great. Not only how many hours of sleep, but how quickly I went to sleep and how many times I "woke up", which I presume it measures using motion sensor in the device itself.

I like the product because it has some cool features:
* a vibrating alarm that doesn't wake everyone up, just me. And an iPhone app to set alarms (similar to the native alarm feature of iOS)
* a daily set of stats on my sleep: duration, how many times I tossed-turned, and even "how fast I got to sleep", and Overall sleep rating "good" "poor" etc.
* a sleep-coach assessment that looks at patterns over a 7 day period with a very detailed and useful write-up at the end with helpful hints
* a reminder (iPHone notiication) that it's time to go to sleep - sounds funny but this actually helps!

So overall I've been able to use the Lark in 3 ways: as a daily alarm clock, as a daily sleep data collector to keep monitoring how "well" I'm doing according to some personal goals, and as a sleep coach with more in-depth assessment data.
The only improvement I'd look for in the future is that some mornings the iPhone doesn't connect to the device to shut off the alarm -- and I need to dock the device and wait for bluetooth to connect before I can just switch the alarm off. Overall a superb product.

I'm posting this review as a counterpoint to the low scoring review by GD.

First of all I am not related to Lark at anyway. Just a normal user like everyone else.

I've used the Lark for more than two months (got it end of September, writing this on Dec 7). Here's my thoughts:

1. The Lark sensor works and works well. The sleep sensor captures the data pretty well but it's not 100% accurate. I would say about 95% is about right, which is pretty decent. I don't agree with GD as saying "it is not very accurate" but then again we may have different ways to interpret that. I would dare say for most people it's at the very least accurate enough, more accurate than most people will think.

2. I can access my data on my iPhone. In fact, that's the first thing I do when I wake up, to check how much I slept right after I turn off the alarm. The same data can be accessed when I go online. Heck, I can even access it in my iPad Lark app. I don't understand how GD cannot get the data; this is the most basic thing this Lark is supposed to and if it that doesn't work I'd return this right away.

What I did notice is that the iPad Lark App is TERRIBLE! It's simply the same Lark in the iPhone but it's not even pixel doubled. It sits in a small window in the middle of the screen, and there's no 2X button to make it bigger. To the Lark guys, the iPad gives you all this space and it's not being used. Hope this gets better in the future.

3. Sleep coach: Yes you pay $60 for the sleep coach. But to be honest? Never needed it. I'd be curious to see what the sleep coach can do but just by looking at your own sleep data you can pretty much guess what the sleep coach will tell you anyway.

4. It is true however, that the cradle does not charge your iPhone when you dock it. The cradle simply has a USB port. You put you charging cable there, you put the other end on the iPhone. So there's a cable sticking out from your dock connected to your iPhone sitting on the dock. It's not the prettiest and elegant solution, and it seems the images are a bit misleading since they don't show the cable, but it works.

Finally, the big question: Should you buy one?

As I've said I've been using it for the last two months. In all my years I found that Lark is the best experience for me to wake up: waking up via a vibration on my wrist is much much more pleasant than waking up to an alarm. I like it so much that when I travel, I bring the whole system with me. I don't use the room service wake up call or the room alarm, I use this instead.

In addition, seeing your sleep data is really enlightening. I've been more conscious and more aware of my sleep patterns and it has really encouraged me to sleep better.

Yes the thing's a little on the expensive side, I wish it were a little bit more cheaper, but given that I'm getting better sleep these days and a better experience waking up, if I had to buy it all over again, i would. At least for me, it was definitely worth it.