Your iPhone’s Alarm Doesn’t Have to Be so Annoying

Once you have a schedule set up, you can change the alarm tone. On the Sleep tab, tap “Full Schedule & Options,” then tap “Edit” below your schedule. Alternatively, open the Clock app, then tap “Change” next to your Sleep | Wake Up alarm. Scroll down, then tap “Sounds & Haptics.” Here, you can browse the nine Sleep-specific alarms. “Early Riser” is the default, and is probably my favorite, but try them all out to see what works best for your morning wake-up call.

Now, this feature might seem like a big commitment coming from a standard alarm. Don’t worry; you don’t have to go all-in, nor do you need to stick to the schedule. From this Sleep settings page, you can disable Wind Down and Wind Down shortcuts if you don’t want your iPhone prepping you for sleep; from “Options,” you can disable the feature that turns on Sleep Focus during Wind Down, “Sleep Screen,” which reduces notifications on your locks screen, “Sleep Reminders,” and more.

If you curate these options to your liking, using iOS’ Sleep feature might not feel much different than using a normal, recurring alarm. Now, however, you get the added benefit of much better alarm tones.

Try a third-party option like Sleep Cycle

Using your iPhone’s Sleep feature isn’t the only way to improve your mornings. One popular third-party option is Sleep Cycle, an app that tracks your sleeping habits throughout the night to estimate where you happen to be in your sleep cycle. The point is to wake you up when you’re in the lightest stage of your sleep cycle, so getting up doesn’t feel quite so difficult.

Because it looks for the lightest moment in your sleep cycle, you don’t actually set a single time for the alarm, rather you choose a 30-minute range to be woken up. If you choose a 6:30 a.m. wake-up, for example, Sleep Cycle will set the range from 6:00–6:30 a.m., and will play the alarm when it thinks you are in your lightest sleep cycle stage.

The free version of Sleep Cycle also features a few calming alarms of its own; if you pay for premium, you get access to 18 additional sounds. If the app does its job, however, you might find waking up at a lighter moment in your sleep cycle to be more important than waking up to a soothing sound.