Daylight Saving Time ends this weekend — this $100 sleep gadget made me actually want to get out of bed in the morning

(Image credit: Tom's Guide) The clocks change this weekend in the U.S. — that’s right, on November 1 the clocks will go back, meaning everybody gets an extra hour in bed. That sounds good at first, but it’s not easy for every person to naturally adjust.I recently got my hands on the Lumie Bodyclock Spark 100 ($109 at Amazon) and have been using it for over three weeks, including the weekend the clocks went back on my side of the pond. Thanks to this sunrise alarm clock, not only was it easy to adjust to the time change, my sleep has changed certifiably for the better.The best sunrise alarm clocks aim to do one thing: make it easier to wake up on dark mornings. If you experience seasonal affective disorder, or just struggle to wake up in fall and winter, I strongly encourage picking one up — they really do make a huge difference, which I can now personally attest to.Using the Bodyclock Spark 100, I instantly noticed that I didn’t feel bleary-eyed and confused like I used to when I woke up with my phone’s alarm; I felt more refreshed and ready to start the day. Having a light already on in the morning also made it easier to get out of bed without falling back to sleep — and without the burning eye pain of flicking the main light in my room. In fact, the first few times I used the alarm clock, I woke up before the beeps, and was actually convinced for a few seconds that the sunrise was real.This clock's design is compact and unobtrusive, so it fit on my nightstand easily. The alarm took moments to set up, and I didn’t need to worry about charging it since it plugs straight into an outlet.You can get sunrise alarm clocks with lots of fancy features now, like sleep tracking and Bluetooth support… but I specifically didn’t want any of that. I want to try and use my phone less, not spend time messing around with apps. And I prefer to keep my sleep data private, thank you very much. The Lumie Bodyclock Spark 100 ticks those boxes, and priced at $109, it’s also a fairly affordable option, especially if you can catch it on sale. (Image credit: Tom's Guide)However, the stripped-back features might not be to everyone’s taste. I aim to wake up at the same time every day, so all I needed to do was set the alarm time once. But there’s no way to set multiple alarm times or routines, so you’ll have to set the alarm manually every time you want to use it. I just set the alarm to go off again the next day as soon as I shut it off in the morning, which is easy enough to do with a single button press. Having the alarm already set at the start of the day actually motivated me to make sure I went to sleep at a decent time, too.My biggest issue with the Bodyclock Spark 100 is the alarm beep. The lowest volume setting of the alarm is totally fine, but anything louder than that had my alarm clock emitting an out-of-tune wailing beep that made me jolt awake in a panic. That’s exactly what I wanted to avoid when I got a sunrise alarm clock. If you don’t like the sound, you can turn the beep off entirely, but the light alone might not be enough to wake you up. And there are no alternative alarm sounds.Considering the fact that you can get a dimmable smart lightbulb for $20 (or less) and set up a smart routine for it to wake you up in the morning with a simulated sunrise, not everyone is going to want to spend $109 on the Lumie Bodyclock Spark 100. But it did make waking up in the mornings much smoother and less stressful; that made it worth the asking price. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. Millie is a Deals Editor at Tom's Guide specializing in deals content. She also covers the latest tech news and and creates how-to articles about everything from phones, streaming devices, and headphones to apps and video games. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, gaming on her Nintendo Switch and creating digital art.