The alarm clock used to sit quietly on the bedside table, performing a single task with mechanical reliability. Then the smartphone arrived and absorbed its function, along with many others. Designers are increasingly questioning whether this shift has improved the experience of sleep. They are responding with an unexpected revival of the alarm clock. But these are not nostalgic throwbacks. Instead, they are carefully engineered objects that combine industrial design, psychology, and sensory technology to improve the experience of falling asleep and waking up.
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