How a lot would you pay for evening’s sleep? It is a query I’ve requested myself repeatedly over the previous couple of weeks as I have been testing the Dreamie, a $250 alarm clock and “bedside companion” that I could not cease interested by after I first encountered it at CES.
Ambient’s Dreamie gives lots of the conveniences of a smartphone-connected system — extremely customizable alarm schedules, a library of soundscapes and noise masks, Bluetooth so you may join earbuds and podcasts (quickly). However it’s phone-free each step of the way in which, with all controls and options built-in so you do not find yourself getting sucked right into a doomscroll when you’re attempting to wind down. It additionally has a lightweight ring for ambient lighting modes and dawn wakeups. This spring, it is anticipated to start out offering sleep insights as properly for customers who opt-in, utilizing its microphone and movement sensors to get a studying on their nightly habits.
Ambient/Engadget
Dreamie is an alarm clock and noise machine designed to assist higher sleep with customizable bedtime routines, soothing soundscapes and ambient lighting.
- No app or subscription
- Sound high quality is nice
- Extremely customizable routines for bedtime and wakeup
- UI is straightforward and intuitive
- Ridiculously costly
- Mild does not attain far sufficient to learn by comfortably
- Dawn is a bit weak
All of that is meant to work collectively to, in line with the web site, “provide help to sleep higher and break away out of your telephone,” a purpose I used to be desperate to discover. This can be one of many least distinctive issues to have as an grownup in in the present day’s world, however sleep has grow to be a very difficult factor for me.
Falling asleep is tough as a result of my mind is all the time racing, my high quality of the sleep is trash and waking up each day seems like an act of torture. It is gotten so dangerous that sooner or later within the final couple of years, I began utilizing three alarms to ensure I get away from bed in time for work: a devoted dawn alarm clock, my smartwatch and my telephone as the ultimate, eleventh hour save in case the opposite two strategies do not do the trick. As you may think, my accomplice, who’s compelled to additionally endure this horrid morning ritual, hates it.
So if there is a system that may assist repair this mess, I am open to it. And after a while with the Dreamie, I feel I’ve discovered a promising contender.
Getting right into a sleep routine
There isn’t any companion app with the Dreamie and no subscription service you want to join, which seems like a breath of contemporary air in 2026. (I am so bored with subscriptions, free us from this hell!) Your one-time buy provides you entry to every little thing it gives now and the updates which can be within the pipeline.
After taking it out of the field and plugging it in, you will have to connect with your property Wi-Fi. Then, the Dreamie presents you with a tutorial to stroll you thru navigating its menus and bodily controls. There is a contact strip on the highest of the system to activate the lamp and alter its brightness, in addition to the brightness of any ambient shade “scene” that is energetic. By dragging the dot on the middle of the lamp display screen, you may throw the sunshine in any explicit route. Quantity is adjusted by turning the dial that is across the clockface. To entry the menu for alarms and different settings, swipe up. To cycle by way of the totally different content material modes — ambient, wind down and noise masks — simply swipe down from the highest of the display screen. Straightforward peasy.
Organising your precise Sleep Routine takes a bit extra time and intention. A Dreamie Sleep Routine consists of a number of steps, which you should use all, some or none of on your customized routine. These embrace the Bedtime Cue, which helps you to know it is the time to start out preparing for mattress (you designate this time); the Wind Down, or the sounds you will go to sleep to; and the Noise Masks, the sounds that preserve you asleep. When you get up in the course of the evening, there is a Again To Sleep possibility too.
You possibly can select totally different sounds from Dreamie’s library for every class. Some choices include ambient lighting results, too. There is a respectable number of soundscapes, from the dramatic Aurora Borealis and the sounds of storms and rivers to totally different “colours” of noise.
Some noise masks, like Inexperienced Noise, coming with lighting results. (Cheyenne MacDonald for Engadget)
The standard of the Dreamie’s sound is what initially bought me throughout my demo at CES, and it holds up in each day use. The Dreamie has a 50 millimeter speaker inside, and the 360-degree grille on the underside of the system makes it so the sound appears to come back from all over the place. (My cats have been extraordinarily confused once I first turned it on). It actually fills a room, and you do not have to crank it as much as obtain that. When Bedtime Cue comes on, I sometimes flip it right down to about 25, after which elevate it again as much as 45 once I flip it to Wind Down mode. I’ve by no means as soon as set it larger than 50, and the alarm within the morning has nonetheless been loud sufficient to wake me up.
After taking a number of days to tweak my selections and work out what I like finest, I’ve settled right into a very nice routine: Aurora Borealis because the Bedtime Cue, an hour of Forest Wind as my Wind Down and a Noise Masks of Brown Noise to play all through the evening. I like how straightforward it’s to set the nighttime routine in movement as soon as it is established. After I hear the Aurora Borealis come on, I begin making my preparations for mattress. Brush tooth, take meds, lights out and, crucially (I am attempting actually onerous to be disciplined, right here), my telephone goes face-down on the nightstand till morning. If I wish to keep up late that evening and ignore the Bedtime Cue, I can simply hit the little cease button on the show. However as soon as I am prepared to really strive to go to sleep, all I must do is swipe down on the show to provoke the Wind Down, and Forest Wind will begin enjoying.
I’ve my Wind Down set for one hour, after which the Noise Masks begins. And man, that Forest Wind knocks me out. Thus far, I have never discovered myself nonetheless up and staring on the ceiling by the point Brown Noise comes on. I’ve solely been capable of affirm that it’s certainly working and switching to the Noise Masks as a result of my cats recurrently wake me up in the course of the evening, and it has been on every time that is occurred. However except for these situations the place my head is getting used as a springboard by the creatures that share my house, I have been sleeping fairly properly by way of the evening.
To reduce distractions while you’re attempting to sleep, the Dreamie’s show will dim in response to the encircling darkness. There’s additionally a Redshift toggle to make the nighttime show simpler on the eyes, a Darkish Mode with a simplified look and the choice to have the show flip off utterly while you’ve been inactive for some time. I set the Dreamie on my nightstand near the place my face is at evening, and I have never had any issues with gentle from the show protecting me up.
Waking up with Dreamie
Within the morning, the sunshine begins to come back on 20 minutes earlier than I wish to be awake, adopted by the regularly rising sound of the alarm. There are solely a handful of alarm sounds in the intervening time, however the choices are all high-quality. There aren’t any jarring, grating alarms right here — even the fowl calls possibility sounds wealthy and pure, reasonably than the too-shrill, piercing recordings I’ve grown used to avoiding on different alarm clocks and sound machines.
You possibly can set a number of alarms with totally different bedtimes and wakeup instances, which is admittedly useful in case your schedule is in all places otherwise you wish to enable your self to sleep in additional on sure days. My solely actual criticism thus far is that the dawn characteristic is not fairly as sturdy as I would like it to be. The Dreamie’s dawn goes from a heat glow to a vibrant blue-white, however it by no means will get sufficiently big to scrub over me in the way in which I anticipate a dawn alarm to. Having the sunshine on is useful for orienting your self while you’re groggy and half-asleep, however it does not really feel prefer it’s having a lot impact on my precise wakeup course of.
Dreamie subsequent to a Philips Wake-Up Mild. (Cheyenne MacDonald for Engadget)
A part of the issue could also be that not one of the gentle is admittedly directed ahead and on the sleeper’s face. Even the Dreamie’s lamp mode at most brightness appears to have extra attain than the dawn characteristic. (And a observe on the lamp, whereas it is decently vibrant, it is nonetheless a bit too dim for studying in mattress except I am huddled as much as it.)
Nonetheless, I have been sleeping properly sufficient that I have been waking up alright most days even with out being bathed in synthetic daylight. Do not get me improper, I am nonetheless hitting snooze a number of instances earlier than dragging myself away from bed, however there’s been a noticeable enchancment in each the standard of my sleep and the way depressing I really feel come morning. I am even right down to utilizing simply two alarms: the Dreamie as my major alarm, which is getting me up by itself for probably the most half, and my watch as a backup. At this level, I am form of hooked up to this factor.
The Dreamie is refreshingly compact, too. It takes up considerably much less actual property on my nightstand than the Philips Wake-Up Mild I have been utilizing ceaselessly, or one thing like a Hatch Restore. The smaller footprint is one thing I recognize as an individual all the time battling cluttered surfaces. That additionally makes it higher for journey. Since podcasts and sleep insights aren’t accessible but, I have never been capable of check these out, however they’re non-critical options for me. The corporate has shared an estimated timeline of Q1-Q2 for these options to reach, with podcasts doubtless coming first. They’re going to be good to have, podcasts particularly, however the Dreamie is greater than capable of do its primary job of making an surroundings that helps higher sleep with out these issues.
Wrap-up
All of this brings me again to the query that is been haunting me since discovering the Dreamie: Is it ridiculous to spend $250 on an alarm clock/noise machine? At a distinct time in my life, I’d have stated sure with out hesitation. However the present model of me, who is aware of what it is like to maneuver by way of every day like a zombie as a result of I am sleeping so terribly, would begrudgingly disagree. As I pack up this assessment unit to ship it again, I will even be placing in an order for my very own so I can preserve my cherished new sleep routine going.
