Sporting a distinctively unique shape, this wake-up lamp from Philips looks great, if a bit unusual, in any bedroom. The default sunrise setting, which progresses from a soft red, to orange followed by a bright yellow, takes 30 minutes. However, you can tweak this to suit. You can choose to have no wake-up sound, or opt for FM radio (there’s no DAB here), or sound effects. These include the usual suspects such as birdsong, or plus slightly weird new age music, if that’s your thing. This comes down to personal preference, but we can probably agree that a gradual awakening is better than being startled by an obnoxiously loud buzzer. Your alarm needs to be loud enough to actually wake you up, without actually disturbing the neighbours.

Is there a snooze function? It’s also worth noting whether the snooze time can be altered and whether it can be switched off altogether. This is worth thinking about for those who would never get out of bed if they ever used a snooze function. The sound starts quietly and gradually increases, for a genuinely soothing way of starting your morning. You have the option of setting two separate alarms while tapping the top of the lamp activate snooze for nine minutes. The touch controls are really simple to use, even without the help of the instruction manual. You can alter the intensity of the display or turn it off altogether — just tap it to see the time.You can adjust the screen dimmer to avoid interrupting your sleep, choosing from, low, mid, high or off. The time lights up at the touch of any button before fading to the chosen setting. The sound quality from the speakers is good, though we found that it took a while to find the perfect spot for a radio signal.