Zen Alarm Clock

We live by the clock, go to sleep and wake up to an alarm, work for a set number of hours and play for a similar amount of time. It's therefore not surprising that since 1877 when the first alarm clock was patented that we've been hitting the snooze button on the time of our lives.

Types and styles of clocks abound. We have analog and digital clocks, desktop clocks, alarm clocks, digital wall clocks, clocks that wake you to music, clocks that blares incomprehensible noise into your head and shock you into consciousness - our need to vary the lowly clock knows no bounds.

Recently, we have gotten into telling time by setting our atomic clocks or radio frequency timepieces. You can now download an atomic clock to your PC so that you will always be on time, or at least in step with the atomic clock world. We cover time for the hearing impaired; kids have children clocks which wake them to mooing cows or roosters crowing.

Of all these clocks that have hounded us through time, we have come to the Zen Alarm Clock which wakes you up to the soothing and resonating sounds of Tibetan chimes which gradually become more and more frequent until you come gently to consciousness. If you currently have one of those shrilling, scare-you-to-paranoid wakefulness alarm clock beasts, this should sound like heaven.

Zen Alarm Clocks traditionally use a 10 minute chime progression which allows for a gentle waking to a tone that is calming and soothing. The clock is hand tuned with tuning forks that are utilized by music therapists so that each one will produce the same tone. Zen Clocks have a Japanese quartz movement inside and are usually made from wood with an analog clock face.

Recently, they have released Zen Alarm Clocks in digital format that are smaller in size and easier to travel with, although the tones played and progression over the 10 minute cycle remains the same. If you're looking for a different way to wake up in the morning, you should consider trading your shrilling alarm blast, rock music or news of the world wake up for something that's more in tune with starting your day.