I built this iPhone alarm app because regular alarms were too easy for sleepy-me to defeat
I’ve had this problem for years: the alarm goes off, I technically wake up, but I’m still half-asleep enough to turn it off, snooze it, or negotiate with myself for “just five more minutes.”
After trying louder alarms, more alarms, putting the phone farther away, and changing schedules, I realized the issue was not only waking up. The real issue was making sure I was awake enough before the alarm stopped.
So I built an iPhone app around that idea.
The core concept is simple: before the alarm can stop, you have to complete a small wake-up challenge, like a maze-style task. The goal is not to make mornings miserable, but to add just enough friction that sleepy-you cannot dismiss the alarm on autopilot.
I also added sleep sounds, sleep audio, and sleep insights because I wanted the app to cover more of the full sleep-to-wake routine, not just the moment the alarm screams at you.
I’m posting here because this community is exactly the kind of place where people understand this problem better than most. I’d genuinely like feedback from people who struggle with getting out of bed, sleeping through alarms, or turning alarms off without being fully awake.
A few things I’m especially curious about:
- Would challenge-based alarms help you, or would they just make mornings more annoying?
- What kind of challenge would feel effective but not cruel?
- Do you prefer loud/aggressive alarms, or something that starts softer but becomes harder to ignore?
- Is sleep tracking/insights useful for this problem, or is the wake-up mechanism the only thing that matters?
The app is called AMaze Alarm. It’s currently on iPhone only.
I don’t want to spam the sub, so I’m mainly looking for honest feedback from people who actually deal with this.
