Justin writes that he is a college student and a heavy sleeper. Ordinarily, these are not a good combination, but he has a special weapon in the war on slumber: the Sonic Bomb alarm clock from Sonic Alert. The product is designed for the hard-of-hearing as well as sound sleepers. He explained his issues with the clock that led him to sleep in, and suggested some ways to improve the product. Instead of brushing off his concerns, Sonic Alert expressed concern that he was sleeping through class. They sent him–for free–a different clock with one of the features that would help Justin actually get up in the morning.

He writes:

I’ve owned a Sonic Alert Sonic Bomb Alarm Clock for about a year, and it’s been great for me as a heavy sleeper. I turn the volume of the buzzer down a bit (107dB max!) but putting the alarm’s vibrating disk under my mattress always wakes me up.

I only have two (minor) gripes with it: The alarm doesn’t time out (so I turn it off every morning just in case I somehow don’t make it back to my room – the neighbors in my dorm would likely knock the doors down to stop it) and it isn’t atomically set. The latter is really important, as I have slept through class a couple times as a result of forgetting to turn it back off in the morning.

So I sent an email to Sonic Alert making those suggestions. The company quickly got back to me and said that the atomic part was unfortunately cost prohibitive, but they would send me their travel alarm clock/vibrator (that times out after a minute) for FREE so I wouldn’t sleep through class, as all of their wall powered models don’t time out (apparently there are people that sleep really heavily!). I just got it today, and was very surprised at how strong it is.

Anyhow, I’m floored at the response of Sonic Alert. It was an awesome thing to do and a great gesture.

Yes, some people do sleep that heavily. Me, for example. It’s great to hear that Sonic Alert is so dedicated to their core customer base: people who would stay asleep even if a train went through our bedrooms.

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