I’ve been using my Hatch alarm for years

I should be hired by Hatch’s sales team at this point — I’m responsible for half the alarm clocks sitting on nightstands in my city. Granted, I could talk about wellness tech to a brick wall if it would listen. But apparently, I’ve been quite convincing when it comes to optimizing morning and evening routines in my network. My best sell? A friend has synchronized Hatches on her twin nightstands so she can’t roll over to avoid the faux morning sunshine at 7AM.

But as much as I am an advocate of its hardware, I tell almost everyone who gets one that they really don’t have to purchase the accompanying $5 per month subscription for Hatch+. It has nothing to do with the quality of the subscription — in fact, it’s actually quite impressive for what you pay for. Here’s why I don’t drop the extra dollars on a Hatch+ subscription and enjoy my sunrise alarm clock as it comes right out of the box.

It’s an alarm clock

What you get is more than enough

Call me a minimalist, but I like my self-care to be as simple as possible — otherwise, the chances of me sticking to a healthy routine go down exponentially. This is especially true when it comes to falling asleep for me, as I don’t like to become dependent on specific ‘wind down’ routines should I be traveling and in a hotel room without my beloved Hatch. Some white noise is lovely sometimes, but I find myself distracted from sleep if I’m listening to anything but rain, white noise, or ocean sounds — all of which come without the app subscription, plus some.

For a wind-down routine without a subscription, you can choose between the following sounds:

• Pink Noise
• Pink Noise (for dogs)
• Light Rain
• Night’s Tranquility
• Heavy Rain
• Calm Ocean
• River Creek
• Fan
• Evening Campfire
• Dishwasher

Now, as for waking up in the morning, it gets slightly more choosy. It’s easy to loathe your alarm — even if it’s peaceful birds chirping or calm bells — it’s the thing dragging you from your peaceful slumber, after all. I know some people who have to switch alarm sounds every couple of days so they don’t throw the clock across the bedroom. If you’re that kind of person, the limited number of morning sounds might sound a different kind of alarm in your head.

However, if you’re cool with oscillating between:

• Morning Bird
• Meditative Flute
• Lovely Chimes
• Calm Ocean
• Old Clock Variations
• Relaxing Chimes
• Retro Alarm
• Signal
• Chinese Bells
• Bells
• Beep Beep

… you should be more than covered, just like I am. While I love the idea of being woken up by the fabulous Jaida Takes a Deep Breath or pretending I’m in the Love Island villa with Good morning, Islanders!, I prefer the minimalist, more serene built-in options.

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Little trickles turn into a big river

“Why is my monthly statement that high?”

$6 a month for my Oura ring. $7 twice a week for lattes at my favorite coffee shop. $12 a month for Spotify. $21 for ChatGPT. None of these charges are astronomical, but along with probably the other 10 little things like it on my credit card bill, it truly does add up.

Called the latte effect (literally — especially since I go to a coffee shop to work at least twice a week), we live in a world where $5 here and there doesn’t feel like anything that makes a dent, but definitely packs a punch all together when you give your finances a glance at 30,000 feet. A teaspoon of water to the face doesn’t feel like much, but if you chose to get hit at the end of the month all at once, you’d feel the punch of a gallon a lot more.

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Like I said before, I’m a technology minimalist, and even more of a simple routine lover. When technology is folded into my mornings and evenings, I want it to be as useful and hands-off as possible. If I did pay for the subscription, I’d feel inclined to change my routine all the time to try different sounds and make the most of my measly $5. Not very hands-off and nonchalant, if you ask me.

For what you get, the $5 monthly subscription is completely worth it — those who have it in my life love it. Hatch has done a wonderful job curating the perfect sleep routine from the moment you fall asleep to the second you regain consciousness hours later. However, personally, it’s a trickle of my income that I’d rather put towards supporting a local coffee shop than getting access to Icelandic Waterfalls here in North Carolina. I’ll stick to my rain sounds, thank you very much.