Everyone knows that mornings were invented by Satan to punish social drinkers and sell more coffee. If you’re no stranger to the wrong side of the bed, this ‘arousal clock’ aims to ease you from your slumbers by listening to your breathing and only waking you when you’re ready.

HappyWakeUp is based on scientific studies that show everyone sleeps in cycles, sometimes snoozing deeply, other times just dozing lightly. By listening to your breathing and movements, the software can supposedly tell when you’re almost awake, then nudge you into full consciousness. But does this next-gen alarm clock really work?

It’s a tiny install and simple to use. You simply set your alarm for the latest possible time you need to wake, then run HappyWakeUp when you turn in. The screen displays the current time, the alarm time and the ‘alarm window’. This is a 20-minute period before your final alarm time during which HappyWakeUp will sound the alarm when it senses you’re stirring.

As you might expect, positioning your phone is critical. Ideally, the handset should be within 50cm of your head while you’re sleeping so it can hear you breathe (or snore in my case), so it’ll need to be on a bedside table or even under your pillow – ouch.

And you know what, when everything is set up just right, it does seem to work. HappyWakeUp tends to rouse me about 10 to 15 minutes earlier than usual, but with less grogginess and irritation. That said, the practicalities of using it almost defeated me – you need to remember to charge your phone and position it perfectly, plus you risk being woken by text messages arriving in the wee hours.

For me, the 40 quid price-tag is too steep to justify. But for anyone who finds themselves rushing into work late every morning or grouching at their partner over breakfast, it might just be money well spent – though definitely take advantage of the week’s free trial first.

Key details

Size: 270KB
Price: Free 7-day trial, then £40.27
Download here: S60.com