Announcing the world’s best wakeup alarm, the LexAlarm

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NEWS – The world’s best wakeup alarm is here, and I’m not talking about your cellphone. The LexAlarm is a DIY solution to waking up just me, instead of both of us. This may be a relationship-saver so read ahead for this no cost solution to an age old problem. It’s absolutely free. And I’m not talking about your cellphone. Sort of not.

Over my very long marriage I / we have gone through several wake up solutions including battery and plug-in bedside alarm clocks, digital watches, smartwatches that vibrate, and our cellphones. None work as well as my LexAlarm.

It occurred to me that an unused cellphone with no SIM in it, with alarms set only to vibrate, and placed under my pillow might just awaken me alone, and it has worked perfectly! There’s a bit more to it than just that, so here’s what I did to create LexAlarm.

I dug up my old Samsung S8 and charged it. Cool, it still holds a charge. I did a factory reset and accepted no backup from my current phone, so that no apps got copied to the phone.

I logged the S8 onto my home wifi network so that it will maintain accurate time. I deleted every app on the phone that was delete-able. I placed just the native clock app icon on the S8 home screen and had no other apps on the homescreen.

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Using the native clock app, I set my weekly alarms for days, times, and to vibrate only, with no sound. Since this phone is way beyond support, I wouldn’t trust a current clock app on the old OS this phone is left with. I added the rubber band so the phone will stay put under the pillow overnight.

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Some of you may be excited to try this but some of you are nay-saying, so here are the objections I anticipate;

  • Why not set vibrating alarms on your main cellphone and put that under your pillow? – Well, I don’t want a transmitting cellphone that near my think-melon for that many hours every day. An active cellphone has to transmit to let towers know it’s online. If you’re sleeping on the phone, that equals radio waves to the noggin. All night, every night.
  • Why not set your main cellphone for vibrating alarms and place it on your bedside table? – Depending on the phone, that was either too loud and woke both of us, or was not loud enough to wake me.
  • Why not use your smartwatch? – I’ve temporarily broken up with my smartwatches due to the stress they caused me by disconnecting from my phone’s Bluetooth at inconvenient times and by generally being an overbearing nanny in my life. I’m back to the fun of my analog and digital watches that don’t need recharging and constant attention. Ahhhh…

So, if your sleep partner (as the mattress advertisements say) inadvertently wakes up to your beeping digital watch, cellphone or bedside alarm, give the free LexAlarm a try, and comment below on how it goes for you two.

Price: $0
Where to find: Your old junk storage drawer
Source: My old cellphone was purchased with my old money. No manufacturers of old cellphones had a say in this news article and did not preview this news article prior to its publication.

5 thoughts on “Announcing the world’s best wakeup alarm, the LexAlarm”




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  2. There are alarm clocks with vibrating bed shaker attachments. I used one for years. I couldn’t place it under the pillow because of the way I sleep, so I just slipped the wired hockey puck sized shaker under the mattress pad on my side of the bed. Always worked for me without waking up the snarling rabid raccoon disguised as a woman on the other side of the bed.

    But, I’m using three repurposed old cell phones now for various things. The latest is one next to the Alexa in the kitchen. I just tell Alexa to turn on bluetooth and it connects to the old Samsung J7 and starts playing music off my playlists without any interruptions or ads.

      1. I missed this review, but the one I had 10-15 years ago was a different brand. As I recall the vibrating shaker had various power levels. I quit using it when my wife changed schools and had to get up at about the same time as I did.

  3. You should put your LexAlarm in Airplane mode and set a schedule to enable wifi during the day, since the phone lays under your pillow, you don’t want it to radiate electromagnetic waves onto your brain. Even without a SIM card, the phone will try to communicate with cell towers, you can even use it to make emergency call.

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