Waking up in the morning is a drag no matter how you do it, but waking up to a pleasant sound is still better than waking up to a blaring alarm. Vera Weidermann figured that if she could create a pleasant waking experience, the rest of her day might follow suit. She created the lovely Dreamtime alarm clock to that end.

The Dreamtime clock is actually a balancing water scale. Just before going to bed, you fill up one of the containers with water. Ever so slowly throughout the night, the water trickles from that container to another. The water completes its journey just as it is time to wake up, and the hammer is allowed to fall. As it bounces from one bowl to another, marvelous music is created.

According to Weidermann, the sound is loud enough to wake her. But there is an added benefit to this clock as well: filling the water vessel and pouring it into the clock’s container every night is a useful bedtime ritual. The ritual tells the body and mind that it is ready to sleep. Unfortunately the Dreamtime does not come with a snooze button, but waking up to musical tones just has to be better than waking to your phone’s alarm every morning.