4 stars

I got this clock because I liked the idea that you could hook up your mp3 player to it. The sound quality is ok, but what do you expect for 20something bucks?

All the functions are pretty useful. The nature sounds actually help me fall asleep faster (I favor the Ocean sounds)

My only complaint is that I wish they would've included a radio option.

I like the fact that you can wake up to the different nature sounds or an actual buzzer. They have options to set your alarm on weekends or week days which is helpful to me as a busy college student.

Overall, I'm happy with my purchase.

2 stars

As a clock it's decent, I appreciate the battery back-up and how it only takes up a little space on the nightstand. However, I have an older version of this clock and loved the white noise feature (for my baby). I bought 2 more of this newer version and the white noise feature is replaced with:

Ocean: this consists of squawking, squealing seagulls (flying rats) and a few wave noises
Forest: Belching frogs
Wind: an annoying wind chime
Brook: Nothing great or relaxing

Needless to say, I returned the clocks.

1 stars

Just a warning--this clock beeps twice loudly after you set or change the time for the alarm to ring. Fine if you live alone, but not great if you're setting the alarm after your spouse/partner has gone to bed, or while the children are sleeping!

1 stars

I ordered this item specifically for the nature sounds. Everything worked EXCEPT that nature sound functionality. Had to return it to a store and was out of the cost to ship it to me. If it worked properly it would of been perfect for when I travel. It is really small.

5 stars

I read the reviews before I requested this as a gift for my birthday. After 6 weeks, I still love it. I suffer from moderate to severe insomnia and read that a sound machine might help. This little clock seemed to be the ticket!

PROS:
-Not only does it plug in, but it has a battery in case the power goes out, which has already proven to be a blessing.
-Both the time and the date are displayed, which I think is nice.
-There is a place to plug in your iPod or other mp3 player, so if you don't want to go to sleep to the sounds that come with the machine, you can download your own ambiance sounds.
-There are 3 LED settings so the clock isn't absurdly bright in the middle of the night.
-There is a sleep sound setting and an alarm sound setting. The volume for my sleep sounds shouldn't be at the same volume of my alarm in the morning, and with this setting, I don't have to compromise.
-You can set the alarm to the buzzer, the sleep sounds, or even your own music.
-There are two alarm settings. As a professor and a graduate student, I love this because I don't need to be up at the same time every day. You can have one for the week days and one for the weekends. Or, if there are two of you and you don't have to be up at the same time, this will save you from the need to reset the alarm each morning.
-You don't have to reset the alarm every day. With other clocks, I would wake myself up at night with worry to check that the alarm is set for the morning. With this clock, you have to check to make sure you turned it off to sleep in rather than the other way around.
-If you don't want the sound machine on all night, you can set it to turn itself off after 90, 60, 30, or 15 minutes.
-This unit is very small. It takes up very little space on my nightstand, which I love.

CONS:
-I HATE the sound settings that come with this clock. I set it on ocean the first night and the sound of seagulls caused me to wake up three hours later with a Hitchcockian nightmare. "Brook" is dominated by the sound of bullfrogs. "Forest" sounds equally as horrid, but I believe it was due to the sound of crickets and various predatory birds of the night. "Wind" should actually be called "wind chime" because there is no sound of wind. Before I chose my own tunes and hooked up my iPod, I stuck with wind as the lesser of four evils and had dreams that I was in a monastery. With an mp3 player, this is no big deal. Just download some Enya or the sound of rain. If you don't have an alternate sound source, I wouldn't recommend this.
-While there are a few settings to make the LED screen a little less bright, it's still brighter than I would have liked. If this is for a child, it will work as a perfect nightlight. If this is for an adult and you like it dark, I would recommend a sleep mask. If I was without a sleep mask, this clock would have received less stars.
-You can't listen to the radio on this unit.
-There is no way to turn your mp3 player off if that is the source you use for your sounds. The clock works as the speakers and the sound will turn off, but the mp3 player will continue to play throughout the night. If your battery is charged, this is no problem. If you are dependent on music to get you through the day (on a jog, in your car, ect.) you may have to charge it before you leave the house. Also, if you use the mp3 player for your alarm sounds, then you'll want to put it on a loop. Otherwise, you will have no sound to wake you in the morning.
-I usually set the machine on the 90 minute setting so it won't run all night. The problem with this is that it tends to get a little louder for a fraction of a second just before it shuts off. It has never gotten loud enough to wake me, but if I stayed up, it startled me somewhat.
-Read the directions. Because this little guy has so many functions, learning to use the alarm functions took a little while. The first week or so you use it, I would set a backup alarm.

Overall, I love this machine!! I can honestly say that it has helped me combat my insomnia. If I wake up in the middle of the night, I roll over and turn on the sound machine just as easily as I would hit the snooze button. It helps me back to sleep without problem. Before this machine, I think I had tried everything--earplugs, sleep masks, otc medication, prescriptions, the works. Nothing has worked until now. I haven't had any of the mechanical issues of the previous reviewers, so I highly recommend this product!

1 stars

I have owned this alarm clock for about a month. I've used the nature sounds 4 times and they now suddenly don't work. Nothing happens when I set the alarm to sound with one of the nature sounds. The sounds also don't work if the they are turned on separately. Ridiculous. This is the second nature sounds alarm clock I have had that did this. They're awful.