2026-01-04
This page and all of its contents were created without the assistance of any sort of generative AI.
I’ve been trying to get my sleep under control for quite some time now. Getting a consistent seven hours a night is more difficult than I’d like to admit.
Step 1: get custom molded sleep earplugs made. I know this might seem excessive, but the foam ones never fit me right and would eventually fall out of my ears throughout the night. The ones I went with are made by egger, I think they’re the eSENTI, reference number 15310. From getting moulds to walking out the door with new earplugs the entire ordeal cost me 65€. A price worth paying, especially on the weekend when I get to tune out both neighbors and traffic outside of my apartment. As a bonus, the audiologist told me that I do indeed have to differently sized ear canals. Well that explains a lot. How fun.
Step 2: blackout curtains. The ones I bought were like half a meter too long for my ceiling height but that’s nothing a pair of scissors and a sewing machine can’t fix.
Step 3: have a warm and not too bright bedside lamp on your nightstand.
Step 4: put book on bedside table.
Step 5: buy an alarm and ban the phone from the bedroom. <— I am here
I wasn’t even looking for any particular alarm clock when this video found its way to me:
f4mi - The BEST Alarm Clock was made in 2009
After watching it, I knew I had to have one. A CD player and an iPod dock in an alarm? Wow. Sign me up.
A few days later it arrived and on the first night, after putting in my Japanese copy of Baauer’s Planets Mad, I noticed a glaring issue by the time 10pm hit: how does one actually turn the display off?
I did eventually discover the brightness control button on the back but it did very little to ease my discomfort. The next morning I consulted the manual and… nothing. There’s a “sleep” mode, but that’s only for stopping music playback.
Allow me to demonstrate the three brightness levels:
A display that’s both bright and blue is just about the worst thing an alarm could have. Time to open up Fusion 360!
Here are the STLs: Top and Bottom
It’s just a two-part disc that snaps together and can hold a few layers of transparent red plastic sheets in-between. I needed three to make it work. Fits like a glove (see the last slide).
And would you look at that, a dark red letters that let me sleep at night:
A note on iPod compatibility: Rockbox works like a charm. Also, the panel that adapts the various iPod sizes is mounted so tight that I had to pry it open with a knife.
