This tabletop sleep device and sunrise alarm aim to help you put your phone away before bed

“Relax” is not a word anyone might associate with CES. If anything, it’s the antithesis of CES, an exhausting and overstimulating marathon event taking place in an already tired and overstimulating Las Vegas. But a demo of Ambient’s bedside device, the Dreamie, before it showed up at CES—next to Pepcom—had me pretty humbled and ready to get right back in bed. Dreamie is a smart sunrise alarm clock and night breathing device with a built-in podcast player, a catalog of blue, pink and brown sound masks, guided breathing programs, contactless motion sensors to give you insights into your sleep habits, dynamic lighting that simulates sunrise and Bluetooth connectivity for headphones.

But most importantly for anyone trying to avoid using their phone right before bed, it is an independent system where all controls, features and options for programming and data storage are available on the device. And there is no subscription.

Dreamie’s mission is “to help you get away from your phone while providing the most convenience you can have,” says CEO and co-founder Adrian Canoso. You can set multiple alarms on different schedules, access soothing content for bedtime and customize how early your sunrise wake-up time is. There are environmental sensors that can track humidity, temperature and light conditions during the night, to give you a better idea of ​​how these factors may be affecting your sleep.

The Dreamie is a small device compared to other Sunrise-style watches, with a slimmed-down pill-like body and a round touchscreen. Next to the display is a hidden volume control dial, and it feels good to rotate, with just the right amount of resistance. There is also a touch strip on the top of the device so you can easily adjust the brightness by dragging your finger across it. From the display, you can even change the direction of the light so you don’t flash yourself (or your partner) when your eyes aren’t ready, turn off the backlight.

Its array of 20 LEDs can range from a soft, warm orange glow to cool and blue-white, and certain programs, such as the aurora borealis soundscape, will trigger other colors of the rainbow, casting cool greens, blues and magentas. Even more impressive is the rich sound from its 50mm speaker. The Dreamie has a 360-degree speaker grill on the bottom of the device that sends sound in all directions to create a more focused ambient sound.

When the speaker is pointed at you, “it’s almost like a laser beam coming at you,” which isn’t very relaxing, explains Canoso, who has worked in industrial design and robotics, and before that, as a studio recording engineer. “[Dreamie] it produces sound everywhere… So if you put it next to you on the night table, it sounds very diffused. It’s not the loudest speaker out there because we’ve developed rich sound quality at low volumes. We don’t need it at the top. We just need it to sound good.”

And it sounds good, it’s happening. It got me thinking that I might finally have found a replacement for the Philips Wake-Up Light that I’ve been holding on to for about 10 years now with great light but horrible sound quality.

Dreamie, which costs $250, just started shipping after a successful crowdfunding campaign, and some features — including podcasts and sleep data — haven’t been rolled out yet (although I was able to see the podcast library during the demo, so it’s a real thing, and it’s expected to be released later this month). Those and other upcoming features will come with free over-the-air updates.