Alarm Clock Apps

Whether you wake up if a bird chirps or if it takes an entire parade to wake you up, there's an alarm clock app for you, and just in time for back to school.

P.S. I recommend using an iPad for these apps for a larger clock.

For the heavy sleeper:

Night Stand HD 2 ($2.99) is the app for you. It allows you to set an "aggressive alarm". First, the iOS device's screen will brighten to mimic the sunlight. "On the second snooze, low frequency square waves are used instead of iPod music to interrupt sleep patterns."
The third snooze makes the time between snoozes down to ten seconds. The fifth snooze makes it so the alarm can't be stopped until a game is played. But seriously? If the snooze time is six minutes (default and can't be changed), that means that you'll have to sleep in a whopping 18 minutes and 30 seconds until you play a game. If you have that kind of time, why do you need an alarm clock? In addition, you can unlock new clocks by earning points. Points are earned by waking up before 9 AM (which is useless unless your work starts after 9 AM). But, hey, everybody's different.  

For the "uses built-in apps to their fullest" sleeper:

If you want to use the built in Clock app, try it. There's not much to it. You can use a built-in sound, ringtone, or song from your Music app.

For the "iSleep with a dock for my iOS device" sleeper:

iHome+Sleep (Free) is a great app. However, one might say that it WAS a great app. Unfortunately, this app is severely outdated with no iPhone 5 optimized nor Retina Display optimized. Then again, it does work, especially if you have an iHome dock yourself. If so, try it for a night. It knows how long you've slept and shows you weather.

For the "elegant" sleeper:

Okay, that might've been a strange title, but this app is VERY elegant. It's called Rise ($1.99; and was free a few weeks ago). The app is as if you're using a piece of glass, well, because you are! The time you set for waking up shows what the sky will look like, as shown below. If you hit the clock at the top, you get a nice desk clock. You can pick from three themes: solid black background, weather, or use the camera as a background.