I bought the hatch with the goal of waking up more rested, as I still felt tired and groggy throughout the day after waking up. The hatch definitely makes my mornings easier, but I would advise some caution if you are someone that already struggles with getting up when their alarm goes off. I noticed I often have a habit of going back to bed until a second alarm, and since the sunrise is set over a long period, it is hard to set multiple alarms, but after having the hatch for a few weeks I was able to form a habit of actually getting up at the first alarm. I think the sunrise feature and gentle noise of the hatch has made forming that habit significantly easier.
Beyond waking up, I have been falling asleep faster and easier since the hatch lets me form a habit and the bedtime routine I set up triggers my brain into "sleep mode." Like I mentioned with the waking up bit, the Hatch isn't going to magically change your life overnight. Your brain will need to adjust to a new routine and form new habits and the clock itself isn't going to do that for you. Most criticism I have seen seems to be because people expect the hatch to magically form these habits for you, and it will not, it will require some effort on your end as well. Additionally, a lot of the criticism comes in regarding the price and subscription.
I will say the hatch is pricey (obviously) so buying one is a significant decision. I bought mine with a coupon while it was on sale, so it was more manageable, and I don't have the subscription. I do think it's frustrating to have a subscription when your product is already at a high price point, but they want to continue making money off of their alarms after selling, which is a smart business model from the revenue perspective. Because you are paying for a luxury product, I do think maybe the free library could be expanded some, but I find that I have little want for the subscription, as it doesn't seem entirely worth it to me. I also have some ideas for future hatch developments, such as adding a speaker feature so users could play their own selection of white noise or something similar off YouTube, which may entice customers who already use YouTube to help fall asleep. Additionally perhaps setting up a routine that starts automatically at a specific time at night (this may be a thing I haven't really tried it). Overall I think this product is a good product, I just hope the company doesn't become greedy and further restrict the free options when their product is already priced so high!

First off, I've never written a product review on anything before but I dislike this sound machine so much that I wanted to warn others not to buy this thing and give Hatch another penny.

I got this sound machine some months ago as a gift. I really only wanted a white noise machine and clock and this one comes with quite a few bells and whistles which I find unnecessary but that's fine.

After setup and one night's use, the top button would no longer work to turn the sound on or off. Everything had to be controlled via the app which is a bit annoying but still, that is fine.

Day 3: the sound machine won't turn on thru the app. I have to unplug the Restore from the wall and plug it back in, power-cycling the unit, and then reload my app to turn the sound "on". Then it starts turning itself off at random times throughout the night, requiring unplugging, replugging, reloading the app, and turning the sound "on" at anywhere from 12pm to 4am... not fun.

Final straw is when it finally fritzed out in the middle of the night at max level volume some aggressive static noise freaking me and my wife out of a dead sleep. Turned it off and about ready to take it outside to smash it to pieces.

Awful product - don't buy.

Hi! I continue to adore my Hatch Restore 2. I am so impressed with this company and its product. It has changed my sleeping and working habits. I adore Notes From England — please never retire it! I hope new episodes continue to populate because repeats are a small bummer. But it is still much more enjoyable than the attempt at Trivia of the Day, which failed in my eyes because it wasn't very time sensitive and didn't sync up to the actual day... Additionally, I've discovered the Restore 2 makes a great home office buddy. I wind up my work day with an alarm-less sunrise, and then I use the sleep settings as white noise to play in the background while working. I'd love to see more applications of the Hatch like this. From a tech perspective: I wish this was Bluetooth paired instead of WiFi connected — the hiccups appear to be beyond us, but the connectivity glitches get old. I also wish it could connect as a speaker for non-Hatch things. Finally, it would be nice if I could use the Hatch alarms, sounds, episodes, etc. directly from my app on my phone when I am traveling and away from my physical Hatch. I feel like this should be feasible because we can preview sounds from the app when we're close to the device. Why not be able to use it directly on my phone from afar? Thanks so much!

We really like the alarm clock, however it has been the most difficult piece of technology ever to setup. We CANNOT get it to connect with our home wifi (yes, we have both a 5GHz and 2.4GHz network). We have smart TVs, smart appliances, a home security system, personal devices, and more that have all connected to both the 5GHz ands 2.4GHz network...the alarm clock WILL NOT connect. Reaching out to customer service was very frustrating with no phone number and just emails back and forth. The final response was "it looks like you are entering your password incorrectly,"...I am sorry but that is not the issue. I tried for 3 days changing my actual network name and password to conform with the Hatch's absurd network requirements (character length limitations, special character limitations, etc.). I finally got it connected to my iPhone's personal hotspot and set it up and have not touched any of the settings since. The alarm clock is nice and my wife enjoys it but it was almost thrown out the window before we were able to set it up. I have no idea why it is so complicated to setup, at the end of the day, an alarm clock...and a $200 one at that. If you are going to make a "smart" device you have to increase the compatibility of the system.