Turning back time means it’s retro o’clock!

To my shame, I have tried various hi-tech alarm clocks that shimmer you into consciousness with the gentle noise of waves on a beach and pastel-coloured lights.

My wife quite enjoys these but I think it’s a primrose path that leads to wind chimes, kaftans and forcing my children to ‘make their own fun’ instead of watching Power Rangers.

So while I’ve been trying to do a self-imposed – okay, wifeimposed – detox from having my smartphone next to my bed, I’ve turned the clock back to the Eighties.

Yes, radio alarm clocks still exist. Not only that, but they’ve evolved – well, insofar as you can now pay more than a hundred quid for one.

The Roberts Ortus 3 is defiantly retro – so much so that it boasts of having a port to ‘plug in your iPod’, which reminded me of just how long it was since I actually owned one.

You’re immediately transported back to the time when radio alarm clocks were swish – and it was considered entirely normal to have a bedside clock that made it quite difficult to get to sleep in the first place, usually thanks to a merciless, soul-destroying tick.

Here, the Ortus is armed with a hilariously vast LCD screen with a digital time display – so bright that it’s like sleeping under floodlights. Thankfully, there’s a dimmer.

The actual radio has evolved rather a lot, with DAB digital, FM and surprisingly meaty speakers. There are 20 presets – and three are mapped to buttons on the top, so you can switch channel without regaining consciousness.

There are two alarms – and unlike with smartphone alarms, you can actually shut them off without having to fumble about trying to work some on-screen slider while knocking your phone off the nightstand. Bashing any button mutes the alarm.

And really, I’m finding it’s perfectly possible to live without a smartphone next to my bed. It just heightens the moment when I get downstairs, switch it on – and wonder why on earth people send me press releases about nuclear reactor containment vessels at 2am.