Samsung has developed a free and easy way to give a little back to the scientific community with a new alarm clock app that also crowdsources processing power to aid calculating vital health research.

Power Sleep donates the processor power of your smartphone or tablet to support researchers at the University of Vienna with the decryption of protein sequences for the benefit of cancer and Alzheimer's research.

Although the app functions like an ordinary alarm clock, when plugged into a power source your device will request a data package from the SIMAP server (Similarity Matrix of Proteins) at the University of Vienna and begins calculating sequences. When your alarm rings, the process ends and the package is recorded in the SIMAP database.

The app uses BOINC, a technology for distributed computing, as the basis for utilising the unused processing power of your device when you don't need it. Think of it as lending your phone’s energy to take some weight off the primary server’s shoulders.

Fully automatic and free when connected to WiFi, the longer you sleep, the more packages will be processed - so rest easy in the knowledge that you’re doing good in bed.

Another recent unique alarm app is Wake Up With The World, which connected users around the globe with a collaborative morning song, turning the act of getting out of bed into a global electronic composition.