How can I wake up on time?

September 26, 2005 4:19 AM

This is the second time I've turned off my alarm clock without consciously knowing it, and promptly returned to sleep. How can I wake up on time?

My alarm clock is already obnoxiously loud, and across the room.

posted by Newbornstranger to grab bag (29 comments total)

I've done that myself on a couple of occasions, though the alarm was at my bedside at the time, not across the room. Both times seemed to be when I *really needed* sleep, and my body was going to get it whether I had to get up to do things or not.

If it starts to happen more regularly, I think personal discipline must be at the root of the problem.

For just a couple of occasions, go to bed earlier and get more sleep - your body is telling you something.
posted by ajbattrick at 4:25 AM on September 26, 2005

Um ... put it out of reach?
posted by RavinDave at 4:25 AM on September 26, 2005

go to sleep early so you're not so tired that your unconscious mind wants to stay in bed.
posted by filmgeek at 4:28 AM on September 26, 2005

Put another clock on the far side of the room, set a minute or two later. The first will draw you out of deep sleep, so you won't miss the second one, but you'll have to get out of bed to actually stop it...
posted by benzo8 at 4:29 AM on September 26, 2005

RavinDave, he did say it was across the room.

I've had better luck waking up to gentle alarms. Super loud or obnoxious ones seem to tell my body "get rid of that asap" and I actually can go right back to sleep after killing the sound. A gentle one might take me a few minutes, but when I'm up, I'm up.
posted by mathowie at 4:29 AM on September 26, 2005

1. Get a second alarm clock and put it somewhere else so it doubles your chances of not getting by on auto pilot.
2. Does your local phone company offer any kind of wake-up call service?
posted by biffa at 4:29 AM on September 26, 2005

It may seem counter-intuitive, but try not using an alarm clock. I stopped using one a few years ago, when I realised that all it was doing was ruining the last hour or so of my night's sleep. It would blare, I'd hit snooze. This would repeat a few (or many) times, until I was ready to get up. Since I got rid of it, I sleep better, and don't have any problems getting up when I need to get up.

Without an alarm clock, the issue shifts from waking up at a set time, to going to bed early enough to get the amount of sleep you need. Once you've got into the habit, you'll find yourself waking up at the correct time (give or take a few minutes) even when you're still tired. Plus, if you're like me, you'll start to feel a lot more refreshed in the mornings.
posted by veedubya at 4:31 AM on September 26, 2005

Get screened for sleep apnea, assuming you snore and you have been going to bed early enough.

Also it helps to have the same rising time no matter what. I wake up before the alarm clock most days even when I go to bed late because my body is used to me getting up then.
posted by konolia at 4:47 AM on September 26, 2005

In my house we use a cell phone set for three times, each ten-fifteen minutes after the last. It provides for a nice slow, lazy wake up.
posted by leapingsheep at 5:03 AM on September 26, 2005

Matt's idea (of waking up gently) has merit. An abrasive sound DOES put you in a foul mood and makes you want to hide under the covers all that much more. I recently started started using a bright lamp with a timer set to go off about 15 minutes before my audible alarm. Doesn't sound like much, but it really helps.
posted by RavinDave at 5:13 AM on September 26, 2005

This happens to me all the time. The alarm will work it's way into my dream. That buzzing will turn into voices or music and I'll think nothing of it.

Get a wife and a three year old, that sure helps me.

Other things that helped me in my pre-marriage days:

Get a second alarm with a VERY different sounding alarm. Matt's gentle alarm is a good idea, but you might want the second one to be as obnoxious as possible, set to go off about five or ten minutes later and positioned across the room.

If hitting the snooze over and over again is a problem, try to force yourself to turn your light on as soon as the alarm goes off, even if you then fall back to sleep. The light will help your body wake up.

Drastic measures: A radio alarm with the dial set just on the edge of a station, set as loud as possible. A loud jolt of static should do the trick.

Also, I notice sometimes I just wake up on my own shortly before the alarm goes off. If I force myself out of bed at that point, no matter how cozy I am and how appealing more sleep is, I'm ok. It's only when I decide to stay that I fall back into a deep sleep, which makes it much harder to wake up when the alarm goes off.
posted by bondcliff at 5:31 AM on September 26, 2005

I had exactly the same problem. Unfortunately, I had to resort to multiple alarms. I can actually open my eyes, talk to someone and walk across the room to switch off my alarm and remember nothing of it because I'm still asleep.

I have a radio alarm that comes on at 10 to 6. Then a loud blaring alarm that comes on at 6. Then five more alarms on my phone that go off at intervals from 6am to 10 past. That, and gettng into a routine (yes, trying to get 8hours per night) has helped. I don't tend to get enough sleep ever, and usually have to spend most of saturday afternoon asleep on the sofa, but I just manage. I'm hoping that once I get into a solid routine (I've been doing this for two months now), I won't need so many alarms.

Good luck.
posted by lemonpillows at 5:52 AM on September 26, 2005

You are not getting enough sleep. Go to bed earlier.
posted by mischief at 6:03 AM on September 26, 2005

This might be pretty extreme, but having cats who expect to eat by 7:30 has absolutely eliminated the threat of oversleeping in my house; we don't even need alarm clocks any more.

Of course, to make this work, you'd have to get a cat...
posted by COBRA! at 8:35 AM on September 26, 2005

I used to have to get up at 4:30 three mornings a week and I absolutely could not be late, for those mornings I finally had to resort to a very loud alarm clock locked in a drawer beside the bed with the key serveral rooms away plus a backup alarm. it worked but certainly added to my foul mood.
posted by Cosine at 8:45 AM on September 26, 2005

Just be sure to take into consideration your neighbors if you live in an apartment and choose the multiple alarm clock plan. I had a neighbor who did this and thanks to the thin quality of our shared walls routinely would wake me up multiple times. Annoyed the crap out of me. Needless to say, I never worried about my television being too loud for them at any given time.
posted by Atreides at 8:45 AM on September 26, 2005

Either have some children (works for me, regardless of how many beers I was drinking until 3 a.m.), or do what my university housemate did. He'd sleep through his alarm, so bought an alarm clock with a cassette player in it. The sound if a tape of his mother scolding and haranguing him for 10 minutes never failed to wake him up.
posted by Pericles at 9:07 AM on September 26, 2005

I can' seem to find them but there are alarm clocks that eject a ball when the alarm goes off and you have to find and replace the ball in it's receptcal to turn the alarm off.
posted by Mitheral at 9:21 AM on September 26, 2005

I used to have this problem (I sleep like the dead.) I solved it by getting a clock radio that can play a cd, and that slowly increases in volume.

My mind associates the first few bars of the song I hear every day with "time to wake up" instead of "DEAR GOD MAKE IT STOP"
posted by I Love Tacos at 10:08 AM on September 26, 2005

I used to do the same thing, especially when I had a really annoying alarm and wasn't getting enough sleep. I would walk across the room, turn on the light and go back to bed without even realizing it!

Like I Love Tacos, my solution was to get an alarm that plays music (radio, in my case) so that i'm not compelled to shut it off immediately and I gradually wake up. My alarm clock also has two alarms, so if I'm really tired and afraid the first alarm won't do it, I set the second alarm for a few minutes after the first one.
posted by geeky at 10:44 AM on September 26, 2005

I second the recommendation to try a gentler alarm clock. I use the Moonbeam and love it. It wakes you over several minutes with gradually increasing light. (Should you fail to wake and turn the alarm off, a bell sounds.)

Also intriguing is the Zen Alarm Clock. It's pricier than the Moonbeam, but if you prefer to wake to sound, it may be for you. Its alarm is a 10-minute chime progression. You can hear the alarm sound on this Web site.
posted by Sully6 at 10:52 AM on September 26, 2005

YMMV with the Zen Alarm Clock. I've had one for a few years now and I still have to use my mobile phone and my PC alongside it. I'm only ever really aware of it as it gets to the end of the sequence and the chime is going every second. Then I turn it off and wait for the next alarm. I'm hoping for the day that somekind of discovery does away with the need for sleep altogether.
posted by Edame at 11:38 AM on September 26, 2005

It's not currently available in a commercial version, but MIT's clocky might be something to keep in mind.

When the snooze bar is pressed, Clocky rolls off the table and finds a hiding spot

There is a mailing list that you can join that will notify you when Clocky goes on sale.
posted by WestCoaster at 12:07 PM on September 26, 2005

I used to really struggle with this, and these are some of the things that worked for me:

1. Make sure to get enough sleep. Others have said it before, but if you're only giving yourself 6.5 hours on a regular basis, try bumping it up to 7.5 or 8.0. It's easier said than done, but it makes a *huge* difference.

2. Make sure you are sleeping well through the night. Get yourself checked out for sleep apnea if you think that's a possibility. Otherwise, is the room the right temperature? I found that wearing socks to bed, as dorky as that looks, helps me sleep better, which in turn makes it easier to wake up in the morning.

3. Go to bed at the same time and get up at the same time every day, even on weekends. This is tough, but it makes a huge difference, and makes Mondays much less painful.

4. Get up and go outside and see the natural light first thing. I can't explain it, but it does something to your brain to breathe crisp morning air and see the daylight (or dawn, depending on the season.) When you do this regularly, you will wake up more naturally more easily, with less dependence on an alarm clock.

5. Item number 4 can be regularly accomplished by getting a dog that will poke you with its wet nose as soon as your alarm goes off, because it knows you will take it outside for a walk.
posted by ambrosia at 1:21 PM on September 26, 2005 [1 favorite has favorites]

I'm with Matt. I can't stand brutal awakenings.

I don't usually need an alarm to get up, but that's because I'm very sensitive to light cues. If it's cloudier than usual I'll often sleep a little later. Someone back there suggested turning the light on the instant you're conscious. Yes! Whenever I have to get up before dawn, that's absolutely essential.

Also, I have a big wall clock visible from my bed, so I know what time it is as soon as I open my eyes, without having to squint over at a little clock next to the bed.

if I have to be out earlier than usual, or if there's something I absolutely can't miss, I'll set my cell phone alarm. It starts with a single quiet "ting", then launches into widely spaced clusters of beeps. They start out quite gently, but will eventually get loud.

An ex-boyfriend of mine used to wake up routinely to Vince Guaraldi's "Linus and Lucy." I can't recommend this highly enough. It's impossible to start the day in a bad mood with that goofy piano playing.
posted by tangerine at 7:30 PM on September 26, 2005 [1 favorite has favorites]

I feel your pain. I have turned off three alarm clocks scattered across the room--one of them on my Palm, requiring me to remove my stylus, turn the thing on, and tap the alarm off--and going straight back to sleep.

More sleep helps a lot. It means you won't do the turning-off thing when you do use the multiple alarm clocks.

However, my current bedroom setup is foolproof. I sleep on a loft bed, so to turn my alarm off I have to climb down the ladder and go to my dresser. I definitely do not go back to sleep after that one. So, um, try a loft bed maybe?
posted by schroedinger at 7:39 PM on September 26, 2005

Try a clock that requires you to complete a task before it shuts up.

Kuku Clock lays eggs, which you need to find and replace.

Puzzle Clock explodes a small jigsaw out the top, which you need to reassemble and insert back into the clock to make it stop.

A poorly tuned radio used to infuriate me to the point of wakefulness. Nowadays I have to get up to make a sandwich for my partner before she goes to work, and I deliberately refrain from doing it the night before for this very reason.
posted by tomble at 7:39 PM on September 26, 2005

I got a BodyClock last year and have been very happy with it. I often find myself waking up a few minutes before the alarm goes off, feeling rested.
posted by quiet at 7:44 AM on September 28, 2005

If I learned one thing in physiological psychology class it was that people respond differently to voices than noises, especially when sleeping. Tune your radio to NPR or morning news/talk radio and try that instead of the annoying default.
posted by sophist at 12:52 AM on January 10, 2006