Most reliable alarm clock system?

November 19, 2015 9:08 AM

We really need a good system and/or a really reliable alarm clock! My husband has turned his off twice when he's never done it before!

To my knowledge at least in the past few years this has never happened. But a while back my husband managed to turn off his alarm and woke up late for work. Then he set his phone alarm to go off as a backup every day.

Well today he thinks he managed to turn BOTH off and go back to sleep. He only woke up because I did. (I assume I sensed he was still here late or something weird.) He's a very hard working reliable guy so this is nuts. I think he was just super tired.

So, we need a better solution. His solution is to move the clock onto the dresser so he has to get up. I think that's an okay solution but he's also a snoozer and I wonder if he'll be getting up to push snooze a bunch or accidentally turn it off.

Do we need yet another backup alarm? Is there a really good alarm that is super reliable or takes more effort to turn off? How have you handled this?

That rolling alarm won't work. He's near the wall and often has clothes on the floor. I also need to sleep so something that shoots anything and could end up smacking me in the head isn't ideal. Bonus if it's an alarm that looks decent. Thoughts??

posted by Crystalinne to Health & Fitness (20 answers total)

Best answer: This may be too obvious, but what about setting multiple alarms on his phone? I have a really bad habit of snoozing and/or turning off alarms in my sleep, so I usually set anywhere from five to ten alarms on my phone, spaced out in roughly 2 to 5 minute increments (usually shorter increments as it gets closer to when I wake up).

I also have an alarm clock that I keep across the room on my dresser. Usually I'll set 2 or 3 alarms on my phone timed to go off before the across the room clock will go off, then I set a few to go off after the across the room alarm in case I snooze that and get back into bed.

He could also experiment with using different sounds on the phone alarm. At least on the iPhone, I believe you can choose a different sound for each alarm, so he could start with less obnoxious ones and then choose louder/more obnoxious sounds for later alarms.
posted by litera scripta manet at 9:17 AM on November 19, 2015

Oh, also, is it possible that he's being affected by it being darker in the mornings? This may or may not be applicable depending on your location and wake up time, but if he's used to getting up when the sun is rising and that's no longer the case as we head into winter, he might want to look into sunrise alarm clocks.
posted by litera scripta manet at 9:19 AM on November 19, 2015 [1 favorite]

My alarm clock is a 7 day timer that controls a light. The light comes on, stays on for 15 minutes, and then goes off. There is no snooze feature. For me the light is more pleasant than an audible alarm, does not disturb people in the next room, and gets my brain in the awake mode.
posted by Midnight Skulker at 9:22 AM on November 19, 2015

Chronic turner-offer of alarms in my sleep here... My alarm clock now lives in the bathroom. It echoes off the tile so I can't sleep through it and I have to physically leave the bed to turn it off.
posted by cecic at 9:26 AM on November 19, 2015

Best answer: Put him on a sleep diet. No caffeine after lunch and he must be in bed by 10:00 every night, no matter what. You can encourage this by jumping in with him. No screens in the bedroom, period. If that doesn't help, then you may want to look at getting a better mattress or sleeping in different rooms (in case you are snoring and keeping him up, and he is too polite to say anything). After a few weeks of this, he should be well rested enough to get up a few minutes before the alarm goes off.

His snooze button habit is doing him in. Encourage him to hit it once to have a few minutes to stretch and pray and then get up when it dings. It doesn't matter what kind of alarm clock you get him if he is going to train himself to ignore it and go back to sleep.
posted by myselfasme at 9:27 AM on November 19, 2015 [4 favorites]

Light can help. I have LIFX bulbs in my bedroom, programmed to come on over time - first dim red, then eventually a bright sunny color that's really hard to stay asleep under. You could also do this with Hues or whatever smart bulb you prefer.
posted by egypturnash at 9:28 AM on November 19, 2015

I use an app that does an alarm clock where you have to solve simple math problems to disable it. It's not that annoying, it just stops me from reflexively hitting snooze before I'm fully awake.
posted by miyabo at 9:50 AM on November 19, 2015 [1 favorite]

I use an alarm clock app and half a dozen alarms to ease my waking-up anxiety. I have a very soft slowly-escalating song I use for most of the alarms, but my drop-dead alarm is Never Gonna Give You Up, at max volume. I never make it all the way to the rickroll.

It would help if he would keep it several steps away, like on a dresser or in the bathroom.

But two things to check on, even though this could very well be because the time just changed and everything is weird: is he going to sleep too late, and is he depressed?

I've been going to bed at 9:30 this week, I'm so tired. This week has been worse than the week of the time change. So it might just be a thing that's going to pass soon (it better pass soon).
posted by Lyn Never at 10:16 AM on November 19, 2015 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I have multiple alarms on my phone. I'd also have a back-up that I have to walk to if it's an issue. But, I agree with myselfsame that looking at sleep would also be a great idea. Stricter bedtimes and also, if he snores, get a sleep study done in case sleep apnea is a factor. A recent change in his ability to wake up probably means that he needs more than just a better back-up system.
posted by quince at 10:17 AM on November 19, 2015

Math alarms? There are a variety of apps that require you to answer math problems to turn them off (or completely turn off your phone, something I did once during jet lag). The one I use even has a math snooze, so I answer two problems and I can snooze, I answer six and hit the right button and it actually turns off.
posted by Hactar at 10:28 AM on November 19, 2015 [2 favorites]

I benefit from a light on a timer with my alarm, but the one I can't snooze is our very hungry cat. Though it's really hard to reset during DST.
posted by advicepig at 10:31 AM on November 19, 2015 [2 favorites]

Best answer: I recently had to go from waking up whenever (usually 10.30) to getting up just after six. I keep my phone on my night stand, with an alarm set for 6. I press snooze on this one. I keep a really loud alarm clock on the other side of the room set for 6.10. By the time the horrible alarm rings, I've had my ten minute snooze and know that it is definitely time to get up.
posted by kinddieserzeit at 12:45 PM on November 19, 2015

Best answer: I set multiple alarms on my phone 10 minutes apart rather than hitting snooze. Then if I turn it off, the next one will still go off.
posted by rainbowbrite at 1:16 PM on November 19, 2015 [1 favorite]

I used to have 5 alarms on three different systems set for the morning; I was in an arms race with my sleepy self. I started using an alarm clock that has a sunrise, and it's amazing.
posted by gregr at 1:18 PM on November 19, 2015 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Avoid the snooze button. That extra sleep is a poor uncomfortable sleep. Also, if he's having a hard time getting up, then he needs more sleep. Figure how what time to go to bed to get a full 8 hours sleep. I get my 8 and get up about an hour before the alarm as that beep is irritating.
posted by Coffeetyme at 4:06 PM on November 19, 2015

Best answer: iPhone alarm in the bedroom, with snooze. iPad alarm on the kitchen counter outside the bedroom set five minutes later. For me, getting out of bed to shut off an alarm is enough to remind me that I have to get up. After awhile, the cacophony of multiple alarms is enough to make me fed up enough that I know I have to go get in the shower.

The key is to take a moment when you first wake up to think about what you have to do that day and what you want to accomplish. My tiny morning goal is to not be late to work. Even if I'm exhausted in the morning my first priority is to get to work by 9:15. It's a daily struggle between being a responsible grownup and going to work versus being a schlub and sleeping in. Instead of focussing on how tired I am in the morning I find it helps to think about what I'm going to do when I wake up. The iPhone lets you name your alarms: my 7:49 alarm says, "you've got a fucking job."
posted by bendy at 9:20 PM on November 19, 2015 [1 favorite]

Maybe something like Sleep Cycle on the iPhone? The phone tracks your sleep pattern and wakes you during light sleep so it's easier to wake up. It also gives you a nice graph of how your night's sleep went.

I used it for a while, and it seemed like it worked well, but I realized that if I get 8 hours a night I don't need an alarm, I wake on my own. I don't remember the last time my alarm even went off.
posted by Huck500 at 12:34 PM on November 20, 2015 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks! Last night we moved one alarm clock to the dresser (probably want to find a cuter one because his is ugly as hell and maybe we can find one without the red lights.) He then set multiple alarms on his phone.

I have nagged him about snoozing. He's a chronic snoozer and it bugs the hell out of me. He's going to try to hit snooze but read on his phone or something. I nudged him today when he hit snooze twice and he said, "I'm trying to reduce the number of snoozes." To which I replied, "It's called getting up."

He has finally acknowledged that he may have some minor apnea. (Maybe it's a throat flap issue?) and that he should see someone soon. (Progress!)
posted by Crystalinne at 2:41 PM on November 20, 2015 [1 favorite]

Seconding Sleep Cycle. I never found much utility in the graphs, but the feature about the alarm sounding during a light sleep was amazing. Dunno why I stopped using it now that I think about it.
posted by good lorneing at 8:19 PM on November 20, 2015

I nudged him today when he hit snooze twice and he said, "I'm trying to reduce the number of snoozes." To which I replied, "It's called getting up."

This can be a really hard habit to break. For me, when I'm hitting the snooze button, I'm so minimally conscious that it's not even an actual decision (hence the 15 alarms).

Now, on that note, I haven't personally tried this method, but if the snooze button thing is something he wants to work on, he could try something like this. The reason I think it could work is that it acknowledges that this isn't a willpower kind of thing, and instead it focuses on training yourself so that not hitting the snooze button becomes an autopilot kind of thing.
posted by litera scripta manet at 10:31 PM on November 20, 2015 [1 favorite]