Wake-Up Call Needed!

June 16, 2004 7:42 AM

I need help waking up! I sleep so soundly that I do not hear my alarm clock. This has been a problem for years. Currently, I use both the buzzer and radio options on my clock, plus I have a wake up service that calls twice in the morning. I don't hear any of it unless I've been sleeping at least six hours. I know that the obvious answer is to go to bed earlier, but that's not always an option for me. Can anyone recommend a really loud and obnoxious alarm clock?
posted by Juicylicious to home & garden (28 comments total)

I've not tried one but this looks good
posted by john_son at 7:49 AM on June 16, 2004

There are alarm clocks for the blind that use a strobe light or vibrate the bed.
posted by JoanArkham at 7:50 AM on June 16, 2004

I have the same problem. For me, it's not just the volume, because I can wake up, hit the alarm and go right back to bed. Right now, I have a staggered system - my computer, tv, stereo and bedside radio are all set to go off at different times, and every week or so I change them up so I don't sleep-memorize the pattern. It makes me get up multiple times and walk around turning the various things off. If you can sleep through everything in your home at top volume, you probably need one of those mechanical slapping hands.
posted by loquax at 7:53 AM on June 16, 2004

Have a kid. Worked for me.
posted by bondcliff at 7:56 AM on June 16, 2004

I got this 2' tall dealie with two 3" bells on the top. It's a huge thing with Garfield on it, ugly as sin, but damned if it don't send me flying out of bed.
posted by waldo at 8:10 AM on June 16, 2004

I can sleep with the lights on but am extremely sensitive to noise. Others need pitch darkness, and some can obviously sleep through a Disaster Area concert. You're in the last category, so more noise is probably not the answer; instead you've got to find something that your body can't sleep through.

But getting enough sleep is definitely the best bet. When I came down with ankylosing spondylitis a few years ago, I found that I couldn't ever sleep in, because I'd wake up in pain before too long: staying immobile exacerbates the pain, and that includes sleeping. Medication allowed me to get at least a full night's sleep, but over-sleeping wasn't an option. Which meant that I couldn't do what so many of us do: short-change ourselves on sleep during the week and catch up on the weekends. So I decided to make sure I got enough sleep every night, to avoid going into a sleep deficit that I would never be able to repay.

The end result: I've gone years without ever having to set the alarm. Woke up naturally, and on time to get to work. Go figure. (Of course, my SO needs the alarm to go off; so much for that . . . )

If getting enough sleep isn't an option, perhaps you need to rearrange your life so that it is.
posted by mcwetboy at 8:12 AM on June 16, 2004

alarm clocks for the blind that use a strobe light

Sorry to snark, but that was funny.

I'm too lazy to find it, but there was another ask.me thread where you might find more ideas.

Try self-hypnosis. This is likely a life-long habit, and a reputable hypnotherapist might be able to help you develop a new habit.
posted by theora55 at 8:19 AM on June 16, 2004

I'm a sound sleeper, too, and on business trips I've had success using my cell phone alarm set to sound + vibrate. The vibration rattles my entire nighttable and wakes me up fast. Furniture rattling me awake is sort of creepy, though, so I don't use it often.

Or you could go whole-hog into a vibrating alarm clock.
posted by werty at 8:31 AM on June 16, 2004

I had a friend in college with the same issue. He rigged is stereo to turn on and play "Pulled Up" by the Talking Heads at fairly high volume. However, his neighbors in the dorm were not amused.
posted by caddis at 8:43 AM on June 16, 2004

Have a kid. Worked for me.

Or a pet. One of my cats wakes me up every morning at around 5 for food. Granted, it's not my wake-up time, but cats live by their schedule, not yours. I'd imagine a dog is more trainable in this regard.
posted by mkultra at 8:50 AM on June 16, 2004

Can anyone report on the effectiveness of the zen alarm clock in rousing heavy sleepers?
posted by shinnin at 8:53 AM on June 16, 2004

Nowadays my cat is my alarm clock, but in college, I could have only gotten to those 8am classes with the help of my CD alarm clock and the first track on one of those Zorn Naked City discs, right where he discovered that singer from the Boredoms...

On travel I use my iPod alarm, which I found pretty loud!
posted by neustile at 9:05 AM on June 16, 2004

Slightly off-topic but worthwhile. Do you snore?

I had the hardest time waking up in the mornings, ignoring my alarm etc, until I discovered I had sleep apnea which exhausted me to a point where I wasn't able to wake up in the morning.

Once I got my C-PAP I slept like a baby and literally popped out of bed in the mornings. You might mention it to your doctor next time you go in.
posted by karmaville at 9:18 AM on June 16, 2004

When you say you've used the radio option of your alarm clock, how did you have it set?

What worked for me (before I got the same type of alarm bondcliff recommends - and boy does that work) was setting the volume high, putting it on a station I hated or even between stations, and placing it well out of arm's reach. It's too loud to ignore, too annoying to put up with, and forces you out of bed to shut it off.
posted by GhostintheMachine at 9:27 AM on June 16, 2004

I am not suggested that you go without and alarm clock but you might try the technique I learned to do so. Just when you clikc off the light, knwoing the next thing you will do is fall aslepp, look at your clock and note (aloud if you feel the need) the time. Tell youself you are then going to wake at mniute "x:xx". Set your alarm(s) for five minutes after the time you set in your head.

Karmaville brings up a good point, that something else is might be contributing to your inability to wake. Once, I slept through and alarm and someone yelling and banging on my door (to a studio aparmtent) -- rare for me, the casue was my having slept the night with a fan running at high speed at my bed. It was brutally hot and the noise kept me awake for some time but I knew the heat would keep me awake as well. As I adjusted to sleep throught the noise, no other noise was bound to wake me.
posted by Dick Paris at 9:30 AM on June 16, 2004

How about a Sunrise Alarm Clock? It gradually gets brighter over a time period that you specify.
posted by FreezBoy at 9:49 AM on June 16, 2004

I don't have problems getting up, but I do keep an erratic schedule, so I did something similar to but cheaper than the Sunrise Alarm Clock. I put a 120-watt full-spectrum bulb in a lamp connected to a 24-hour timer. It's not far from the bed. The clock radio goes off at 6 a.m. The light goes on at 6:17 (not very accurate, those timer dials). The radio switches from English to French at 6:30. The radio is very quiet, so I only hear it when the light disturbs me, since I am more sensitive to light than noise while sleeping. The radio is tuned to the BBC and Radio France International, so I am awakened by being interested in the snippets of news that make it through and engage my consciousness, rather than by the brute force of the noise. The more engaged my brain is, the more difference the light makes. I can usually be out of bed before 6:30, though I must admit, sometimes I lay there just to hear more news.
posted by Mo Nickels at 10:37 AM on June 16, 2004

Try something that triggers a human instinct. It's probably a bit sad to be getting ideas from Big Brother, but here in the UK the housemates were woken up one morning with an alarm that was just a recording of a crying baby played loudly into the house. They found it absolutely impossible to ignore.
posted by reklaw at 10:39 AM on June 16, 2004

I've been using Big Clock on my Palm to goad me out of bed - you can set four alarms with different sounds and a configurable number of snooze repetions for each one.

The alram sounds include things like cell-phone chriping rings, and it's been driving me bananas - but it works.

I hear it's not compatible with PalmOS 5.
posted by mwhybark at 11:06 AM on June 16, 2004

Have you tried the good old pee trick? Drink loads of water before you go to sleep. Find out the needed amount by experimenting. Nature should take care of the rest.
posted by inkeri at 11:16 AM on June 16, 2004

I use 2--one with radio set to loud music i hate, and the other beeps louder and louder until the next door people knock on the wall and curse me....I also keep one further away from the bed, so i actually have to get out of bed to turn it off. (or what Ghostinthemachine said)
posted by amberglow at 11:30 AM on June 16, 2004

I have a noise-machine/alarm clock, with a few different alarm sounds (steam boat, rooster, some kind of hyena or something). I turn the volume up, and every night I switch the sound. The rooster is saved for the times I REALLY need to wake up. Scares the shit out of me. . .
posted by Quartermass at 1:49 PM on June 16, 2004

Thanks for all the input.

I think that varying the wake up times may help a bit, but only if it varies by more than an hour. Not really an option.

Back in the day when I lived in a studio apt, I had my stereo on a timer and would turn up the volume unbelievably loud to wake me up. It worked, but now my stereo is on the other side of the house and I don't have one of those timers anymore.

I know that the lights & vibration things won't work as I sleep through major storms without a problem.

The water/pee idea does work, sorta. Usually I end up peeing around 3 am and then just go back to sleep.

I think that what I need is really LOUD, really ANNOYING multiple alarms.

My current clock radio just isn't loud enough and I have tried varying the station from NPR to rock n' roll and everything in between.

Having a kid would probably solve my problem, but what would I do with it the rest of the time?
posted by Juicylicious at 1:57 PM on June 16, 2004

I'm a notorious over-sleeper/stayer-up-late and I have the Sonic Boom Alarm Clock (the bottom one on that page) which works well when I put it across the room and get up to hit snooze a few times.

I moved temporarily to a place where it made the neighbors bang on the wall and so I got the 120 volt bed shaker which I put under my pillow. Now I use a combination of the alarm clock on my cell phone and the pillow shaker, set about five minutes apart.

Unfortunately, the pillow shaker is kind of soothing. It makes a steady rumbling sound and "gently" massages the back of my head through the pillow, but combined with the loud noise from the cell alarm it's disruptive enough to wake me up.

I also leave plenty of time to hit snooze several times and do "sleep math". "Let's see, if I hit snooze 3 more times, that's three times 9 minutes, 27 minutes, that puts me at 8:34, no 8:36, OK, cool...zzzzzzzz"
posted by bendy at 2:11 PM on June 16, 2004

Expanding on what Karmaville said, there could be several medical issues contributing to your problem. Sleep apnea and restless leg syndrome are two of the most common sleep disorders. I had very similar problems waking up for years, and I finally went to a sleep clinic for a full workup. It turned out that some medication I was taking was inhibiting REM and Stage 4 sleep, so I wasn't getting the deep sleep my body needed. The doctor prescribing the medication had no idea that this was a potential side effect (it wasn't mentioned on any of the prescribing information available from the drug company), so it often pays to go to a neurologist or sleep specialist if it may be a medication issue. It would be helpful if you kept a sleep journal for a few weeks, noting when you go to sleep, how many times you wake up at night, whether you had any dreams, and what time you woke up. This information will be helpful to your regular doctor in deciding if you need to see a specialist.
posted by gokart4xmas at 6:02 PM on June 16, 2004

Vote for the sunrise clock here - those things are beautiful
posted by Pretty_Generic at 8:22 PM on June 16, 2004

The sunrise clock doesn't work for me. I sleep right through it.
posted by litlnemo at 11:04 PM on June 16, 2004

Jesus H. Christ, I hope your apartment never goes up in flames. (I'm serious, not being "wakable" would scare the shit out of me!)
posted by tristeza at 12:47 PM on June 17, 2004