What get's you outa bed in the morning?
 

Like the title says, what gets you outa bed in the morning?

I currently have a very flexible schedule and can work just about anytime, night or day. As a result I find myself sleeping through most of the day, awake most of the night and working when I feel like it.

I've always had a strange sleep schedule and when working a 'normal' job; I would find it necessary to stay up all night, one day a month, to reset my sleep schedule. Otherwise I would just stay up later and later until I was going to sleep a dawn. I've always been like this, even as a kid.

To compound the issue; several years ago I read an article in either Nova or Discover Magazine about Dream States, Dream Control and Visualization; From which, I learned to control and manipulate my dreams. I'm sure I don't have to tell you just how freakin' cool it is to have your own little world and be able to manipulate it. It's incredibly therapeutic to be able to exercise your will in a free flow state of mind, think meditation to the Nth degree, while living in a world where control is mostly and illusion. And it works as an extremely effective problem solving method. Unfortunately REM state occurs when transitioning between sleep states, going deeper into or coming out of a deep sleep. For me this occurs most often around 4 or 5 am, and can continue for several hours on and off. As a result I ignore my alarm and sleep later in the day.

Since I've never had a grasp on waking and getting up early, I'm looking to you, my fellow TFPer's, for a potential solution. So, what get's you out of bed?

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On weekdays, the fear of being late to class that gets me up. It gets me up early, too, since I have a lot of shit I need to take care of before I leave the house. Workout, breakfast, kid breakfast, pack kid lunch, walk dogs, feed dogs, make sure everyone else is getting up on time, etc.

On weekends, it's usually a small, sweet mammal that wakes me up and the lure of a hot cup of coffee that gets me out of bed.

I don't get the luxury of choice. If I want to remain on the payroll. I get up and get to work when they tell me to.

I seldom sleep until my alarm. Usually get up an hour before I need to. Evidently I'm getting enough sleep as I don't feel tired during the day. Typically around 6 hours, no more than 7.

I'd love to know how to manipulate dreams. I never recall them. Maybe I'll catch fragments of one about once a year. If that.

I get up because I get to go to school! I love my job... 8th graders!

The urge to piss from drinking giant bottles of water and caffeine products all day long despite ceasing consumption after dinner.

or

An incredibly sensitive (and thus faulty) computer-operated alert system that notifies me of "INCOMING, INCOMING, INCOMING."

My three year old twins....*sigh* And it's not just in the morning...

The need to pee...again.

The internal clock in my head that goes off at 4am every morning. Sometimes I lay there for a few moments and rest or think about the day ahead but once my dogs realize I'm awake they know it's time to go check out what happened on the beach last night. Then all is lost and it's coffee, beach time.

Jealous!

My husband usually gets me out of bed in the morning. Usually.

I don't recall most of the dreams after waking either. If I'm focusing on finding a solution to a problem; it's like Geometry, I always seem to know the answer, but forget about the postulates and theorems that got me there. If I'm drifting in and out of sleep, sometimes I'll scribble some notes on a bed side pad. Even then, the actual content of the dream is vague if I remember anything at all.

Manipulating dreams starts with visualization, which is done while awake, similar to meditation.
Visualize a peaceful place: a green meadow, mountain stream, drifting on the sea, anything that is peaceful to you. Somewhere calm and safe. Something you're very familiar with works the best. See it, smell it, feel it, taste it and hear it. Be there. It took me a few times trying to get every sense tuned into the visualization.
Once you can consistently go to this place and stay there; walk around and explore. This took me a few time to get down as well.
When you have the wandering or exploring down, you can begin to manipulate the environment. I started by picking a blade of grass and smelling it, but instead of smelling grass, I smell toast. I used smell, because it has a very strong memory and was easy to recall. I smelled toast by telling myself, 'I smell toast'. While holding and looking at the blade of grass.
I think I got that to work after the second try. You can use any sense you want for the manipulation. It can feel like sand paper, sound like a river, taste like gravy or look like a dog. It doesn't matter as long as it's something you know. What you're doing is recalling memories from your senses, teaching your conscious brain where to find these memories.
Now it's time to play! Go to your place and go nuts. Do anything that comes to mind. Usually what pops into mind is the easiest to do. But keep trying different things. Paint the sky with your finger, hear glass shattering as you walk on the grass, smell grass in the middle of the ocean.......
I did these visualization exercises for about a year before I realized I could do it in my dreams as well.
I was sleeping one night and had one of those falling dreams, but instead of panicking and waking up. In mid fall I thought 'Fuck this, I can fly' (Flying was my preferred means of exploring my visual world) and just like that, I was flying. After that, almost any dream I was in, I could manipulate.

I don't have complete control over the dreams. It's more like I'm moving along to a specific destination, but along the way, I can control every aspect of how I get there. Scenery, mode of transport, interaction, sights, sounds, smells, tastes, anything except the actual destination. I can usually even see and understand the destination. Just not change it.

Does that make sense?? It's been 20yrs since I started doing this, so some of the details of how I remember doing it are a little vague, but I think this is very close.

Working with things (memories) very familiar to you makes it easier.
When you're unable to manipulate something in the way you want, often you'll loose the visualization entirely and have to start over.
If you're not relaxed, don't bother. It's not going to work.
Don't try to force it, stay calm and relaxed. Try to just think, then let it happen.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask.



Yeah, drinking a quart of water, just before laying down, is how I get up early when I don't have a choice.

Anything yelling "INCOMING" while I'm sleeping would be met with exactly that, likely in the form of a steel toed boot at high velocity. :)


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Yeah, I have lucid dreams too. They're pretty neat. Also, I've discovered that I am always capable of certain things in my dreams, even if I'm not controlling the dream. I can always make a door appear, and I can always lock the door behind me with just a touch to the doorknob. I noticed when I was a teenager that I was able to control my dreams; I didn't really have to do anything to do it. It's just something that happens about 60% of the time with my dreams, and that's enough for me.

I also have a distinct "dream geography" that features prominently in many of my dreams.

Things that I want/need/have to do or sunlight.
I need at least 8 hours of sleep a night to feel well-rested.
But even when I don't get that I find that I can't sleep once it's light outside.
If I do get enough sleep then I'm just ready to get up - not one to laze around in bed awake or even half-awake. I'd much rather be up and about.

My avatar doesn't have a snooze button.

She'll lick any body part available, usually ears and toes. She has a knack for beating the alarm clock by 5 min.

I've deliberately avoided lucid dreaming because sleeping is the one time I get to 'turn off' my head and not think about anything or *do* anything that requires a conscious effort. I hit the pillow and I'm usually sound asleep until my internal piss clock wakes me up, about 7 hours after I've fallen asleep, my girlfriend wakes me up getting into the shower, the cat starts yowling or my alarm goes off. I never get quite enough sleep, because if I somehow make it past all of those obstacles, the sunlight wakes me up. I can't really sleep past 7:30 anymore. If I try to 'force' the sleep, I get some vaguely deep sleep that makes me feel groggy and get a backache.

In the "spirit" of the thread rather than the details, I wake up in the morning because I'm glad that I still can. I'm not immobilized and can leave my bed, and I'm not dead, so I'd better get up and enjoy the day for whatever it is, because I only have about 14,000 left (if I'm lucky) and I don't get do-overs or an afterlife, so I need to make use of a dwindling resource.

Guys talking about controlling their dreams and stuff. If only. I go for months without having a dream I can remember and when I do finally have one, it's usually some weird black-and-blue silent film where everybody is running and people are chasing other people. Hell, I hafta sleep with something over my eyes and earplugs. Too twitchy.

The urge to hunt & gather more dream material, erects me from the prone.

Vengeance.


/Count of Monte Cristo

The out-of-bed answer is either cats, my bladder, alarm clock, guilt, or sunlight.

What gets me awake is my internal clock (around 3:30 am many mornings), the cats, nightmares, S rolling over, the cold or heat, worries, anxiety, my back, impending sexy time...

Your comment reminds me of when I was in college and had a brief affair with a much older English professor, who cured my morning grumpiness with kisses, caresses, and this beautifully spiritual poem by e. e. cumings:


i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday; this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any--lifted from the no
of all nothing--human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

Lindy
(now with eyes full of tears...):sad:

Well played.

More often than not, it's the second of two alarm clocks, both with a buzzer. I'd much prefer the sunlight, every day—why else does my bedroom need an east-facing window?

getting one step closer per day to becoming a pilot every day is what wakes me up

I have an east-facing window and Hunter-Douglas Silhouette shades: Silhouette window shadings: Hunter Douglas Window Treatments They're older so they're not as sheer as the newer ones on the website when they're set horizontally. I love them. I think I will probably always have Silhouettes from now on; they allow light in but keep your privacy.

I get up without an alarm clock--or I try to, anyway. I hate hate hate alarm clocks. I spend half the night waking myself up in a panic that I've slept through the alarm or else I dream that I've slept through the alarm. So I rely on my east-facing window and the light, and I also program my central thermostat to turn on the heat half an hour before I want to get up. I also prefer to be on a regular schedule, with the same wakeup every day, but given my unpredictable schedule at work right now, that's just not possible.

FTW!


Honorable Mention. Nice



Not to be nit picky, but the 'waking-up' is not an issue. My internal alarm goes off at around 5am. It's actually getting out of bed that requires inspiration. I'm really good at just rolling over and going back to sleep.

So far dogs and kids seem to be the popular motivators, but I'm allergic to the first and don't need any of the later.

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If those don't work, how about self-challenge? Make a list of things you could get done if you reorganize your schedule and wake up earlier.

If productivity doesn't do it for you either, try another angle until you find one that works for you. Maybe a reward might serve as your motivation.

I like where this is going. TY

That's fine. But you have to let us know what you decide and let us help you with your progress. Accountability is sometimes a good motivator as well. :p

i've heard of alarm clocks that roll around the floor so you have to catch them?

Dammit, my Cryptonite.


LOL, Yeah, I've seen those, probably wouldn't work with the shoes, chair, dresser, bookshelf, side tables and bed, the room is about full.

My bf has creative ways of waking me up in the mornings......I love morning sex, and he is most happy to oblige, so he tends to start caressing and kissing my body ......After having the morning O, I'm pretty darn perky & ready to face the world :)

My wife's Droid alarm, followed immediately by two Papitese doggies jumping on my chest and licking my face.