Alarm Clocks

I use an alarm clock-- electronic, not the old-fashioned kind. If I don't have an alarm, I will pretty much sleep like a coma patient, on and on and on. Left to its own devices, my body's natural rhythm is to go to bed around 2 or 3 in the morning, and then sleep until 1 or 2 in the afternoon. So an alarm is deeply necessary. When I was a kid I had first a radio alarm clock, then a CD player alarm clock, and woke to music-- there was like 2 years of high school that I woke up every morning to "Spanish Caravan" by the Doors-- but I grew out of that as an adult, as I learned to sleep through music. I need something annoying. My current alarm just beeps. Whatever. Nothing is going to make getting up before I am naturally slept out any more pleasant or fun. So fuck it.

BTW, this thread makes me want to note that of all the Alarm Clocks, my favorite is Strawberry.

 

I envy you, snowy.

I abuse my internal alarm clock, even though I know I shouldn't. Staying awake until midnight or later night does me no favors, and it's no surprise I hit the snooze bar on the three alarms I have set minutes between one another to force me out of bed.

That being said, aside from consistently training myself to go to bed earlier—which, again, has yet to happen—I want this. I mean, I WANT this fucker. I think it would do me some good.

But getting more sleep would be best of all. Obviously.

 

Like Levite, if I don't have an alarm to wake me up, I'll sleep until one, two, sometimes three in the afternoon.

At the moment, I use my cell phone alarm, and I set it to the most annoying song I have. I also place it across the room, and under a pile of laundry, or in my (clean) underwear bin.

My phone has a silence feature that I totally abuse, too-- just flipping the phone over activates the snooze button. I've gotten into the really bad habit of getting out of bed, then moving to the couch and hitting snoozing for half an hour.

I REALLY want one of those math-y alarm clocks. Thinkgeek used to have them, I think...you have to solve a (fairly simple) equation before it turns off. Either that, or one of the "natural" clocks, that gradually gets lighter and louder the longer you let it go.

 

I use my phone and I have two alarms set: the first alarm is a warning alarm set for one hour before I want to get up, and the second is set for getting-up time.

I don't know whether science would back me up on this but I feel like the one hour warning alarm gets me out of the deeper sleep, the kind that I find it appalling to get directly out of bed from, and so the later alarm is waking me from a lighter sleep and then I don't feel so awful about hauling my ass out of bed. It's sort of like a planned snooze, I suppose.

I think there's something pleasant about knowing you have another hour in bed too. One feeling I always hated was when waking and checking the time to find that it's 7 minutes before getting-up time and there's no avoiding it.

There have been periods when I've set two or three warning alarms before the final one and, while I liked having lots of warnings and the regular sleep interruptions don't bother me, if I had stayed up late or been drinking the previous night the extra sleepiness would sometimes cause me to get confused about which warning I was on and then I'd sleep right on after the final alarm. I could've solved that by setting different alarm tones/tunes but I never really thought that hard about it.

This thread reminded me of this sleep time calculator I saw recommended elsewhere on the web. I haven't (yet) tried it. I guess it wouldn't fit too well with my warning system but maybe it would remove the need for it. Has anybody tried this or similar?

 

I use my phone and have about 5 alarms set.

I had a job about 4 years ago that I truly enjoyed. I worked really long hours, but I think it was the "family" environment I had with my co-workers. I had to be to work at 0500 every morning and really didn't have any problems getting to sleep. This could also be d/t the physical nature of the job. I was awake and out of bed with little problems - although I did still need an alarm clock. Eventually my body and sleep schedule adjusted and I was able to do it on my days off. The alarm clock was just a precaution.

Fast forward to present and I have to be to work at 0600 in a job that I am less than thrilled with. It's not bad, just not the same environment. I can't get out of bed for anything... Usually have trouble going to bed as well.

 

I use to get up on same time each day based on my body clock, go for jogging, return home my t-shirt soaked in sweat, even before my house mates wake up for coffee! That is from my past-life.

Now I use my phone mounted on docking station with power charging & loud speakers to wake me up.
Luckily I out-sleep the alarm very rarely, and I dont get anxious and wake up before it rings.
Sometimes (once a week or so) I wake up, reset alarm to ring again after 30 min or so and sleep again... not deep sleep tough, but sleep again....

so far it works

Ideally I would prefer to wake up on my own, with no pressure, may be by sun coming through a window...

 

I always sleep through at least the first minute of any alarm! My wife will hit me to turn it off. I hate to get up (all my life), and try to get past this, but have never been able to.

My cell starts at 6:05, snoozed at least once, and my ipod alarm (sleep time app), starts usually about 6:10. Some day I may grow out of the need to sleep till ???(Probably not though).

 

Given enough time (and enough diligence on my part to actually go to bed early), my circadian rhythm usually resets itself to 9 hours of sleep, or 9:30am, whichever comes first.

For all other occasions, there's this guy: Amazon.com: Sonic Boom SBB500ss Sonic Bomb Loud Plus Vibrating Alarm Clock: Health & Personal Care

Volume set up halfway (plenty loud for my tiny apartment), buzzer placed under my pillow. Gets my tired ass out of bed, even if it's only far enough to hit the snooze button.

If it's absolutely of importance, I'll also set an alarm on my phone to the most annoying song on the face of the planet: Darude's Sandstorm.
View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HQaBWziYvY


PonyPotato, I'm glad to see someone else has Clocky. One of my best friends from Uni is an insane oversleeper (kind of like I am) and has to rely on Clocky to get herself anywhere on time. It's hilarious seeing her chasing it around in the mornings, cursing and bumbling the whole way.

 

I don't sleep, I wait.

If I have something important, I get a mad case of brain-awake and usually spend the night pacing or posting dumb crap on TFP.

Ugh, yeah, the night before business travel, the night before a presentation or project launch, the night before an interview, etc.

...

When I do use alarms, I'm a "hear it once, wake the fuck up" kinda guy. I never use the snooze button when I'm "on the clock."

I use cellphones as nap timers. If I crash out during the middle of the day, I usually give myself a 90 minute block to zonk out.

I'm also a light sleeper and thus I have a hard time sleeping in rooms with other people that have alarm clocks set for odd times.

 

I LOTHE alarm clocks - always have, always will. Waaaaaaaaaaaay back in high school, I destroyed around 10 of them between freshman and senior year. In the couple decades since, it became surprisingly clear that I did not in fact, need one. I find that if I am rigorous about when I head to bed, and get the same amount of sleep on a regular basis - yes this means no staying up late on weekends, and no sleeping in late just because "its the weekend and I don't have to be up" - but if you can find a way to give those up, and go to bed and get up at the same times daily - you can EASILY do without an alarm clock if the amount of sleep you are scheduling yourself is adequate.

 

I use my phone as an alarm clock. And generally I get up as soon as it goes off. Only if I have woken up for some god forsaken reason in the middle of the night will I hit the snooze.

 

I can't hear alarms if I am sleeping with my hearing aid out, so my alarm clock is a digital face connected to a vibrator that goes in my pillow.

Between that and the dogs, who seem to sense when the alarm is going to go off, I NEVER get to sleep in. I'm usually already half awake before the alarm is actually going off.

 

Hmmm. I think I'd much prefer a vibrator to wake me up than my cat. Or the cell phone alarm.

 

....waiting for cyn to put out a colorful pamphlet "Assorted alarm clocks and interesting ways to utilize them that don't involve being rudely awakened from sleep."

 

Don't like them, plus I work from home so there is never a huge rush to get out the door. The few times I'm getting up early, I sleep terribly and always seem to be up before the alarm anyway.

 

This morning, day two of the four-day weekend of joy, I was awakened by my daily alarm... Ladies and gentlemen, don't forget to turn off your alarms on your days off.

That said, I didn't do back to sleep and went for a good run instead. I suppose it helped that I went to bed at a reasonable hour last night.