Does anyone here know of a foolproof alarm clock that’s not a human being? Recently I purchased a $100 CD radio alarm thingy from Sony so that I could, hopefully, get up in the morning myself. I’ve found that I can sleep through most alarms within 2-3 days of getting them, even the manual ring-ring-ring! ones - Either I sleep through it, it doesn’t work, or I throw it across the room. So I had hoped that this CD and radio alarm would help me wake up, since I wouldn’t be able to know the alarm ahead of time and compensate for it in my sleep, which is what I assume I’m doing when sleeping straight through alarms. However, this new alarm has a prominent OFF button on the front panel, and in my half-consious haze, I just roll over and hit that to turn off the alarm and fall back asleep, forcing my parents to wake me up, which they hate. I guess I could get my mom to play “This little piggy went to market” - hey, it worked when I was in 1st grade. But let’s face it, I’m 16, and that’d look damn stupid now. So what are my other options for working alarm clocks?
A friend of mine, Vynce, had trouble sleeping through classes in college, so his dad made him an alarm clock. It blared at 105 decibels (i.e. Really Loud), and was housed in a thick, steel casing to resist the blows of, say, being thrown against the wall. Vynce put an ordinary alarm clock next to his bed, set for 7:20, and the Monster Clock across the room, set for 7:30. It worked. I heard that in the cases where he didn’t wake up from it, he woke up from his neigbors entering his dorm and cussing at him to turn the bloody thing off.
Sani,
Get some bird feeders so birds will hang out in your yard outside your window. I find it nearly impossible to sleep in, especially in the spring. Why can’t birds go to the bars to meet their mates like everyone else ? Of course you can’t turn this alarm off on the weekend.
Gotta agree here. That’s the only way I can use one. If it’s anywhere near me, I’ll turn it off, go back to sleep, and not even remember turning it off later.
SanibelMan - I know what you mean. My mom used to come upstairs to wake me up because my alarm was so loud it was driving her nuts…this was in her 2-story, 4000sqft, turn-of-the-century monster house. Just loud is not enough! Putting the alarm across the room never worked for me - I am perfectly capable of getting out of bed, crossing the room & turning off the alarm, all without ever truly waking up.
This is what worked for me:
The ever-changing sound does help a lot, but is not enough. It must also be VERY LOUD.
Don’t ever get an alarm with a prominent OFF button. Best: get an alarm with an OFF switch - then SuperGlue the switch to ON. (Did I mention I can still sleep through my alarm on the weekends, when I know I don’t have to get up?)
Get a clock with a prominent SNOOZE button, then train yourself to hit the SNOOZE instead of throwing it across the room. (Takes time, but can be done!) Set the alarm early enough to allow several SNOOZES & still get up on time. I’ve known people that couldn’t use SNOOZE, but it works for me.
Basically you have to set everything up so that you have NO options except to actually get up. Ferinstance, if you turn down the volume & go back to sleep, remove the knob. If you tend to throw it, glue that puppy to something too big to throw. Nothing worked very well for me until I moved out…once I had to get myself up, I started making it happen.
On the bright side…after 20-odd years of getting myself out of bed, I’ve eventually worked my way down to a reasonably normal volume (loud, but not violently so), 1-2 snoozes, etc. And sometimes I even wake up without the alarm!!
My first post! And a (more or less) helpful one too!
I know we’re all too busy for this suggestion, but I’ll make it anyway.
If you have this much trouble waking up, go to bed earlier.
Different people need differing amounts of sleep, so some may need to sack out at different times. This varies with age, and I’ve heard that teenagers generally need more than any others (sure seemed that way with me).
They say that if you need an alarm badly, you’re sleep deprived. I think our whole society falls into that category, I’m afraid.
“If you prick me, do I not…leak?” --Lt. Commander Data
My wake-up solution is to have an alarm clock with two independent alarms. The first one I set to “Radio” and tune to National Public Radio. Not very loud. So I have several news stories insinuating themselves into my dreams by the time my second alarm, set to “Alarm”, goes off.
The radio is never annoying enough for me to turn it off, but since it’s news, it tends to prepare me for true wakeness. Human voices are the key, I think. Plus I don’t think I could ever sleep well with any thought of Slobodan Milosevic in my head.
{{{If you have this much trouble waking up, go to bed earlier.}}}—Saltire
While I generally agree with the above, it’s not always possible.
Back in my college days, I had the same problem–carrying 18 to 24 units will do that to ya.
I modified a Micronta (pronounced Radio Shack) alarm clock to include the resonators and drivers from 3 - FirstAlert smoke detectors. While that generally got me up in time to get to first class, it didn’t always work.
I remember one morning when I became fully conscious: My girlfriend was shaking me by the shoulders as I was standing in front of the dresser, holding the alarm clock in my hands and staring at it–as she put it–angrily.
I remember not fully understanding what the obnoxious creature was, nor the reason for it’s commotion, and was mentally pleading with it to “please be quiet.”
On a couple of other occasions, I have been found snoozing happily with the alarm clock next to my pillow–cord neatly wrapped around it.
–Kalél TheHungerSite.com “If our lives are indeed the sum-total of the choices we’ve made, then we cannot change who we are; but with every new choice we’re given, we can change who we’re going to be.”
Sani - I have the same problem. I’m just not a morning person, although my boss insists I be. Getting married to a light sleeper has helped me tremendously, but that may be a little extreme for you at this point. Here’s what worked best for me before marriage:
Have two alarm clocks, placed on opposite sides of the room, away from the bed.
Have someone else set the time on the clocks. Tell them to set each clock to the same time, but make that time somewhere between 1 - 10 minutes different than the actual time. Take pains NOT to compare your watch to the alarm clacks so you never know how much the alarm clocks are “off”. Have someone reset them as often as necessary.
Set each alarm to a different mode (one music, one buzzer). Make sure both are LOUD.
Set the alarm time 3-5 minutes apart (one at 7:00, the other at 7:03).
Now you have to get up, walk accross the room, hit the snooze on clock 1, go back to bed, repeat 3 minutes later for clock 2, repeat 4 minutes later (assuming a 7 minute snooze cycle) for clock 1, etc, etc. And you can’t do the mental “How much longer 'till I really have to get up?”, because you don’t know the real time. The whole process is such a pain it’s just easier to get up and stay up.
Not that I put much thought into it.
Sig! Sig a Sog! Sig it loud! Sig it Strog! – Karen Carpenter with a head cold
Hey, why not just get one of those Japanese alarms? They have a fiberglass dome covering the alarm, and there’s a 9-digit combo lock that keeps the cover on. You need be somewhat awake just to operate the dang thing, so by the time you unlock the dome and hit the alarm, you should be wide awake.
Waking me up requires four, count 'em, FOUR timed devices.
6:55 - phone rings.
6:58 - TV in living room turns on at high volume, blaring CNN Headline News.
7:00 - light right above my bed, pointed at my face, turns on
7:01 - really, really loud alarm clock near my head goes off. Lately I’ve been turning this one upside-down and changing its location so that I don’t just turn it off.
Anyway. In my case, variance has been the key. Once I get used to the sound of an alarm, it no longer works well. A CD alarm clock may work for you; use different CDs every day, so you don’t become accustomed to the sound. Or, use a clock radio set to a radio station you hate.
Failing that, get a girlfriend who’s willing to sleep over.
If you have so much trouble getting up, maybe you should see a doctor… get tested for mononeucleosis, deafness, or maybe a pitiful lack of self-control.
The best alarm clock I ever had didn’t make any noise. It flashed a light. It never failed to wake me up, even if I was facing the other way under the covers.
Those of you who can’t get up with an alarm…find a way of life that doesn’t require tham. The lowered level of stress will add years of productivity to your life.
Those of you who think that people who sleep through alarms have a problem, consider that it is yourselves who have submitted to the MAN’s notion of responsibility.
