I have wondered this for years: Quite often (several times a month), especially when I have an important appointment I am afraid of oversleeping for, I will wake up in a panic exactly ONE minute before the alarm is scheduled to ring- this can be true even when I cannot initially recall the time it was set for. It seems weird, as I NEVER wake up in a panic say ten minutes before, or an hour before. It suggests that somewhere within the noodle lies a VERY accurate timepiece, only we don’t have normal access to it. Or does it?
I realize this sounds a little Loonie Tunes, but I have experienced this since my teen years and have always wondered about it.
First of all, if you’re waking up a minute before the alarm when you don’t even know what the alarm’s been set for, you’re talking psychic rather than clock accuracy, and I won’t address what I think of that.
Second, even assuming you’re correct accuracy within a minute, that to me doesn’t seem VERY accurate. We’ve had clocks more accurate than that for centuries.
We wake up several times during a typical nights sleep. Normally we remember none of it. On the odd occasion that it coincides with somethign else, such as an alarm, it seems spooky. When the alarm was also set for something important, it seems very spooky. But spooky is all it is.
No, I don’t think it means evidence of “psychic” ability- it suggests that SOMEHOW, one is aware of the time on quite an accurate level. A margin of minus one minute does seem like a small margin to me, sorry- the fact that we have had clocks more accurate than that for centuries is irrelevant- I am not a clock and even if I were, well, I just don’t see the relevance. Of course, the possibility for a plus one minute detection ability will never be known, as the alarm will have already rang!
I would welcome a boring prosaic explanation to this, believe me.
[QUOTE=Takeo Jr]
No, I don’t think it means evidence of “psychic” ability- it suggests that SOMEHOW, one is aware of the time on quite an accurate level. and I should have added, a less than immediately conscious memory of the time the alarm is set for. After all, though I don’t remember it, I DID set it…
I can get into a mode where I wake up at nearly exactly 5:55 each morning. Sometimes between +4 /- 10 minutes, but it is amazingly close. My alarm goes off at 6:00. This last week, I woke up every morning at very near 5:55, and turned my alarm off before it woke me. Don’t ask me how my body got such consistency.
When I set an alarm (most weekdays) I usually wake a few minutes before the alarm goes off. I think it’s pretty much just habit but I usually have a good sense of elapsed time when I’m awake, too. Also, when I wake up in the middle of the night I like to predict the time before I look at my clock. I’m usually within 15 minutes of correct time. Not a great margin of accuracy but it’s all I have.
I was going to reply saying I have had this same event happen to me thinking I was “psychic” too… but after reading Una’s post about a schedule, it might make more sense. I used to wake up seconds before my alarm clock consistently. I don’t mean once or twice, but at least 4 out of the 5 week days I set my clock. My reasoning being is I have a VERY loud alarm clock… one that scares the bejeezus out of me. I think my body soon learned to avoid the scare by waking up before it went off. But since I was on a schedule, perhaps my body adapted that way. But I do still believe my body’s internal clock is pretty accurate, since I can “beat” the alarm by mere seconds. I know, just anecdotal evidence, but I thought I would share.
I experience something strange in regards to time. I’ll put something in the oven and set the timer for 15 min, 20 min, whatever. I will go and do something else while baking (surf the internet, usually). After a while I will get up and check on whatever is baking, and 9 times out of 10 the buzzer will go off as I’m waking into the kitchen. I don’t look at my computer clock and keep track that way. I suppose I can smell what is baking and figure it is almost done, but the fact that the buzzer will often go off the very second I enter the kitchen is spooky.
[QUOTE=Takeo Jr]
No, I don’t think it means evidence of “psychic” ability- it suggests that SOMEHOW, one is aware of the time on quite an accurate level. and I should have added, a less than immediately conscious memory of the time the alarm is set for. After all, though I don’t remember it, I DID set it…
A woman I work with doesn’t set her alarm because she says she wakes up regularly during the night worried that she has missed it. If she doesn’t set it she just wakes at the time she chooses. When I was surveying one of my staff used to be able to have a nap for any period of time he chose. We would lay down after lunch for say 20 minutes and Dave would wake 20 minutes later. He was a country boy and insisted that anyone could do it with practice. He also didn’t use an alarm.
I agree with Cecil as to the Pavlovian conditioning. Even though I haven’t needed to get up at 5:00 every morning for years, I still wake up at 5:00. I haven’t bothered with setting an alarm clock for years, unless I’m getting up earlier for an airline connection or something. Now days, at least I am able to get back to sleep after waking up so I imagine my 5:00 conditioning will eventually cease. Although, listening to Bob & Tom at 5:00 is almost worth waking up early for. Yes, I am a friend of Hal…
I have the uncanny ability to set the microwave for say, nine minutes, for a frozen lasagna, and then almost always walk into the kitchen to check on it for the first and only time right as it clicks down the final 2 or 3 seconds. Now that’s spooky.
The Pavlovian conditioning sounds like a good solution, but the problem is- this even happens to me on a mobile phone with an alarm, which I’m fairly sure is NOT emitting any pre-alarm noises. I rarely if ever bolt out of sleep, check the time, and find I have hours left I have to put my glasses on to see the clock, so I am quite lucid by the time I actually see the actual time.
Boyo Jim’s comments (which sounded a little derisive) aside, it’s nice to know that other people have reported a similar experience. Though waking at 5 AM everyday would not impress BJ, to be sure…He might just compare you to something EXPLICITLY designed for such accuracy!
I think the point about the accuracy is just that it’s all relative. It seems like 1 minute is pretty accurate for a human body, but compared to clocks, it’s really horribly inaccurate. Since the only thing we can really compare our internal clock’s accuracy to is an external, machine clock, it doesn’t seem all that accurate.
That said, in high school I used to go to sleep repeating the words, “Wake up at 7, wake up at 7” over and over without setting any alarm and I’d wake up at about 6:55 to around 7 every time. I’m guessing that my own intense desire to prove myself right, along with the routine of waking up then, probably made me more likely to become awake during those times. I still think it’s cool though.
I’ve never relied on an alarm clock and I can always wake up when I am supposed to. Like others have said, timers on the microwave and stove usually go off within seconds of my approach. I don’t wear a watch regularly and can usually guess the time within a few minutes either way.
This may be due to training on a conscious level as well as conditioning. As Cecil said in his column, we have an internal rythym that is on about a 25 hour day, when isolated from external stimuli. During a normal day however, we are constantly reminded of the exact time. So our clock stays pretty close (generally speaking)
I used to work on a ranch way out in the middle of nowhere, by myself for long intervals (hours mostly but sometimes days). I realized this ability then. I could always guess the time within minutes. You know when noon is right? When a shadow points north (northern hemisphere anyway) or when it is shortest in length…that’s lunchtime. Reading the shadows or the sun’s elevation like a clock is another way of keeping track. I used to have a tall powerpole in the front yard where I once lived. It was an ugly sight, but a few well placed stones and a little landscaping I made a cool sundial that was large enough to see from afar.
Only time my internal clock doesn’t seem to function is when I’m on the boards.
Gotta go…
In college I saw my psych professor being hypnotized by a professional hypnotist he’d invited to the class. He went under and his eyes were closed the whole time. There was no clock or watch visible from where he was sitting, even if his eyes had been opened. The hypnotist told him to raise his hand after exactly 60 seconds had elapsed. He raised his hand after EXACTLY 60 seconds. I saw him do this on two different occasions.
I frequently wake up 2-3 minutes before my alarm goes off, too. I doubt I’ve been classically conditioned, as I never use alarm clocks that tick. I notice it most often when I set my alarm for a time different from when I normally get up.
