I’ve missed a few hours of work and several classes in the past week because I haven’t been getting up on time. At first, I assumed that my alarm had been malfunctioning. Then I thought that maybe I wasn’t pressing the “alarm” pin down when I went to sleep.
But last night, as I was in bed, I glanced at my alarm and saw - for sure - that it was set for 8:30 AM. Yet I woke up at 1:00 PM today. And when I looked at the alarm clock, the pin was in the “off” position.
The only reasonable conclusion I can think of is that I have become so adept at turning off my alarm clock that I simply do not remember turning it off. I do not remember turning my alarm clock off last night - not even a ghost of a ghost of a memory. Nothing. But the evidence is right there: last night it was down, now it is up, and I have no memory of touching my alarm.
I recommend putting the alarm clock on the other side of the room, which will force you to get out of bed and go turn it off.
Someone posted a link to the Marquis de Sade of alarm clocks…the damn thing would bounce around on the floor and you’d have to catch it to turn it off.
If you are over sleeping by 5 hours, I suggest you go to bed earlier. I have been waking up at 5:30 for twenty years. I don’t even really need the alarm clock anymore, I just open my eyes every morning to see “5:29” in glowing red.
I started doing that too at some point in my life.
Lucky for me, my still-asleep habit is to turn off the beeping but leave on the radio (it’s a radio alarm clock). I rarely remember hearing the beep or turning off the beep, but I always wake up to horrible crap on the radio and force myself to get out of bed just so I can turn it off.
I can see that thing inducing a heart attack in some poor soul. Now this one gently pulls you out of sleep slowly, so your heart doesn’t do that nasty adrenalin jump.
OP, do you have pets? A curious cat could be messing with your alarm’s pin.
If not, just put the damn thing far enough away that you have to get up and walk over to it to turn it off. For most people, standing up and walking brings wakefulness; rolling over and whacking at something with your arm might not.
I knew a guy who kept two alarm clocks - set about a minute or two apart - to prevent precisely the same problem as theOP.
I’ve been known to wake up just enough to turn off that pestery alarm without actually reaching a conscious state.
I fixed that with two changes:
One, I moved the clock to the other side of the room, so I actually have to walk all the way around the bed and over to the other side in order to turn it off.
Two, I somehow acquired a pesky whiny cat who won’t stop at anything to wake me up when she wants breakfast. She’s even been known to french kiss me if I’m unwise enough to sleep with my mouth open.
Assuming you don’t want to bother with the cat part, do consider moving the clock to a spot that isn’t easily reachable… it’ll make a huge difference, trust me.
On the other hand, my son, who sleeps with the alarm clock right next to his head, will continue to sleep with the alarm blaring until I go in to turn if off and physically toss him from the bed.
I find this time of year is always difficult as the sun ceases to be up when I have to awaken. One of these Security Lamp Timer makes all the difference for me. It turns on the lamp about an hour before I have to wake up, so that by the time my alarm goes off, I’m ready. You may want to pay the extra five bucks for the digital one, as some of the mechanical ones make an annoying ticking noise.
Actually, I have a 27 pound alarm clock who has been doing the job just great for the last 2.5 years . . . requires near-constant maintenance though.
I’m never aware the first time my alarm goes off. Sometimes not even the second. I’ve compensated by setting the initial alarm back by 9 minutes to allow for the automatic snooze feature that I’ve evolved.
However, there’ve been times where it hasn’t worked… one can stumble across the room and turn the clock off and stumble back to bed. Been years since that happened, though.
Alternately, a second alarm, set for a couple of minutes later, can be helpful.
1:00pm? You obviously need more sleep. I’ve had your situation happen to me twice, except I vaguely remember turning off the alarm the second time. I would turn it off, lay back down for a second, and then instantly fall asleep.
When I was a teen, I started turning off the alarm clock in my sleep.
So I had to the the “move it across the room, right next to the door” thing. By the time I got there and turned it off, my towel was right there and I was steps from the shower.
