I tried that. Doesn’t work for me. I can’t pop out of bed. I need to ease into the day.
I use my cell. The standard alarm on the alarm clock startles me away and makes me grumpy and music never seems right. Also, contrary to one above poster, having the same sound helps me to wake up. It can be at a quiet volume and it somehow still triggers a wake up reflex. I even made my mother change her message received noise while I was driving because it was what I use for my alarm and it kept making me jump.
Also as a bonus you can only snooze my alarm about 5 times before it won’t let you any more.
I use my cellphone as my alarm clock. I’m good at picking up only “my” alarm ever since I slept on the other side of the wall from my parents: the phone or Dad’s clock would not wake me up, my clock would not wake him.
Getting a new alarm clock may take a few days until I identify that one as “my” alarm; this one took very little, as the alarm sound is an mp3 I cut from a song, choosing it specifically because it’s loud and the probability that anybody else in Spain will have that specific live version of that specific song as a ringtone is ridiculously low (it’s from Sons of Maxwell).
Radio alarms don’t work for me: since the songs aren’t labeled as “my alarm” in my mind, I’ll just work them into whatever I’m dreaming about. There have been times I’ve managed to sleep through early-morning religious procesions; whenever one of those has awakened me, there was a horrid-sounding megaphone involved, but people singing / chanting / praying /ringing bells / clapping, or even marching bands? No problem, I’ll just dream there is a marching band moving across wherever the dream happens to take place!
I don’t use mine routinely, but I do when I’m travelling since I never trust that I’ve figured out the hotel alarm clock properly. At home, I like having the cell phone stashed in my purse and don’t want to have to fumble to find it.
Plus I keep my purse by the bedside, while at home the electric alarm clock is across the room. The stumbling helps wake me up, I think.
Oh - and I never have the radio wake me to music - has to be a buzzer. Typo Knig likes to set his to wake to music with fairly frequent unplanned results - either it just doesn’t get through to him, or the cleaning service accidentally (or deliberately?) tweaks the volume down.
Loud and jarring is exactly what I don’t want in an alarm. Any noise wakes me. I don’t need it to be particularly loud or distinctive. I prefer the gentle tones of a public radio announcer, but I’ll settle for a mild cell phone chime if I have to.
I am a very light sleeper and my cell phone is more than adequate to wake me up. I need a little more practice though in setting it. Recently I set my alarm but forgot to actually enable it. Fortunately, I was only using it as a reminder to do something that was not super time sensitive and remembered shortly after it was supposed to go off anyway.
which is just odd. in fact, my alarm is set up so that i have to navigate a series of quizzes before i can hit the snooze button; so i end up lying in bed waiting for it to chime again. that is more relaxing to me than to simply drop back into sleep to be awakened again just a few minutes later.
I use music on my iPhone as an alarm. Specifically, the Drifters’ “Up on the Roof”.
The combination of sound and vibration makes my cell phone function perfectly to wake me up.
Matthew Battles, in the current issue of The Atlantic:
I find it interesting that he implies that watchmakers are trying to stay competitive by loading their wristwatches with additional functions.
My cell is my backup alarm, mainly used when traveling. I wouldn’t trust the battery enough to use it every day at home. My boyfriend uses his for an alarm clock, though, to the extent that I’ve come to loathe the alarm noise because it means “time to wake up for an absurdly early flight.”
I have for quite awhile. I usually use my “old” cell phone, too. To me it’s a vastly superior option as 1) I can move it away from me so I get up to turn it off 2) It buzzes and plays music 3) It runs on a battery that I can see the level of, unlike most cheap alarm clocks that are plug in and die in the event of a power outtage (happened to me several times).
ETA: My old boss was just 30 and of my coworkers were under 26. One day one of them shows up to the meeting crazy late, like 45 minutes late. There were power outtages the night before, but the boss was completely confused. We all used our current or an old cell phone, just so that situation didn’t happen. He didn’t really accept the excuse for “my alarm clock was reset”; he saw it as a generally dumb idea to start with.
Using an alarm clock is a generally dumb idea to start with?
Using a plug in one without a battery backup, I gathered. As opposed to a cell phone with a battery level you can monitor.
Because you work for some kind of emergency services organization?
I have the best of both worlds. My cell phone charging station has a clock display and a set of controls that allows me to use music from my cell phone or the preconfigured buzz tones within itself as the waking noise. In addition my phone starts off each day with a full charge.
And acsenray, the dumb idea part was relying on a wake up method without backup. Heck even before cell phones I always used alarm clocks with a battery backup. Power doesn’t go out often but it’s not that hard to be prepared for it.
I don’t use my cell phone as my alarm clock normally (at home in my own bed), but when I’m on the road I usually do. Never had any problems. The only time I haven’t used it is when the battery was low and I stupidly forgot to bring the charger with me.
If it’s rare, and the consequences aren’t dire, then why take the trouble to be prepared for it?
That’s why I always drink a tall glass of water before I go to bed.
Backup.
Ah yes, the old “pee on your alarm clock to create an electric current” trick.