I’m a graduate student, and I have 8:30am classes. I live far enough away from school that I must get up at 6:00am. In New Mexico, this wouldn’t have been a problem for me. At 6:00am, I was awake, as long as my curtains let in some amount of light. What I’ve discovered, now that I live in DC, is that it doesn’t get as bright in the mornings as 6:00am in New Mexico until it is 6:00am in New Mexico.
Needless to say, that really doesn’t work for me.
So I’ve decided to splurge and get a Dawn Simulator. I’ve done a search and seen that most people here who have these Dawn Simulators would recommend getting one. However, no one has recommended a specific brand. I’d like some suggestions.
I like to keep the cost down as much as possible. I am a graduate student after all. However, my grades are more important than money (mostly), so I’m willing to look at almost anything.
I’m a graduate student in the D.C. area, but I came here from undergraduate studies in Maine, so my perspective is somewhat the opposite of yours. I’m also a light sleeper with a very unusual sleeping schedule as of late, so feel free to dismiss my recommendations as irrelevant.
In other threads I have mentioned that my alarm is merely a bedside fluorescent lamp plugged into an electric timer. This whole setup costs less than twenty dollars. I have no other alarm, not even an audible one, yet I have never woken up later than 7:00 on a school day. In fact, I usually wake up before my alarm switches on, sometimes as early as 3:30 or 4:00. My schedule allows me the luxury of naps during the day, so that going to bed at 22:00 does not leave me sleep-deprived.
I suppose keeping a regular exercise routine contributes to this consistent, yet bizarre, sleeping schedule. It’s important to maintain a holistic perspective when trying to manipulate daily patterns of living, since sophisticated technological solutions may still fail when the weakest link in the chain is the frailty of human will.
I searched your posts, biqu, and it seems that your set up is a light on a timer. If I’m incorrect, could you please tell me what I’m missing? If I’m correct, I don’t think that’s what I’m looking for. I really do want a set up that ramps the light up slowly. I think that the only thing more vile than being woken up by a bright light assaulting your eyelids is that same light then being flicked on and off until you scream at your sister and your mother tells you two to knock it off.
Your conclusions about my alarm setup are correct. I considered the possibility that such an abrupt alarm might not work in your case, but I have no experience with the gradual alarms you might be interested in.
I do recall having difficulties with waking up in the morning when I had to adjust to daylight conditions in Maine after years living in North Carolina and other southern latitudes. I got a recommendation for a phototherapy device (high-powered lamp) and the book Winter Blues by Norman Rosenthal, M.D., which discusses seasonal affective disorder and several treatments, including light therapy. Rosenthal’s book provides a list of manufacturers/distributors of special light fixtures, including one based in Gaithersburg MD. Rosenthal also reviews several dawn simulators and describes his own personal regimen for combatting seasonal depression.
