Over the past two weeks, I have tried a little experiment. Due to my flexible schedule, especially in the summer, it really doesn’t matter when I get up in the morning. So I’ve been trying to get up in the morning without an alarm on a regular basis for the first time in my life.
I figured that at first I would probably sleep too much, maybe making up for some lost sleep, but eventually I would find a rhythm and sleep about 8 hours a night. Unfortunately, this hasn’t happened. What’s happened instead is that I get up at around 10 every day, regardless of when I go to sleep the night before. If I go to sleep at 2am, I get up at 10 and feel fine. If I go to bed at 12, though, I still sleep til 10 and then I feel like crap for the rest of the day.
(I live in a basement, and while we do get some light, it’s not enough to wake me up in the morning, so that might be part of it.)
What I’d really like to do is go to bed at 12 on a regular basis, but wake up at 8 instead of 10. How can I get myself to do this without an alarm?
Also, I’m thinking about getting one of those alarm clocks that brightens gradually and releases scent (rather than shocking your system with a loud buzzer or radio). Has anybody tried one of these, and do they work for you? A huge plus is that they have no snooze button, which might be better for me.
If 10 a.m. is clearly your ideal waking time, why do you want to get up at 8 instead? Is it because of a job, or other people’s schedules, or just a feeling that you should?
I’ve found that my inner clock has gotten more predictable as I’ve gotten older. There was a time when getting up was sooo difficult. Now, I could be partying til 2am and I won’t sleep past 6am. If I go to bed at my usual 9-ish, I am always up by 3:30 or 4.
A couple of reasons:
At 10am, it’s hot out and I wake up in a bad mood, while if I get up at 8, it’s a little cooler and I don’t feel overheated when I get up. (We don’t have air-conditioning.)
While I don’t have meetings or anything at work, at least right now, I do feel better when I show up at work at 9 rather than 11. I match other people’s schedules that way, and I get more time in the evening to do non-work things.
And yeah, there’s also that feeling that I should get up earlier, because it feels like the whole morning’s gone if I get up at 10.
I think it’s hard to do that right away without an alarm clock. For me, I find that I need an alarm to help me get used to waking up at a certain time. After a couple weeks I start waking up about a minute before the alarm goes off.
My best experience waking up naturally would be difficult to replicate, but I used to live in a flat with heated tile floors. You could set the heat to come on in the morning, and I always woke up a few minutes after the heat came on, rested.
A more practical suggestion might be putting a white noise machine, or a fan, on a timer. When the noise stops, you really do wake right up, but it’s not as jarring.
Easy. Set your alarm for 8AM (yes, I saw the whole no-alarm-thing, but it’s not permanent). Go to bed at the same time every night, and get up when your alarm goes off for a week. Be consistent. Then throw away your alarm. You shouldn’t have a problem continuing to wake up at 8.
If you are really really really dead set against using an alarm, trying looking at a clock before you go to bed. Then tell yourself you want to wake up at 8am. Repeat it a couple of times. Do this every night before you fall asleep. With some practice, your body should wake itself up at the appropriate time. Especially if you go to bed at the same time every night. This may sounds crazy, but I’ve done it multiple times with great success.
I’ve found that too. I don’t sleep in much past 7am on the weekends, which is fine, because the house is quiet and I can get some computer work (cough checking out SDMB cough) done.
I’ve also found that I generally wake up before the alarm goes off for work. If it’s early enough, I’ll go back to sleep, but if it’s within 30 minutes or so I tend to doze, sort of like I know I have to get up soon but not yet.