Trouble getting up in the a.m.

In My Humble Opinion
1

Does anyone else have trouble with their alarm not waking them up in the morning?

I’ve always had problems with waking up in the morning, but recently it’s gotten much worse. My sleeping habits have not changed a bit, I always get enough sleep. I started setting a wake up call at http://www.iping.com, which doesn’t even wake me up anymore, and I’ve moved my alarm clock across the room so that I have to get out of bed to shut it off, and this worked for a while, as hitting snooze too many times used to be the problem, but lately I’ve just slept right through the alarm. Usually, this is not a tragedy, I will wake up on my own at 7:00 (have to be at work at 8:00, I live 3 blocks away, no big whoop). However, today I slept until 11:30. Thankfully, I have a very cool supervisor, she didn’t even write me up (I just have to make up the hours I missed). It’s bizarre, because I went to bed at the same time as usual last night.

Anyway, does anyone else have a similar problem? What do you do?

2

My sleep cycles are in solid blocks of four hours. I almost always wake up in the middle of the night four hours after when I fell asleep (not when I went to bed), even if I had no real reason to get up (had to pee, raid the cookie jar, etc.). I then go back to bed & almost always wake up four hours after that. This doesn’t seem to change even if I go to bed a unusual times.

The only exceptions are when I’ve had a seriously stressful or overtime-intensive week, and I don’t get enough sleep for several nights in a row. In that case, I usually sleep straight through the night & wake up later than I’d like to.

Your situation sounds like a sleep abnormality of some sort, not just that of a chronic oversleeper.

3

It definitely sounds like a sleep disorder. I recommend consulting a sleep specialist. I’m a former insomniac who now sleeps eight solid hours nightly thanks to proper treatment.

4

Yep. It’s at the point where I have 4 alarm clocks(kitchen, living room, and 2 in the bedroom), the television, and the coffeepot set every night. This is usually fine. Except for a little while ago, when I managed to oversleep by 4.5 hours. I have to get up at 4:30 for work. On that particular Monday, I didn’t move, hear an alarm or anything until the phone rang at 8:55. It was my boss.

My boss was totally cool about it too. More worried about me than upset, because I am NEVER late for anything. More likely to be early.

As to why you might be having this problem? Is there anything exceptionally stressful going on in your life? Any changes in your health/exercise level/caffeine intake? Did you recently quit smoking? Take up smoking? Any one of these things can have an effect on your sleep.

What I have learned, is, if I have to get up in the morning, to be somewhere important, I sleep on the sofa, then I’m sure to get up.

5

I’ve tried the two alarm clocks thing, and setting the alarm clock on the other side of the room. Natch. I’ll just jump out of bed, hit the alarm clock snooze button, and be back in bed and asleep within 10 seconds. After about 45 minutes of this I might get up.

I notice that radio seems to do a better job at waking me up than an alarm. I almost never sleep through full blast radio, though occasionally sleep through a buzzer. The gratingly annoying AM talk shows tend to get me up.

You could also try buying a CD alarm clock, setting it to full volume, across the room, and putting in some “special music” that will annoy you awake.
I don’t know how I managed to get up at 6:30 am for high school . . .

6

Oh yeah, when I first saw this, I thought it said “trouble getting it up in the a.m.”
:smiley:

7

I have come to realize that I am not a morning person. I have worked days most of my adult life and I have had continuous problems ‘getting up’ for work. (it probably hurts me a bit I cant say no to partying!) :eek:
I have gone through the periods of moving my alarm, setting two alarms, etc… The only thing that ever worked for me was to set my alarm ahead without looking before I went to bed. This way I wouldnt know exactly what time it was and couldnt say “Oh, I can sleep another ten minutes”.

I now work 2-Midnight, Sun-Wed. It is the best thing to ever happened to my work schedule.

8

Might I recommend an alarm clock designed for deaf people? There’s two kinds- one flashes a bright light, the other makes your pillow vibrate. They’re effective.

9

Well, here’s what I’m trying for tomorrow. I’ve left the alarm clock across the room. I have moved my phone into my bedroom so it rings right next to my ear and I have changed the number of rings before my voicemail picks up to 8 instead of 4. I have my wake-up call set for 5:30 (I’m going in to work at 7:00) and a friend calling me at 6:00. Also, I have downloaded a desktop alarm clock that plays mp3s and I have set it to play Werewolves of London at full volume, also at 5:30.

My apartment is going to be a very loud place come 5:30 and if these measures don’t wake me up, my neighbors pounding on the door will. Hehe…now I just have to get to sleep after sleeping in until 11:30 this morning. Arrghhh.

Thanks for the help everyone!

If this doesn’t work or bothers the neighbors too much, I think I shall look into the alarm clocks for deaf people.

10

I normally awake with the sun so spring, summer and fall are fine. Now as we enter into the winter with it’s shorter days and longer nights I am going to be screwed. I will soon find it nearly impossible to wake up. About the only thing that gets me jumping out of bed is my kids. Daddy hearing you know?

Seasonal Affective Disorder is a bitch.

11

“one that converses more
with the buttock of the night
than with the forehead of the morning”
–Coriolanus, Act 1, Scene ii

[sub]In other words, me, too[/sub]

12

And you have to be up at 7 am?

You’re not getting enough sleep on the front end.

Most of the population is sleep deprived as a matter of course. The reasons for that are varied, but include having too much to do, the rise of cable tv, and being online. The parents of small children never get enough sleep until the kids leave for college, to give another example.

Time just flies by and the next thing you know it’s the middle of the night and you have to be up in a very few hours.

I’ve met quite a few people that state, “Oh, I never need more than 4 or 5 hours a night, max. Been like that for years.” Okay, for one night don’t turn on the alarm and tell me what happens. Most of 'em sleep and keep on sleeping . . . 8, 10, 12 hours. One guy I know was so sleep deprived after years of “never need more than 4 hours a night” that for a bit there every time he sat down he fell fast asleep. Going to bed earlier for a couple of months improved his waking life considerably.

I’m not talking about real sleep disorders; those are all too real. (One of my best friends had apnea, damn near killed him.)And Seasonal Affective Disorder is equally as real and problematic. (Best solution; get more of the right kind of light in your life, from sunlight to building a light box or light room in your house. An hour a day in the right light is often all it takes to keep that autumnal depression from settling in.)

Never been able to understand why getting a good night’s sleep is considered so negatively in the first place. For many people sleeping more than a few hours a night is something to brag about and the very notion that someone might need more is a sign of their moral failings.

Perhaps you need to look at your own body rhythms a little more closely. All of us are different and for every person that’s singing with the larks in the am there’s someone doing the boogie with the owls. Just how they’re wired.

For instance I’m a night person by nature, but if I go to bed before midnight I’ll probably sleep the night through. If I stay up, I usually catch a wave of energy that can keep me going until way later. This is not helpful when you have to be up and at 'em in those bright and early times.

Hope you find your solution, whatever it might be. And sweet dreams.

your humble TubaDiva

13

Last night was an exception, I’m usually in bed by 11:00 - 11:30 at the latest. However, having slept until 11:30 a.m. yesterday, I found getting to sleep at my usual time rather difficult, so I got up again. I usually get between 6 and 7 hours, which should be plenty, one would hope, and even on the weekends when I get 8-9 hours, I have difficulty waking up.

Anyway, I managed to get up at my scheduled time this morning, the only thing that really helped was moving the phone next to my bed. I slept right through the alarm clock and full-volume Werewolves of London. Vibrating pillow, here I come…plus, I think I’m going to make an appointment to see a doctor about this, not only do I have problems waking up, but I’m usually quite drowsy when I’m at work.

14

What about alarm clocks for blind people?

I know someone who misreads the clock and goes back to sleep. He regularly sleeps through the alarm, so he depends on looking at the clock for the correct time. There are a number of problems here, but I think a ‘speaking’ clock would work well for him. Anyone here heard of one?

15

I stay up until 3 4 or 5 usually and sleep until 10:30 during the week when I work noon-9 and then I sleep most of the day away saturday and sunday because I am online lat at night. However I never was a morning person.

16

For a lot of people, “6-7 hours” isn’t enough.

Seeing a doctor is a good idea, there might be something that needs looking at going on with you.

Ever had any thyroid trouble, for instance?

Before my problem got diagnosed I fell asleep every time I sat down . . . always felt sleepy . . . didn’t really get restorative sleep. When I began taking supplemental thyroid, most of that vanished.

It’s a common problem and, thankfully, easily fixed.

Hope you find out what’s going on and you have some great getting up mornings.

your humble TubaDiva
who has stayed up way too late and will hate herself tomor–I mean, later on.

17

In high school I set my alarm for very early because I wanted to get up and do makeup (back then I cared about that sort of thing) and it was set earlier than my parents. I put it on the other side of my room so that I would have to get up and turn it off. This alarm clock sounds like a nuclear holocaust warning.

The first few days I woke up and got up, in the next few days I got up and turned it off and hit the bed and didn’t remember any of it, and finally, I just slept on with the clock blaring on and on and on. My parents made me stop setting it.

The only thing that helps me is like a timer on a lamp – a very bright lamp to shine in my eyes, and a clock, and loud tunes, and a telephone call.

I need to find a night schedule for work. I feel best a night. It has never mattered what time I went to bed. Glad to know I’m not alone.