# Why can't some people wake up to an alarm? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 4, 2004, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-some-people-wake-up-to-an-alarm/222642 "2004-01-04T15:00:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![5cents](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/5/46a35a/32.png) [@5cents](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5cents)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2004, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-some-people-wake-up-to-an-alarm/222642/21 "2004-01-05T16:42:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by zabrain \* > \*\*When I was in high school my dad put a timer on my stereo (with the big 18" speakers) and had a cassette of “The Ride of Valkyrie” cued up. They still make those timers. \*\* When I was in college living in dorms, I had a pretty loud boom box, and it had a timer. I needed to wake up for an exam, so I popped in an AC/DC tape, set the timer and cranked the volume. Half an hour after the tape started, I was awoken by pounding on my door. Pretty much everybody on the floor (15 rooms) had been pounding on my door since my “alarm” fired up. ---
**Author:** ![Mops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mops/32/16494_2.png) [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2004, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-some-people-wake-up-to-an-alarm/222642/22 "2004-01-05T18:47:41Z")
Waking up seems also depend on the social meaning of the noise - at least it does for me. I have often found it proven that I had walked across the room, had switched off the alarm clock, had gone back to bed and overslept _without later remembering switching off the alarm_. On the other hand, the telephone bell (no louder than the alarm clock) wakes me without fail. Which is why I now order a wake-up call every working day. ---
**Author:** ![bughunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@bughunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bughunter)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2004, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-some-people-wake-up-to-an-alarm/222642/23 "2004-01-05T20:21:32Z")
I am one of those deep sleepers the OP mentions. I slept thru a roommate getting arrested by campus police. I slept thru a 6.5-point earthquake centered only a few miles away. I have slept thru numerous prank applications of makeup, permanent markers, foodstuffs, paint, and various gaseous, solid, and liquid bodily excreta. I have worn out countless alarm clocks by sleeping through their alarms for hours on end. I’ve gone on searches of three or four chain department stores for the loudest, most obnoxious alarm clocks in a fruitless effort to find one that can awaken me with regularity. I’ve been frustrated by poor alarm clock designs that have the off buttons right next to the snooze buttons, that have volume controls for the buzzers right next to the snooze buttons, that destroy themselves as a part of their intended operation, that forget their alarm times if buttons are blindly and randomly pressed by groggy sleepers groping for the snooze control, that, in general, are piss poor examples of human interface design, quality control, and reliability engineering. I’ve programmed MP3 players, arranged phone calls, rigged boomboxes with lamp timers, programmed programmable universal remotes to blare Willard Scott’s annoying drivel at 6am, and nothing… absolutely _nothing_, has ever worked for more than a week or so. Except one thing: a hungry cat. Train your cat that the alarm clock means feeding time, and you will never miss another important meeting. The cat will make sure you rise and shine… Or at least rise and feed the cat… after that, it’s your problem. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2004, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-some-people-wake-up-to-an-alarm/222642/24 "2004-01-05T21:59:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tschild \* > \*\*I now order a wake-up call every working day. \*\* If your job has a voice-mail system that allows you to schedule message calls, you can set one of these up yourself. If that doesn’t work, and you have a cell phone or pager with text-messaging enabled, you can use email to do the same thing. I regularly sleep through my alarm (to my wife’s great annoyance), but the cell phone in the other room wakes me up with a start, at which point I scare the hell out of the cat by dashing naked through the house to see what’s blown up at work… ---
**Author:** ![clayton\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c57346/32.png) [@clayton\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clayton_e)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2004, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-some-people-wake-up-to-an-alarm/222642/25 "2004-01-05T22:16:48Z")
I have the problem of turning off alarms and going back to sleep… without remembering it. This a.m. I had my alarm set for 10, I think. I woke up with my alarm unplugged and across the room. I have no recollection of what happened, but I think I can guess. ---
**Author:** ![Draknek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@Draknek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Draknek)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2004, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-some-people-wake-up-to-an-alarm/222642/26 "2004-01-05T22:30:37Z")
I have an alarm clock that slowly changes its sound every half a minute or so. I think it said it has 5 different sounds. I don’t know how useful it would be; just a suggestion. I have no problem waking up, my problem is making myself get out of the bed when I do so. ---
**Author:** ![kasuo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8c91f0/32.png) [@kasuo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kasuo)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2004, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-some-people-wake-up-to-an-alarm/222642/27 "2004-01-05T22:32:48Z")
Light sleeper checking in. It’s a curse. However, my friend is a very deep sleeper and has an alarm that rotates between alarm sounds every few seconds. I’m not sure if it’s been mentioned or if it even exists, but the same friend also mentioned an alarm clock that has a snooze button similar to that old game “Simon Says”. Basically you’d have to push the correct sequence of lit buttons in order to enable the snooze feature. This would theoretically annoy the person enough that by the time they get it, they’d be awake. ---
**Author:** ![carimwc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ac8455/32.png) [@carimwc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carimwc)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2004, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-some-people-wake-up-to-an-alarm/222642/28 "2004-01-05T22:45:21Z")
I’m a light sleeper. I agree that it’s a curse. My boyfriend is a very deep sleeper- so much that he has slept through a drive-by shooting near his house, all the sirens and lights blaring and shining just outside his window, and his dad standing over him trying to wake him up. He also has this weird thing of waking up but not really waking up. He’ll seem awake, talk to you about normal things, and then go right back to sleep and not remember a thing about it. His alarm consists of a very loud, gradual set of beeps with the cell phone vibrator on. When placed on a hard surface it’s very loud. I hate it. It wakes me up in an instant and I usually have to hit him a few times to get him to turn that thing off. Someone sneezing in the next room wakes me up. Woe to when I have kids. I’ll never sleep. ---
**Author:** ![RadioOrange](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a9adbd/32.png) [@RadioOrange](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RadioOrange)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2004, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-some-people-wake-up-to-an-alarm/222642/29 "2004-01-06T02:30:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by zabrain \* > \*\* > > My wife, on the other hand, wakes anytime a mouse farts in the yard. > > \*\* You might want to sprinkle some of [this](http://store3.yimg.com/I/phillypharmacyinc_1770_2053259) to take care of that problem. 😉 😛 It could be lack of sleep. FOr me, it depends on why I’m waking up. IF I have a day off and am setting it just to get up then I’ll probably sleep through it (or turn it off without remembering), but if I have to work then it’ll wake me up within a minute. ---
**Author:** ![seaworthy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a8b319/32.png) [@seaworthy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seaworthy)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2004, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-some-people-wake-up-to-an-alarm/222642/30 "2004-01-06T04:00:07Z")
I’m a really deep sleeper, too, and I also do that wierd thing where I open my eyes and talk to people with no recollection of it when I actually wake up. But I’ve also got a crazy internal clock, so if I go to bed at night and think, “I must wake up at 7:45” I will. It’s not just me getting used to waking up at the same time, because no matter what time I need to wake up I always do, usually within 5 minutes of that time. So I don’t need an alarm clock. But a while back I read a Dear Abby column written by someone with the same problem and she suggested getting an old alarm clock (you know, with actual bells) and putting it in a pot. Apparently it makes such an almighty racket that no one can sleep through it. I guess the alarm clock bounces around in the pot and it changes the sound enough that you can’t ignore it. ---
**Author:** ![teleute12](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@teleute12](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teleute12)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2004, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-some-people-wake-up-to-an-alarm/222642/31 "2004-01-06T09:14:32Z")
My problem isn’t waking up to the alarm - I usually do that pretty well. However, in college I would wake to the alarm, bang the clock to snooze, and get back into bed and go back to sleep. Of course, it helped that my dorm room was set up so there was maybe one step between the bed and where I had the alarm. Also, I think that this might have been an issue of “wouldn’t” rather than “couldn’t”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-some-people-wake-up-to-an-alarm/222642.md?page=1)