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I'll put in a plug for ditching your alarm clock. I was a terrible snoozer for years. At my worst, I went through a bad progression: I moved my alarm clock acr
by japhyr 12y ago
I'll put in a plug for ditching your alarm clock.
I was a terrible snoozer for years. At my worst, I went through a bad progression: I moved my alarm clock across the room, so I'd have to get out of bed to hit snooze. I got so I could walk across the room, stand on a chair, reset the snooze, and go back to sleep without ever knowing it. I removed the snooze button from my alarm clock, and covered the hole with tape. I would wake up, walk across the room, stand on a chair, manually set the alarm 9 minutes later, and go back to sleep without ever waking up. I did that for hours each morning.
The thing that finally worked for fixing my sleep habits: never using an alarm. I committed fully to a no-alarm mindset. It had a number of results:
- I got up out of bed the first time I woke up each day. It was easy because it was at a natural waking point. I got up easily an hour and a half earlier than I would with an alarm.
- I went to bed earlier, because I knew I had to get enough sleep. I couldn't just trust the alarm to wake me, so I paid more attention to how my body felt.
- I got sick much less. When I was getting run down, my body would sleep longer.
I've been living without an alarm for over twenty years now. I've never missed a test, a flight, anything, except I was late for work once. (It helps that I usually get up hours before I have to be at work, so if I need extra sleep I can get it without being late.)
- rgbrenner 12y agoI do the same thing with my alarm -- walk across the room and manually set it for 10 minutes later.. sometimes several times... sometimes without even remembering. So what does no alarm mean in practice? How early do you go to bed? and how early do you need to be at work? Does this mean going to bed at 8pm?
- QuixoticChris 12y agoI've been moving in this direction for a few months as well. In the beginning, yes, it might mean going to bed at 8 or 9. People who snooze like this (I used to) are probably going around with a significant "sleep debt". For example, if I set no alarm a couple of months ago, I would sleep for 12 hours. If I set no alarm again the next night, I would sleep for 12 hours again. After maybe a couple of weeks of heavy sleeping (see note), your pattern will hopefully return to where you can go to bed at a normal time again without worrying about oversleeping. NOTE: I don't recommend trying to make up that sleep night after night. Two nights of 12 hours in a row leave me feeling not my best. But consistently getting above-average amounts of sleep for an extended period of time will move you in that direction. (9.5ish has been good for me.)
- japhyr 12y agoThese days I go to bed around midnight, give or take half an hour. I get up anywhere from 5:00-6:30. If I can get to bed around 10:00, I wake up at 4:00 or 4:30. I can't remember exactly what happened when I first stopped using the alarm, but I remember a couple patterns: - I used to set an alarm for 6:00, and snooze until 7:30 or so. Getting up when I first woke up meant I often got up around 6:30 or 6:45 - later than I set my alarm for, but much earlier than I usually got out of bed. - I stopped "just staying up late". I used to get tired around midnight, then stay up until 1:00 or 1:30, not getting much done. I knew I needed sleep, so I started going go bed when I was tired. Overall, it made me pay attention to the sleep my body needed, and stop pretending the alarm clock would just get me up.
- alfasin 12y agoIt won't work when you'll have children :)
- japhyr 12y agoI have a four year old. :)
- Alupis 12y agoMaybe one of those alarm clocks that make you solve some challenge/puzzle would wake you up a bit more.
- Retra 12y agoI always set my alarm each night, and I haven't heard it go off in about 6 years. I always wake up before my alarm would go off, without fail. Even if I set it to a strange time. I think it has to do with the fact that I set it each night, but I'm not sure...