Waking up in the morning

[Baleforce]

There's an app on android called alarm clock extreme, you can set it so you have to do various things to shut the alarm up. If it is really that difficult for you to get up, set it to no snooze, 6+ maths questions, hardest difficulty. You'll be standing up for ages while an incredibly shrill alarm plays. There's no way you're going back to sleep after that

thats evil, i'd just smash the phone i think

 

[Dicko]

Is there any proof that Snoozing is a good or a bad thing? Would be nice to know if those extra minutes each day are doing me any good :-k

 

[DHSF]

Is there any proof that Snoozing is a good or a bad thing? Would be nice to know if those extra minutes each day are doing me any good :-k

I think snoozing eliminates the shock factor of waking up. So its a steady awakening rather than an abrupt awakening. When I go office I arrive at 6.30 so gotta wake up around 5.30 (half hour to get ready and get the **** outta my flat) - so I put the alarm on for 5 which allows half hour snoozing. When working from home I put my alarm on for 8 - switch on laptop an dhey presto im at work - I then go back to bed till 9 haha.

What I cant understand is people who chill at home in the morning like they sit down have breakfast watch the news etc. If I did that id find it even more difficult to get outta the house.

 

[papaspur]

Ideally, you want to wake up when you're not in deep sleep. REM (rapid eye-movement) is a deeper sleep cycle that will leave you considerably groggier if you were to wake during it.
The theory behind the apps that measure your breathing (or whatever else) is to try to wake you up during the light sleep cycle so you're less groggy when you are woken.

Snoozing isn't a good habit. I'll generally hit it once and that's it for me. If I were to set my alarm 30 minutes earlier so I could snooze for half an hour longer, I'd be worse off.

 

[Klinsmania]

I'm definitely not a morning person, but need to become one in the near future.

Just how do people do it?

It seems like I'm unable to get out of bed up until I literally have to. It's infuriating. Today I was teaching a lesson at 12:00. The location of it meant that I had to leave my place at 11:00. I set my alarm clock for 09:30 on the other side of my room, and also had a 09:35 alarm on my phone set which I'd placed on top of my wardrobe towards the back so I'd have to reach for it.

Upon hearing the alarm I get out of bed, go over and turn it off. 5 minutes later I hear the phone alarm, get up to retrieve it and press snooze.

A clever me would realize that in this period of time it would be useful for me to get grab a shower, eat some breakfast and go over the lesson plan to have a good start to the day. The stupid unresponsive me does not seem to realize this and presses snooze on 5 minutes up until 10:45 which leaves me no time to have a shower, a rushed breakfast and leaving the flat in a rush forgetting to take lunch with me. The annoying thing is that snoozing on a 5 minute loop for any amount of time really doesn't make you feel any better but the morning version of me sees it as a terrific idea

When I have days that start like this I generally look like I have just got out of bed for the rest of the day and I feel fairly drowsy, up until I get to bed that night which is when my mind decides to switch on and scan through life, the universe and everything instead of switching off and getting good sleep.

In January I've got lessons that start at 7 in the morning and I would love to have some sort of strategy for actually being awake for them.

Tips and hints?

You lucky bastard! I wish I could sleep in until 10:45 or even 9:30. After 16 years of getting up for work at about 7, I wake up no later than 7am day in day out, no matter what time I go to bed. I'm normally in bed around 10:30 and usually wake up around 6ish and just doze until 7, but there's no way I could actually sleep until 9:30, I'm just simply incapable of doing it.

 

[braineclipse]

Some solid advice already in this thread.

First of all, you need "enough" sleep. Whatever enough is for you is difficult to say perhaps, but whatever it is you need it. This means that to get up that early on a regular basis you need to get to bed early enough to get enough sleep. To be able to fall asleep at that time you essentially need an at least half decent day/night rhythm. That means being fairly strict during the weekends and days off too. I think most people can get away with changing the time they get up by an hour or two on the weekends, but much more than that and it's going to mess with your rhythm. By changing it significantly more than that during the weekends you're essentially putting yourself in a permanent state of jet lag as your body is always changing between one schedule and another. Try a couple of weeks of regular sleep. It can be hard on the weekends in particular. On weekdays try not to stay up late, if you're tired go to bed. If you're not tired and the time is right to go to bed, go to bed anyway. On weekends you might be able to get away with cheating a bit on a night out by staying out late, but still getting up relatively early. By doing this you will still be tired when the evening comes around and you could be able to save your rhythm fairly well.

Cutting down caffeine has already been suggested, particularly in the evening this is a good idea. I would also say that cutting your caffeine intake (if it's high) in general is also a good idea. Your body adapts to the amount of caffeine you put in it, if you're used to getting two cups of coffee every morning your body will adapt to that and up until the point that you get your caffeine you will be more sleepy than if you stayed away from caffeine. This obviously makes it harder to get up in the morning.

The "internal clock" in your body is most likely at least partly guided by light. Receptors in your eyes send information to a nucleus in your brain that then helps control your sleep schedule. Staring at a light source like a tv, computer screen, tablet or cell phone before going to bed probably won't be ideal. For the same reasons those morning lights that gradually turn on starting about half an hour before the alarm goes off makes sense at least superficially and could be worth a try. I know at least some sleep clinics recommend that people avoid other activities than sleeping, sex and perhaps light reading in bed. Making the bed a place where you primarily sleep might help you get in the right state of mind quicker as you go to bed. This makes tablet/phone surfing in bed doubly bad.

Avoid sleeping pills unless you've tried everything else and consulted with a sleep clinic or therapist imo. A remarkably high amount of sleep disorders are caused at least in part by habituation to sleeping pills. This is almost unavoidable and in my (humble) opinion sleeping pills should be a last resort and probably avoided at most costs unless you're getting towards old age. Studies also suggest that your sleep when taking sleeping pills is less resting for you than natural sleep. It's a slippery slope.

 

[braineclipse]

Is there any proof that Snoozing is a good or a bad thing? Would be nice to know if those extra minutes each day are doing me any good :-k

I would be shocked if snoozing is better for you than just setting your alarm for when you actually have to get up. Whatever "extra minutes" you get when you're half way asleep snoozing you could instead be getting as actual quality sleep. In addition the effect of waking up, falling asleep and then repeating that in quick succession seems to me very unlikely to have a resting effect.

I haven't seen any proof though, I'll try to have a look around at some point.

 

[Hootnow]

Mate how timely. I have been struggling to wake up for the past week. I am literally snoozing 10-12 times which is snoozing for an hour. Not sure why im struggling so much.

Hoot I did that - I had an alarm that made me do ****in math quizzes - I had to be ****in einstein to answer those questions. I removed it as I couldnt switch it off or snooze it.

That's the good thing about this app, you can set the difficulty at various levels. The easiest is literally 3+1 level, the hardest 7653 x 8103 level, with everything in between. You can choose something that will need a few seconds of standing etc to think about, enough to keep you from falling back asleep but not so difficult that you would end up smashing your phone out of frustration as galeforce alluded to.

 

[7percent]

[video=youtube;P6zcSFA7ymo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6zcSFA7ymo[/video]

 

[Bullet]

I'm a night person, I could stay up til 3 easily any day... I usually struggle to get up unless:
If I'm stressed about work I won't sleep so well, I will wake up at 5 or 6 and toss and turn and be ready to wake up by 7
If I'm not stressed about work I could sleep til 9 no problem

Although recently my 2 year old son wakes up at about 1 and can usually be put back to sleep, then he'll wake up around 4 and scream until he gets into our bed and then proceeds to keep me awake by moving about and sighing and singing and grabbing at me and generally being annoying. That is ace. Especially if he manages to wet the bed, that is FANTASTIC at 5am. So I go in the other room to get some kip. You don't know what you've got til it's gone.

 

[johnola]

Don't bother getting up mate a million Romanians are headed over to do your job for you.

Unbelievable.

 

[7percent]

I've been experimenting with a supplement called ZMA. It has zinc, magnesium and vitamin b6 I believe.

Really think it's helping me sleep/wake up in the mornings. Keep waking up before my alarm..

 

[scaramanga]

 

[AuroRaman]

I normally set my alarm for 6.45am to get out of bed for 7.30am. Stopped doing it for two weeks and set it straight up for 7.30, feel much better than 'snoozing'.

Not feeling good this morning, massively hungover...

 

[Superhudd]

Take all the electronics out of the bedroom is a good start.

As someone said man the **** up when the alarm comes on, set it to 6am.. go to bed after the 10 O'clock news.

When we had a child it became a necessity to get up, people say the first couple of weeks go for a jog in the morning before shower, this will get the bits in your body buzzing... breakfast.. then shower.

 

[Kenyan Spur]

I normally set my alarm for 6.45am to get out of bed for 7.30am. Stopped doing it for two weeks and set it straight up for 7.30, feel much better than 'snoozing'.

Not feeling good this morning, massively hungover...

Hi Mate.
Must have had a long meeting with Mr. Johnny Walker and his mates.
A good meal helps.

 

[AuroRaman]

Hi Mate.
Must have had a long meeting with Mr. Johnny Walker and his mates.
A good meal helps.

Hello buddy, haha something like that! Red wine was my drink of choice yesterday. You know when you get accidentally drunk? Had a big lunch an hour ago, definitely feeling better for it.

 

[thingonaspring]

there are apps that tell you the "optimal" time for going to bed/sleep based on what time you need to get up.
never tried them, so no idea if they are any good or not. you can also use them to monitor your sleep patterns etc (though probably need to keep phone/tablet plugged in to use them properly). just thought i'd mention them.