I Need Help Waking Up In The Morning

DOOManiac · February 2005

<div class="IPBDescription">or I'm going to lose my job :(</div>I need some help guys.

Okay... I'm a night owl. Always have been, and I always will be.

However, I need to wake up at 6:45 AM every day for my job.

The problem is, sometimes I don't make it. Over the past 6 months I've been late for work between 10 to 15 times because I've overslept.

I have two alarm clocks, one that beeps repeatedly, the other is an old style one that rings a bell. I slept through both of those today.

I also slept through my boss calling me repeatedly. And when he became worried something may have happened to me, he drove to my house with another co-worker and they banged on my door for awhile, and still nothing. I only woke up when they came over to my bedroom window and knocked on it.

Since this has become a repeat problem for me, my boss (who has been more than understanding, as were I in his shoes I would've already fired me) has stated that it has to be taken care of, whatever I need to do I need to be on time from now on.

And of course the other problem of my inability to wake up even amonst all the noise is, what if there's a fire and I don't hear my fire alarm? Or a Tornado and I don't hear the sirens?

The problem is, I don't really know what I can do.

Obviously, the first thing to do is to commit myself to going to bed earlier. Last night I was up till 3, and I'm sure that had a part in my sleeping in (even though really that's not all that late for me). I'm actually going to set an alarm at night and when it goes off, I'm going to stop whatever I'm doing and go to bed.

My boss also suggest I look into an alarm clock meant for deaf people, which is some type of device that you put under your mattress and it vibrates the bed. I'd rather not invest in one of those unless I have to because I'm quite sure that waking up like that every day for the rest of my life would be quite unpleasant, and would no doubt put me in a very grouchy mood for the rest of the day...

I'm just worried about what if this isn't enough. What if I start going to bed at midnight (or even 11) every single night, and it doesn't matter? What if I get an array of clocks and it does no good? I don't want to lose my job... :(

TychoCelchuuu · February 2005

Get a girlfriend to wake you up in the morning. Warning: May require de-geeking which will in turn require another topic, preferably on a different forum.

moultano · February 2005

go to bed early. Get 8 hours of sleep every night. Eventually, you won't even need an alarm clock once you get the hang of it.

Scythe · February 2005

Get one of those 24-hour timer power plug things, get a floodlight that comes with a little stand and hook it up such that is shines in your face when the timer clicks. This will probably help you wake up.

--Scythe--

TheDestroyer · February 2005

What I do is look at the clock, then repeatedly tell myself the time I want to wake up, still looking at the clock. (I guess I'm mentally syncing my internal clock...?) I also set my clock 30 before I would normally need to wake up, in order to be sure I have plenty of time. This also helps with accidental oversleep.

Right when I am awake, I hit the shower. That always helps my body.

I also go and jog sometimes before the shower, to get the blood flowing.

kida · February 2005

get a jet engine in your room, a nuclear warning siren, and along with all those other things connect ten oil barge sirens and another hundred and fifty train whistles.

this will definately wake you up.

but on a more serious note:

i'd suggest just going to bed earlier. even if you wake up you'll be a zombie, and that isn't good also.

Depot · February 2005

My guess is you've never served in the Armed Forces. The memory is STILL fresh in my mind of the drill sergeant shaking my bunk and banging on the metal garbage can at 0430. As a result, I don't recall ever oversleeping and being late for work in my adult life (and I started at 0600).

That being said, and coupled with the fact that I've had several sleep studies performed, let me offer this advice for a night owl who needs to change his sleeping habits <b>QUICK</b>: starting tonight, go to bed 15 minutes earlier than normal. Tomorrow night, go to bed 15 minutes earlier than that, and so on, and so on, and so on, until you're going to bed 7-1/2 to 8 hours BEFORE your scheduled wake up time.

Give it a try, it works. <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink-fix.gif' />

MrRadicalEd · February 2005

ooooooo I'm so good at this..

The secret is to train your body to start waking up at a certine time despite what happens the night before. It's all about consistancy and repetitivness.

Two alarms clocks are good. At First you want to wake up as early as possible. Like maybe 30 minutes to an hour before you have to get up and start getting ready, or whatever you feel comfortable with. The point is to wake up early, and it's always better to start earlier rather than later.

Start on a day off and you want to aim for the same time every morning. I took a tip from our soldiers and drink a lot of water before I go to bed. Eventually I can't fight off mother nature any longer and have to get up and go. At this point you try and stay awake. Do some task like making up the bed or washing your face. Even when it's hours away from your actual wake up time your body will start to remember the need to wake up, but the accuracy isn't there yet.

That's where the consistancy and repetitivness kicks in. The more you do this the more your body will remember the time.

Also events and willpower play a part in this. Usually setting an alarm clock to play a song instead of the alarm helps out. Some song with a lot of energy that you will start to associate to "waking up time" in the morning. The idea is that when you hear this song it brings back memories of waking up at the butt-crack of dawn..

That's about it more or less..

Oh and Depot is right.. going to sleep X amount of minutes earlier will throw your body off and cause you to wake up that X amount of minutes earlier. Also Caffine is one hell of a drug.. it disrupts the natural "call to sleep" signal your body and mind needs.

docchimpy · February 2005

<img src='http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-7/765189/Howtowakeup.JPG' border='0' alt='user posted image' />

Nail a wooden post right at the head of your bed. Balance a wood plank on it. Superglue a bucket to the plank. Drill a hole in the back of the plank, and tie one end of the rope to to the plank. Tie the other end to the pulling mechanism in the pullbox. Put a computer in your room. Write a program that plays a video of the sun rising every morning at 6:45 AM. Rooster hears/sees the video and starts cawing. Dog is woken by the rooster and starts going crazy. He hits the On switch for the box of rope pullage, which pulls the rope towards it. The wood plank is lifted from the back, tilting the bucket(which is superglued to the plank), causing the water inside to fall on the DOOM. Bam! You're up, AND SHOWERED.

Seriously, it's all about rhythm, Once you start going to sleep early, you will fall asleep earlier and wake up earlier. The trick is starting.

DY357LX · February 2005

Doomy, I suffer from the same thing but now my mind has reached
the stage where I've realised that if I don't wake up and get out of
the house in time then it's going to cause alot of trouble for me.
(Something I can't and won't go into here.)

<b>Force</b> yourself to get up around 6am, waking this early pretty much
forces you into bed around mid-night or 1am at the very very latest.

Over-time, getting up earlier results in needing to sleep slightly earlier
each night and you can get into a routine of doing this.

Failing that, get a room-mate or girlfriend to wake you.
Removing the duvet and switching on the lights is a sure-fire way of waking someone.
A horrible but effective method.

DragonMech · February 2005

As a fellow terminal oversleeper, I have two suggestions to help you out:

1) The Stereo alarm clock.

a) Buy nice stereo with lots of big speakers.
b) Buy one of those devices that aoutmatically turns on lights at a certain time.
c) Hook up stereo to ^ device.
d) Set stereo volume to maximum, tune to your local death metal radio station.
e) Wake up with a heart attack to start your day right.

2) Much more serious idea
This may not be your thing, but I would reccomend some sleeping aids (non-prescription drugs like Unisom or Tylenol PM) to help you get to bed earlier. You should only use them for a week or so, but they can really help you get into the habit of going to bed earlier.

Gliss · February 2005

The first thing you need to do is change your sleeping pattern... if you've been sleeping at 3 a lot, stop it. Eventually you can get accustomed to that kind of ****, and you won't go to sleep until 4 or 5, even.

Second, start playing Quake 3 with me during the day, as I am begging you in IRC right now.

Thirdly, that alarm clock at night thing is a very good idea. Set it at 12 or 1, and even if you can't sleep, you should at least go to your bed and close your eyes, that way you aren't still like OMGJUMPINGAROUNDNOTPLAYINGQUAKE3. Eventually you should get used to sleeping around that hour, and you won't need it anymore.

Place your alarm clock right next to your head, or get a more annoying one. I have no trouble waking up to mine, even if I've had 2 hours of sleep, because that thing wails like an X_Stickman. I even get chills just <i>thinking</i> of the sound...

and... I speak from experience here. My parents were out in Viet Nam and I slept at 2 for a month straight, but now that they're back it's almost impossible to sleep before 12... but you get used to it after a while.

I'm sure CForrester would be more help than I on this subject, but... this advice works.

Xyth · February 2005

I know. Get a disposable camera, actually, get 2. Crack the suckers open and daisy chain their capacitors together into one of the cameras(the capacitor is the battery looking cylinder that is soldered onto the board, to daisy chain them just solder the leads from one onto the corresponding leads of the other, positive to posivite, so they are parelell). Now, gouge out the flash bulb, and preserve the two wires leading from the inside of the camera into the bulb. Re-assemble the camera, so that the two wires that were connected to the bulb out sticking out of where the flash glass would have been. Charge the capacitor, and tap the wires together, if you get a spark you did it right. If you don't, try pressing the picture button and see if it happens then. Now, get some more length of wire from radio shack, some alligator clips, and the biggest/easiest to change, switch they have. Attach the new huge lengths of wire onto the little ones coming out of the camera. Except, on one of the wires apply the switch between the wire coming out of the camera and your length of rope. Charge the cap again, set your switch to off, make sure nothing happens when you press the ends of the new lengths of wire together. Turn the switch on and you should get a spark. Put the alligator clips on the opposite end of the lengths of wire that are connected to the camera. See diagram
Camera +---------------------Clip
Camera- --Switch-------------Clip

Find some way to rig up the switch you installed to the alarm on your clock, shouldn't be to hard. Just use a servo and hook it to the leads of the speaker for the alarm or something. Now when you go to bed, attach the two alligator clamps to the inside of one of your pant legs. so they are both touching your skin at the same time. Charge the capacitor, turn the switch to off, apply clips, go to bed. 6:00, the switch turns, and you get around 220 volts into your leg, low amps so all you get is one hell of a jolt. You may want to create some release system on the center of the wires, like to connectors loosely held together, so that when you twitch it dosen't rip apart the whole assembly. Try daisy chaining up to 5-6 caps together if 2 isn't enough to wake you up (aahahahah yeah right).
You could seriously do this, besides it wouldn't have to be permanent. After around 10-11 days your body will be anticipating the shock so it will wake up. Negative reinforcement <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile-fix.gif' /> .

Zig · February 2005

hydraulic system on the side of your bed that tilts it 90 degrees = you out of bed <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile-fix.gif' />

Sandstorm · February 2005

A good alarm clock should wake you up regardless of how much sleep you get. If sound doesn't work, perhaps you should try physical pain. I'm sure a device that sends small jolts of electricity through your body would wake you up.

panda_de_malheureux · February 2005

Set your alarm clocks on the other side of your room so you have to get up to turn them off. Make sure they are well loud so you can't get back to sleep with them on.

DruBo · February 2005

I used to have this problem when I lived in a dorm.

I solved it by making my computer blast music at a set time in the morning. To turn it off, I"d have to turn on my monitor, unlock the pc, and click on the stop button, at which point I'd be pretty awake.

Alcapwn · February 2005

Get an AirRaid siren.

Seriously, maybe you can get some trusted freinds to come over and wake you.

Jezpuh · February 2005

Buy/create an alarm clock that makes a really freaking annoying noise and throws coffee all over your face.

DruBo · February 2005

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (WaterBoy @ Feb 18 2005, 11:11 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>Get an AirRaid siren.</td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'>
<a href='http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=4080&item=6511710774&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW' target='_blank'>Get an AirRaid siren.</a>

Thansal · February 2005

there is only one soloution and that is to go to sleep earlier.

I know it sucks.

I ussed to have the schedual of going to sleep around 3+am but I didn't have to be in class untill after noon.

one early morning class changed that.

you realy just have to get in bed and go to sleep.

SoulSkorpion · February 2005

I've got a radio alarm clock which is at the foot of my bed. When I need to wake up, I turn it up the volume as high as it goes. The next morning I get jolted awake by all the noise and <i>have</i> to get up to reach it to turn it off. It's impossible to sleep through because the radio simply stays on, loud enough to be audible next door.

Anyway, try it. It works. A damn sight better than these crappy "beep beep wake up. ok that's all you're getting out of me" alarm clocks. The louder the better.

CForrester · February 2005

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (pjofsky @ Feb 18 2005, 07:57 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> I'm sure CForrester would be more help than I on this subject, but... this advice works.  </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> 
Actually, I don't. <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /> I have the same problem.

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>I solved it by making my computer blast music at a set time in the morning. To turn it off, I"d have to turn on my monitor, unlock the pc, and click on the stop button, at which point I'd be pretty awake.</td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'>
I tried that once. I had an alarm program that generates a random number code and plays a really loud tone at the set time. You have to get up to type in the code and disable it, meaning you have to read and then re-type it.

I hit the power button on my computer and went back to bed.

Shoebox · February 2005

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (DragonMech @ Feb 18 2005, 05:51 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> As a fellow terminal oversleeper, I have two suggestions to help you out:

1) The Stereo alarm clock.

a) Buy nice stereo with lots of big speakers.
b) Buy one of those devices that aoutmatically turns on lights at a certain time.
c) Hook up stereo to ^ device.
d) Set stereo volume to maximum, tune to your local death metal radio station.
e) Wake up with a heart attack to start your day right.

2) Much more serious idea
This may not be your thing, but I would reccomend some sleeping aids (non-prescription drugs like Unisom or Tylenol PM) to help you get to bed earlier. You should only use them for a week or so, but they can really help you get into the habit of going to bed earlier.  </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> 
wow thats exactly what happens to me every morning. my stereo goes off and scares the living hell out of me. wakes me up quick though.

Rushakra · February 2005

I think DragonMech's right. Get a radio/clock capable of turning on the radio at a given time instead of an alarm. If you can't find one, there ARE specialized Clappers with egg timer-esque things (though there are probably digital versions now) that can turn on lights / appliances at designated times. Primarily used for turning your lights on at 6pm and off at 11pm when you're on vacation. <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink-fix.gif' />
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD MORNING VIETNAAAAAAAM.

BadMouth · February 2005

i think doomaniac is really deaf when he sleeps and no matter how much noise there is, he will not wake up. put about 2 vibrating clocks into your bed. mebbe u will wake up by movement instead of noise.

although is u REALLY play SUPER LOUD music, mebe the neighbours will come and wake u up! <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin-fix.gif' />

Rushakra · February 2005

Oh, how about one of those beds with the motors that move the head and legs up and down, closer and farther? You could plug it into your time-delay Clapper thing and tape down the "move head up," "move leg up," and "move closer together" buttons down. That way, when it's time to wake up, it turns on and starts folding you together like a sandwich. That'd wake you up.. OR ELSE.

That_Annoying_Kid · February 2005

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (moultano @ Feb 18 2005, 04:15 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> go to bed early. Get 8 hours of sleep every night. Eventually, you won't even need an alarm clock once you get the hang of it.  </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> 
leave yourself on irc in gamesurge on #doomanic or something with massive annoying loud highlight, and have a bot message you when you want to wake up

<img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin-fix.gif' />

Rushakra · February 2005

Record eight hours of silence in a wav, then throw in alot of songs and gunshots and clips from "Full Metal Jacket," then turn it into an MP3 and burn it onto a CD. Before you go to sleep, put it in your computer and set it to play.

Eight hours later..
<b>HOW TALL ARE YOU? HOW TALL ARE YOU? I DIDN'T KNOW THEY STACKED @#$% THAT HIGH!</b> *RATATATATATATATATATATAT KERRRRPSHEWWW! Rrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeewwwww KABOOM! RATATATATATATAT*

Mr_Headcrab · February 2005

try sleeping on an uncomfortable mattress, or more precicsely, a couch with fluffy cushions. As you sleep, the cushions compress, eventually having you on a rather uncomfortable base. Or, drink a lot before you go to bed, you'll wake up to pee rather quickly, rather than shocking you.

Or, get a cat Meow Meow at 6 am will wake you

Thaldarin · February 2005

Remember what times you went to bed at and got up for at school? Try and relive those days and times <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /> , if not I got a little suggestion below based on my own experience of waking up early.

I get up at 5AM every day regardless of what I am doing, I go to sleep around 10/11PM every night. At first I started out using two alarm clocks, one which goes off at 4.30, the other that goes off at 5. Maybe something similar like that could help you.

I Need Help Waking Up In The Morning

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