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Alarm Clocks for Heavy Sleepers?
jonadab asks: "I'm a heavy sleeper. I wake up gradually. Sometimes it takes quite a bit to
get me cognizant in the morning. I've been known to sleep through alarms entirely, or shut them off before fully awake and later not remember doing so. It's not that I don't get enough sleep (I go to bed at night when I get sleepy), but my body tends to want a day longer than 24 hours, and I have to use an alarm to keep myself on a constant schedule with the rest of the world;
otherwise, I get up a little later each day and pretty soon I'm sleeping till noon. So I'm always in search of a better alarm clock. Maybe some of you have experience with alarm clocks that you particularly like"
"Here are some features I'd particularly like to have (though anything that's good at waking a heavy sleeper is worth mentioning, even if it doesn't have all these features):
- Gets progressively louder until snoozed. Starts louder with each successive snooze.
- Max volume slightly painful, but not physiologically dangerous. An air compressor and train whistle is probably overkill.
- Easy to snooze, but hard to accidentally turn off completely. Bonus points if turning it off means being cognizant enough to operate a screwdriver or tool of some kind.
- Snooze time gets geometrically shorter each iteration (e.g., half as long as the previous) so that there's a maximum total snooze time that can be approached assymptotically.
- Has battery backup so that it will operate during a power outage, at least to keep time. (I _could_ just stick it on the UPS, but do I really want to spend a UPS outlet for an alarm clock?) This is a feature my current clock has (takes a nine-volt battery), but even better would be a rechargeable that will even operate the alarm during a power outage.
- Can be set to always go off at the same time every day, so I don't have to remember to set it at night unless I need to get up at a different time than usual.
- Has some kind of cool feature with geek appeal -- but not binary time display; I need to be able to read the time when mostly asleep.
If you were going to go the route of building a cheap computer to do this, what software would you use to do it?
I had the same problem, sleeping through classes/Finals/Work/Dates. Not exactly what you were looking for but I got an alarm for the deaf which worked great(I didn't have this exact model but you get the idea). you can put it in your pillow. I used to wear a sock to bed and keep it in there. It never failed to wake me up.
"as plurdled gabbleblotchits on a lurgid bee" - Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz. (One man's humorous is another mans flamebait)
Get a dog.... a BIG dog.
$7.95/mo, 200 GB disk, 2TBxfer, MySQL, PHP, RoR.
It's easy to shut off an alarm and then get back to sleep. The reason for this is that people put their alarm clocks beside their bed. Don't do that! Put it somewhere where you have to get up in order to shut it off. Once you're out of bed, your mind will probably be clear enough not to get back in and sleep.
bye
schani
Instead of buying obnoxious alarm clocks and waking up your neighbors, why don't you just try sleeping like a normal person?
Your brain produces various chemicals that signal your body when it is time to sleep. Sleep runs in cycles that run between 3-4 hours... the more regular the cycle, the better everything works.
Pick a 30 minute window that will be your bedtime and stick to it. If things in your life make that impossible, change them. A healthy adult require something between 6-8 hours of sleep. The more regular your sleep pattern, the less sleep you need. Eventually you'll automatically wake up whenever, and will actually feel good in the morning, instead of being the walking zombie that you are now.
Sleep patterns are incredibly important to your body. In studies of shift workers, people who rotate shifts "backwards" (ie working 12AM to 8AM one week, 4PM to 12AM the next) have accident rates 40% higher than people who rotate "forwards" (ie working 4PM to 12AM one week, 12AM to 8AM the next). Other studies linked increased risks of heart attacks & high blood pressure and car accidents to irregular sleep patterns.
Don't let the excuse "I'm too busy" or "I work better at night" stop you from getting a good night's rest.
Conformity is the jailer of freedom and enemy of growth. -JFK
I used to be the same way, sleeping through alarms, turning them off before fully waking, until I got a wife. :)
http://www.appealinggifts.com/screaming-alarm-cloc k.html
By the time I make it over to the clock I'm awake enough to know what I'm doing by the end of the snooze setting, even when I dead to the world.
"640 K ought to be enough for anybody." -- Bill Gates, 1981
I had this problem sometimes. The first time I overslept for work, I felt like a tool and worked out a solution.
;)
Set an alarm clock next to your bed. Any ordinary one will do. Use the buzzer setting, and set it for 15 minutes earlier than you need.
Set ANOTHER clock on the far side of your room, with the volume max and the buzzer setting, and set it for 5 minutes earlier than you need.
I sleep through the first, but it makes my brain flinch. The second wakes me up from my already semi-woken state. YMMV.
Also, from a sleep schedule point of view - stop going to bed when you get sleepy. Figure out your morning wake up time, and go to bed 9-10 hours earlier than that at the latest... whether you feel sleepy or not. Eventually you will get used to the schedule, and things will get better. It's about practice.
You might consider going to bed 8 - 9 hours before you set your alarm. I know personally that I don't always get sleepy at night, especially if I am programming away or playing a good game. Schedule your bed time just like you schedule your wake up time.
Also, there is something to be said for consistancy - go to bed and get up the same time every day. Occasional exceptions are ok, but the more regular you are the better.
Even if you find yourself laying in bed unable to go to sleep the first few times, set a regular bed time and stick with it. If you find that giving yourself 8 hours of sleep is too much (you wake up before the alarm) then shorten the time to 7.5 or 7.
Experiment and find the amount of sleep you need and make sure your get it. You may find that eventually you don't need an alarm clock.
"Anything is possible with enough programmers, time and pizza." (Substitute caffeine for time as needed.)
does exactly what you said. you can lock your screen with a screensaver (so you'll have to enter a password, and being cogniscent), and maybe set up your BIOS to turn the computer on at a given time, if it is supported.
also, every day you can wake up with a different music to get a different mood (ever heard about 'mood organs' in "do android dream electric sheeps"?)
cheers
-- There are two kind of sysadmins: Paranoids and Losers. (adapted from D. Bach)
We've found that having a bright light on a timer (X10 does nicely) helps, too. There's nothing like having 150 watts of "oh my god turn that off" on your eyes to wake you up. Actually, I think it subtly starts the wakeup process, which completes when the loud alarm goes off a couple minutes later.
:)
Of course, if your wakeup time is after sunrise, this probably won't help much.
You could always rig up a smoke detector buzzer, but that's probably not something you should really get sensitized to....
While you are falling asleep, imagine a clock showing the time you want to wake up.
I am a very heavy sleeper - to the extent that someone was able to get a locksmith to drill through the security lock on a door with me 10 metres (or 11 yards if you are a NASA scientist) away - but this works for me, and I just need the three chimes of a standard palm pilot alarm to remind me to get up.
None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
My solution was to put an alarm clock in the bathroom. I have to actually get out of bed to turn it off, and then I'm standing right next to the shower so I just hop in. I also have an S.O. who starts kicking me if I let the alarm go for too long.
A friend of mine is heavy sleeper. He just went and got 2 alarm clocks. He also has 2 computers. All 4 of them are set to go off at the same time. On top of this the 2 computer must be shut off by entering some command sequence on one of the keyboards, so he actually has to get up and turn on the light and monitor to turn off the alarm. By that time he couldn't really get back to sleep if he wanted it.
As for what he uses for the computer.. heh.. I think it's just mIRC running some script and doing some socket stuff to tell the other one when to go on and off.
Most people prefer a 24 hour day. I used to live a 26 - 26.5 hour day when I was a student, now I prefer about 25 hours. Thing to do is cycle round. Assume 8 hours sleep and need to be up by 8AM. Go to sleep at 9PM monday, 10PM tuesday, 11PM wednesday, 12PM thursday, then stay up all night friday, until arround 6PM saturday, then get 12 hours sleep and go to bed at 8PM sunday. Probably not healthy, but I've done it before, and when I start shift work in a few months I'll be doing something similar to get back onto days.
/dev/urandon > /dev/dsp" too, but I'm getting better now.
Another thing: Turn everything off (even the PC) and lie in bed for an hour. You should be asleep unless it's ridicuously early.
For waking up, I need to be up at 8:30AM at the moment to leave at 9:30AM. I set the 3 alarms on my mobile phone, 8AM, 8:15 and 8:25, and plug it in on the other side of the room. I also set my normal radio alarm clock to come on quietly at 7:30AM (when wogan comes on), and stay on until 8:30AM (meaning I have to get up to turn it back on).
I used to have a cron job of "cat
Keep the clock out of reach, once you get up you'll stay up.
I go to college with a large deaf population. You would need to be able to sleep through an earthquake to be able to miss this.
*Cough*Google*Cough*
This site advertises clocks for the hearing-impared that register up to 113 decibels, and have gadgets that shake the bed and flash lamps.
These clocks seems a little more subtle, though.
Have you seriously tried going to bed before you get tired, and or having a set 8 hours each night. Say hmm I have to get up at 6am I will goto bed at 10 no matter how sleepy I am. Sure you won't fall asleep at first but you'll get used to it after a few days. Extra points for actually doing stuff during the day that make you tired. Anyways I love my alarm clock it sets itself automatically (from some radio signal or something not quite sure) has a good battery backup to keep your alarm settings. And you can set a different or no alarm for the weekend if you want to.
Remember, he does not want an uber-expensive solution (and half your assets counts as pretty expensive to:)
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
There used to be wrist watch looking things that vinbrated and beeped as an alarm. A lot of people who don't pay attention to nise, wake quickly when shaken up a bit.
Pretty Pictures!
I've got an RCA RP3715A, that i think was no more than $20-$30cdn, but does most of what you're looking for. http://www.rca.com/product/viewdetail/0,2588,PI459 18,00.html.
- Has two different alarms that can be set, and will then go off at those times every day without having to be reset. (Music and what I like to call Insane-O-Wake)
- The "tone" (Insane-O-Wake) alarm starts quietly and gets progressively louder, and this thing is VERY LOUD, it wakes up both my roomates who are a few feet down the hall and on occasion think the alarm is in their room, if i'm i'm not there to turn it off (a downside to having it not need to be reset).
- It has the option of a 9v battery to keep time if the power goes off
- Large easy to hit snooze button, if you hold down the snooze button, the snooze duration increases..
It's great, I'd highly reccommend it. Although my roomates might not.
Cheers,
My wife nudges me once and that is it. She got tired of dragging me out of bed. Now she will actually shut the alarm clock off for me if I don't get up quick enough. I guess it is teaching me to wake up sooner.
Although I found having kids a great way to get up. My son is up every morning at 7 AM, or earlier.
"Anything is possible with enough programmers, time and pizza." (Substitute caffeine for time as needed.)
Get a loud alarm clock and put it so far out of reach that you have to get out of bed to shut it off.
(Don't get back into bed after doing that.)
JP
I use one of those old fashioned wind up alarms. The noise was loud enough in college that it would wake people down the hall (scarily enough, I could sleep through it!) The key to the trick though was to put it on the other side of the room- if I had to get out of bed to shut it off, I was ok.
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
This sounds like it might do the trick for you. Never tried it, but I'm half tempted to get one.
http://www.sonicalert.com/htm/clock.htm
In conjunction with an alarm clock, that is.
The smell of coffee will help wake you up!
Dark Nexus
"Sanity is calming, but madness is more interesting."
Work for NASA, maybe Mars time will be just right for you and you won't need an alarm!
sigfault. comment dumped.
If you are having problems getting up, then DON'T USE SNOOZE!
You are just training yourself in a bad habit - "Don't need get up. Go sleep more. Noise not important".
Instead, put whatever you use to awaken yourself out of reach of the bed - preferably on the other side of the room. MAKE yourself get up and walk over to the alarm to turn it off. Then, KEEP MOVING - go fix your coffee or whatever you do when you get up.
Speaking of coffee - should you be an imbiber of morning caffinated hot beverages, invest in a timer controlled coffee pot. Set it to start about 10 minutes before your alarm goes off. Put it in a place where the aroma of brewing coffee (or whatever) will reach you.
Most people are training themselves to be insomniacs - watching TV or reading in bed, staying up to catch that "gotta see it" show instead of sleeping when they are tired, hitting snooze in the mornings. Beds should be used for two things only - sleep and sex. Anything else should be done elsewhere.
I trained myself to go to sleep within minutes of hitting the bed in college, when I had Calc II at 7:30 and my next class was at 10:30 - go to calc, go back to room, sleep some more, then go to chemistry. I refined this when I was working 80 hours a week at my first job - go home over lunch, catch a 30 minute powernap, then back to work. As I understand it, this is also what the various military services train you to do - "Don't stand if you can sit. Don't sit if you can lie down. If you can lie down, go to sleep."
www.eFax.com are spammers
I realize this isn't quite what you were asking, but consider going to a sleep clinic.
Do you snore? Is your neck bigger than 16"? If either of these are true, odds are decent that you have sleep apnea. I do. Or rather "did." Had my uvula and tonsils taken out (plus had my septum straightened, it was heavily deviated).
When I wake up, it feels like I'm drugged. Literally. I wish I knew why, too. Once apnea was diagnosed, I assumed that going through surgery would stop this drug-like trance from happening. It didn't, but it helped a little. Plus I don't snore at all any more. It used to keep my former girlfriend up all night.
Sorry for rambling. I guess what I'm saying is that I'll be reading the replies to your post because I have the same needs/problems when it comes to waking. And checking to see if you have apnea could actually save your life while making your sleep a lot more restful.
My
Limekiller
Since cost is an issue, you're not going to get most of your (useless to the problem) requirements met. If I wanted to do so, I'd probably dedicate a (cheezy) computer to it and have to write the darn software myself. Luckily, I have more important things to worry about...
I'd recommend the simple expedient of two alarm clocks.
I went to Sears and bought a cheap Panasonic (iirc) alarm clock radio/cd with 2 alarms and progressive volume. (The progressive volume has a min setting and a max setting, but not a duration setting (silly of them)). It was pretty cheap, like $35-45 a year and a half ago.
For you, I'd recommend two of them (or one of those and one of what you already have). One by your bedside, one across the room, requiring you to haul your backside out of bed, at least.
I just leave mine single one across the room, and have it turn on talk radio (two settings, starts low, waits a few minutes, the second gets much louder). Depending on the station I set it to, it usually infuriates me into wakefulness.
(I recommend NPR if you are a heartless conservative or Rush or Bill O' if you are a flaming liberal gasbag).
However, I bet the real problem is not the waking, it's the sleeping - getting to sleep/staying asleep. If you find yourself waking up at night out of breath, or if you snore, or your gf/wife/so hears you stop breathing during the night, see a sleep doctor. Skip the last can/bottle/gallon of caffeinated soda, cut out cigs if you smoke, keep the room cool. Melatonin works well for sleep regulation if taken aperiodically, and consider Ambien for periodic regulation (note that it's addictive - not in the heroine withdrawal way, but if you use it too often, you get to feel like you can't get to sleep without it - a feeling which goes away after a few days, but still...).
Ambien is magic to those who have trouble getting to sleep or staying asleep - bed down, one pill, read for 15 minutes, turn off the light, I'm down for 7.5 hours almost exactly and wake up feeling like a tiger. IANAD, YMMV.
-J
Easy to snooze, but hard to accidentally turn off completely. Bonus points if turning it off means being cognizant enough to operate a screwdriver or tool of some kind.
I had exactly this problem. I solved it by getting an alarm clock loud enough to wake me up from across the room (RadioShack, $15 tops). Caltrops can be useful to make it so that walking across your room is difficult. Now I've trained myself pretty well to snooze rather than disable the alarm, but the walk across the room is helpful because it means that even getting up to hit snooze wakes me up a little.
When I was in a smaller room (everything could be reached without getting out of bed), I wrapped packing tape around the off button on the alarm. I could only hit snooze unless I removed the tape.
I can't tell you how many mornings I woke up struggling to remove that tape.
The only way I've ever had decent sleeping habits was when I spent time outdoors away from any artificial light. Within 24 hours, I perfectly adjusted to falling asleep at sundown and waking just before sun up. Weird to think that I was going to sleep at 8:30 PM and waking up at 5:00 AM without any prompting.
I wish I had the self control to do that normally.
There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
I've found if I drink several glasses of water before I go to bed, I tend to wake up and stay awake when the alarm goes off. I guess this isn't the solution for a cronic bed-wetter, but every little thing helps. Drew
Most sleep researchers have concluded that the human body clock runs around 25 hours per cycle. The obvious conflict with our 24-hour terrestrial/lunar/solar-based clock is noticed by more than few folks who've replied already. It's nice to see that I'm not the only one that has to "reset" on a regular (bi-weekly) basis by staying up all night, crashing hard the following evening, and is then able to function again during "normal people" hours. If it were me, I'd sleep from 2am - 10am on a rolling basis, forward by about 45 min. each night. By Friday, that means I'm not in bed until early daylight (6:15am-ish) and awake again around 2pm. Being unemployed (again) has not helped keep this under control, to be sure... :)
As to the alarm clock solution -- others have given good suggestions, but the best one really is to NOT put your alarm clock nearby. Also, set it to music, and put it on some cRap station really loud so it annoys the cRap out of you when you wake up. :)
I remember a USENET post from a few (10?) years ago from a guy that had trouble power-snoozing, so he wrote a program for his computer to play obnoxious WAV files continuously until he could successfully factor five random integers into their prime components.
No, Google couldn't find the original post. (Sorry.)
"Lawyers are for sucks."
- Doug McKenzie
Write a shell script to beep your pc speaker continually for 10 minutes after this time, it should preceed to rm -rf / *
Set cron to start this script whatever time you want to wake up.
When you hear the beeping you will run to your computer to send an interupt, the adrenaline rush will wake you up.
I have exactly the same prob, and beside getting my mom to wake me up, what works is a radio on a timer for me. Its tuned to a news channel, and constant babble gets more of my attention and wakes me up much better than an alarm that I get USED to over time. The radio channel should be a news channel and not music, so theres some kind of talk that grabs your attention.
Try this, else a clock with multiple alarms paced at 15 minutes. If you get up regularly daily for several months, you DO get tuned to that time and will awake even without a clock, but a single long weekend puts an end to it.
"Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you." -Nim Chimpsky
A singing voice like hers can wake the dead.
This sig no verb.
Now, i have two alarm clocks- one at the head of the bed, and one across the room. The one at the head of my bed is my handheld, which has three alarms, each more annoying than the last. By the time the one across the room goes off, i'm ready to wake up... But in case i'm not, the handheld goes off fifteen minutes later, on the same set-of-three schedule. Eventually, it gets annoying enough to wake me completely.
On an interesting side note, when we moved into a house that my family lived in some years back, one window was broken. Outwards. Lying in the broken glass- this was a real 'fixer-upper' of a house- was a rusted alarm clock. We looked at it for a moment, realised what had happened, and just laughed. (Remembering how early i've had to wake up for some of the times i've moved, i can honestly say it's only luck that i've never done the same.)
"I'd say 'Have a good time,' but arson is still illegal.
I could kill you, sure, but I could only make you cry with these words
Good speakers and a shell script that runs via cron:
/mp3/_single/aqua-barbie_girl-german_version.mp3
mpg123 -q
It's enough to make anyone wake up and run across the room to kill -9 the dammed thing.
Just as a dark room helps us sleep. . . light helps us wake up. How about getting a bedroom light that plugs into the wall and use a simple timer from RadioShack as a supplement to your alarm.
> It's not that I don't get enough sleep (I go to bed at night when I get sleepy), but my body tends to want a day longer than 24 hours
Maybe you should just join the NASA Mars team, who "have adopted a Mars schedule, coordinating their waking and sleeping patterns with Martian days, which are nearly 40 minutes longer than those on Earth."
That's what I had to do. I also put it far enough from the bed that I have to get up find the plug and unplug it. By the time I've done all that I'm coherent enough to know that I can't just go back to bed.
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I'm not sure what the secret to success is, but the secret to failure lies in trying to please everyone -Bill Cosby
You and everybody else. Welcome to the human race, where the default normal physiology is perfectly adapted to a 25 hour day. Actually something like 24h 50-odd minutes, I think. Why 25 hours and not what actually exists? Nobody knows, but there are lots of theories (all untestable and unprovable).
You cannot apply a technological solution to a sociological problem. (Edwards' Law)
30 7 * * * zcat aumix -v30 ; madplay -z /media/music/*/*.mp3 & .. and it's loud enough. I have a nice amp and speakers (150W RMS per channel).
33 7 * * * zcat aumix -v35
35 7 * * * zcat aumix -v40
To switch it off I have to log in and "killall madplay", so I'm usually fairly awake by then.
455fe10422ca29c4933f95052b792ab2
Don't people discipline their cats?
My wife's cats NEVER wake me up. They know I will feed them when I wake up, and they know not to wake me up to get fed. They also know to keep the noise down at night.
Keep a good squirt bottle by the bed. I can easily hit the cats from 20 feet.
for your needs. . .or not. A friend of mine uses a programmable X10 controller to gradually ramp up the room lights and stereo volume starting 30 min. or so before desired wake-up time. Required: the controller, either clock- or PC-driven; the newer lamp dimmer module(s) that'll start from "off" (the older ones have to start at full "on", then dim); X10->IR interface & emitter for the stereo. Browsing SmartHome, it looks like the IR coupler for volume control is the expensive part; everything else can be had for probably $30 if you shop around a bit.
Of course you can add wattage and intelligence to the setup as needed. He's currently working on an applet that'll take input from one of those cheap four-button Radio Shack controllers as a one-keypress "wake me in 6/7/8/9 hours" override of the default wake-up time.
Life is like surrealism: if you have to have it explained to you, you can't afford it.
I love the stuff.
Start out with the 100mg dose and see what that does for you. You may need to progress to the 300mg dose.
WWW
What I did for a while worked pretty good for a while, then my subconcious learned a way around it :|
I had an old Performa 630 with a TV Card in it, had the TV app turn on at startup, and had the computer turn it self on abit before I wanted to wake up. Then I took the keyboard and stuck it in another room, so I'd have to take a small walk to shut it off. Now I have this nice GE clock radio with 2 alarms in it next to my bed along side a $10 "Super Loud" one I got from CVS, another one of those in the opisite corner of the room, and a third on the far wall. To top that off I have one of those clamp light thingies with a really bright florecent bulb in it hooked up to a normal timer so it hits me with light about 30 minutes before I wanna be up. It works sometimes
(Score:0, Interesting)
To help to the task, my old Nokia 6150 was very loud for the bell volume when used as alarm clck. Its rings gradually got louder until really loud and annoying. My current 6310i isn't quite as loud, which is a pity.
The trick is to keep the phone sufficiently close to the bed that it will bother you enormously if you don't stop it, but far enough that you can't just extend your arm and turn it off without having to get up first. One person's desk (if in the bedroom) is a good place to be. Once up, don't even _think_ about your bed anymore.. instead, forceyourself to navigate to the shower while in radar/semi-sleep mode.
I don't mean go Dr. Phil on you, but really, blaming your laziness on your miscalibrated internal clock is ridiculous.
Eat well. Exercise. Don't frag all night, smoke pot, or keep inconsistent hours, tell yourself 'I will get out of bed at a reasonable hour because I'm in charge of my body, not the other way around.' Above all, just take control of your freaking self.
It's not a goddamn technical problem, it's a mental problem. Maybe a medical one, like low blood pressure, who knows, maybe you should Go Ask Doctor. A psychological one? Maybe you don't want to get out bed because your waking life doesn't stoke your coals. Perhaps you need a dominatrix to beat you awake.
Jeezus christ, people get through med school, look after newborns, are workaholics, and since the dawn of time, have pretty much been able to get their asses out of bed without 6 alarm clocks strategically set and placed throughout the room.
ok, maybe I'm cranky and didn't get enough sleep last night, but wtf is this doing here? Dear slashdot, I can't stop smoking/eating/drinking/sleeping/fragging too much. Anyone out there have a technical answer to my inability to take charge over my own life?
What happens when someone calls you while you are sleeping? Does that wake you up and get you coherent enough to answer it? If so, try using the alarm feature on your cell phone to "call" yourself in the morning, or some other way to get yourself a wake up call.
Phone calls are harder to ignore than alarms, because there's always the potential that it is an important call (such as your boss calling to yell at you for oversleeping again).
If you were going to go the route of building a cheap computer to do this, what software would you use to do it?
Use a computer you're alright with having on all night, and find an alarm clock program that plays Mp3s at a specific time. Then crank your speakers up, it's sure to wake you up.
If you have a Mac, there's a good one out there called Mp3 Alarm Clock that has the features you wanted (reducing snooze time, gradual volume increase).
I've been scaring myself awake for a couple of years now, and I'm a very heavy sleeper.
Vonal Declosion
I have that problem too. I'm able to turn off the alarm clock without really being fully awake, and not remember ever doing so. It's a loud alarm clock, and I've put it out of reach where I have to get up and walk to turn it off, but I think it's just made me a better sleep walker.
No extremely practical solutions come to mind though. Perhaps two alarm clocks on opposite sides of the room, set to go off maybe 20 minutes apart.
get married and have a kid. I guarantee you will NEVER sleep in again.
I had at one point 3 alarms, at opposition points in the room for this very purpose.
No more.
Instead, I use a system tray application that plays mp3's as an alarm.
Now heres the kicker - you have to right click on the icon in the system tray for it to deactivate.
When your resolution is 1280+, and its first thing in the morning, you generally *will* wake up in the process of:
Turning the $(*^ed monitor on
Moving the sleeping cordless mouse
Moving it to the system tray
Right clicking the CORRECT icon
As in that wasnt enough, I have two scheduled: one for early, and one for "I'm going to be late for work!".
The controls to deactivate one or the other is not the kind of thing you can do without waking up.
For the record, the MP3 I play is the sound clip from "So I married an Axe Murderer", in which Mike Meyers does the great routine about a kid with a huge head..
"HEAD! PAPER! NOW!" (and it goes on for ~ 20 seconds and then loops).
Very jarring, very loud, and yet, after over 100 days of hearing it, I still laugh when he says.. "That was offsides.. yeah, he's going to cry himself to sleep on his HUGE PILLOW".
GPL'd web-based tradewars themed space game
I have the same problem. I'm going to go in for a sleep study, but until then, I rotate alarms. For me, it seems that after a while, I will get used to an alarm's sound and learn to ignore it. After selecting a new alarm sound (alarm clock beep, radio, palm pilot alarm, cel phone alarm) every 2-3 weeks, I wake up faster. Also, having something that lights up or vibrates helps, too.
I am a heavy sleeper, also. Found this Timex branded clock radio with all the features I wanted, and then some. I use the model T300BT but there are many variations. Check out this web site, but there is a good chance you'll find these at a nearby big-box electronics store.
http://www.timexaudio.com/Cat-A.asp idsubcategory=69
it's an idea. If you _NEED_ to get up in the morning. . .
this is what we call
wakeup juice
just make sure that the alarm is going off when you drink the juice, followed by the snooze button. . . until you want to wake up on your own. Otherwise you may never
Lose the snooze permanently
The more you know. . . the less you want to know.
I tend to be a heavy sleeper and lazy waker. When I was younger, the alarm volume used to get progressively louder (bumping it up a notch after sleeping through something important) until I had my stereo probably close to all the way up. Still overslept. The key, for me, was mind practice.
When I go to sleep, I no longer just lie down and thoughtlessly drift into sleep. When I do that, I tend to wake up in the same state of mind: thoughtlessly drifting. When I lie down to sleep nowadays, I make my plan for the next morning. Even if it's the routine plan, I force myself to think about what time I need to be up and out of bed by. Bring it all to the front of my mind. What I've found is that, when I wake up after having done this, I feel prepared for the day and spring out of bed -- without residual sluggishness.
And a cool side effect? My alarm clock radio is barely audible. It's as if preparing myself to hear that sound, the night before, makes actually picking it up from the depths of sleep really easy.
Only time I oversleep anymore is when my liver needs a little extra rest.
YMMV of course.
Look out honey, 'cause I'm using technology; Ain't got time to make no apology
A Narcoleptic's Journey....
I had this guys problem. But you make some assumptions. At 6'4" with an overly long torso, and correspondingly overly short legs, I have discovered, that there are few places in a 10' by 12' room I cannot reach. Even during feats of spectacular narcoleptic athleticism.
Ultimately my solution was to move the alram clock when I caught myself aiming immediatly straigh for it with out really locating it.
Once upon a time I had a design for just such an alarm clock as he requests. But I found out that such things aren't made or designed in the US, I was SOL.
It was at the end of the cold war, so the idea was to shape it like a MIRV and it could play either the Star Spangled Banner, or Soviet National Anthem John Philips Souza style, loud. To turn it off, one would have to perform a complex task. Sort of disarmming it. It would house two counter rotating cylinders that interlocked sort of like a child proof cap. This would turn off the clock and reset it for tomorrow. No snooze, because making decisions about how much time you've really got while in an impared state with a warm pillow is bad. (Well it's bad for me.)
My thinking was that, over time, just I would learn to pre-aim for the alarm clock, the alarm clock + easy puzzle would learn me to wake up more quickly.
Those brutal firealarms they have in dorms? I have slept through them too.
You might consider having a sleep clinic check you out for sleep apnea. Just a thought, in case you haven't considered it.
I found it much easier to wake up in the morning after I started to exercise. Also, losing weight helps since you don't have to get as much moving in the morning. ;)
they can get blood from your stones.
It's not just half of what you have, it's half of what you'll ever have.
If she has your little brother and the person you hate most in all the world double team her in a sex romp and sends the video to your dad and sells it to all your friends, has a kid (not yours) and puts your name on the birth certificate, she'll get half, and the kid will get his too (out of your share, not hers).
This is the most common cause of not waking up on time, still feeling tired in the morning, and repeatedly waking up later in the day.
In short, you are breathing incorrectly at night causing the effects of heavy sleep. your nasal passages are not getting any air for some reason or another and you are breathing through your mouth. If you wake up with dry mouth and/or clogged sinuses you more than likely have Sleep Apenia. Check with your doctor if you suspect that this is the problem.
My problem was that I needed two types of nasal decongestant to keep my sinuses clear. Once I got the Medicine on a set schedule, I was able to sleep eight hours and get up the next morning with no problems.
However, If you're just waking up after only sleeping a few hours...alarm Clocks with Truck Horns should do the trick. I used to work on call for a 24/7 internet web site and, through my boss's inepitude, threw my sleep and work schedule WAY off to the point where I just went to work when I woke up. No matter what the hour was.
Dolemite
___________________
Save the World! Use a Quote!
It's not that I don't get enough sleep (I go to bed at night when I get sleepy), but my body tends to want a day longer than 24 hours, and I have to use an alarm to keep myself on a constant schedule with the rest of the world; otherwise, I get up a little later each day and pretty soon I'm sleeping till noon.
Logically only one of the following two things can be true given your description above:
1) If you hold your bedtime constant, you sleep later and later each day until you are sleeping 24/7
2) If you sleep later and later each day and the above is not true, then how late you wake up is a function that partially depends on the time you go to bed.
For the vast majority of humans, 2) is true. If the time you wake up is mostly or completely independant of the time you go to bed then you should see a sleep clinic immediately. An easy way to check is to go to bed within 30 minutes of a set time consistantly for a few weeks, at least 8 hours before you need to awake for whatever your daily tasks require, and set your alarm for 8 hours after that time.
If, after two weeks of 8 solid hours of sleep a night, you still have a problem waking up to the average alarm clock then get checked. You may also need to have your hearing checked.
The upshot is that it is unlikely that you are simply a heavy sleeper. It is more likely that you are simply not allowing yourself enough time to sleep at night. If you wait until you feel too tired to continue doing what you are doing, then you are stretching the hours past the time your body should be asleep.
After you get on a sleeping schedule, you'll feel better, recover from illness and injury faster, and generally have better/more level hormones which will often increase your happiness and general well being.
It's worth the effort, and believe me - you aren't missing out on anything by turning off the tv, computer, etc and sleeping.
-Adam
For me, the solution was a Zen Alarm Clock. I can sleep though the buzzing/beeping of a normal clock, but the chimes on this one always wake me up. It does the "progressively shorter time between rings" thing, and since there's no snooze button on mine, if I want additional time I've got to wake up enough to reset it manually. Good stuff. mark
If you are having real trouble waking up, it probably really does mean that you are not getting enough sleep, and if you have to be up at a certain time, you need to arrange to go to sleep early enough that you do in fact get enough sleep. Trust me, your body does not have a >24hour natural sleep cycle.
One thing that can help is to sleep in a location where the rising sun will wake you up - that is, don't close the curtains, and don't sleep in the darkest room in the house.
With respect to alarms that are painful but not injurious, you have it backwards. If the sound is loud enough to be painful, it _is_ injurious. Even sounds that are not painful can be injurious, depending on how long they last.
My roomate in college used to have horrible problems sleeping through things.
On extra important occasions, he'd activate the "Super Soaker Protocol"--
Ten minutes before the designated wake-up time, I'd start loading the super-soaker, and every minute on the minute I'd give him a warning. Then he'd get a count-down for the last 30 seconds... and if he wasn't on his feet by the time the countdown hit zero, he knew damn well that he'd get soaked.
He never once failed to get up... but I never gave up hope that one time I'd get to soak his lazy ass..
but alas...
1. Go to your favorite cheep-o-discount store and pick up a timer that will handle a good wattage and a cheap smoke detector. Don't worry about how sensative it is, just get the loudest one they sell. Also might not be a bad idea to grab a fire extinguisher.
2. Purchase a basic set of stereo speakers (ensure that they are of a lower wattage than your stereo can put out).
3. Plug your stereo into your timer, turn the volume all the way up and remove the volume knob. (Do this while the timer is OFF). Super glue the power switch in the permenently ON position. Tune to the most obnoxious music radio station you can find on the dial in your local area (for me it would be RAP, but I've heard Country works well too).
4. Install the fire alarm directly above the stereo.
4. Set the timer for about 30 minutes prior to the point at which you want to be awake.
5. Go to sleep.
The following morning, if the sound of speakers nearly breaking under the stress of awful music is too much to bear, the sound of the smoke detector going off works as a great secondary alarm. (my last set took about 30 minutes before the cheap speakrs began to smoke).
All kidding aside, I had the same problem and found that I wake up more effectively to music than to the buzzer. My body would get used to the buzzer and I'd hear it in my dream, but not wake up.
The solution is to buy a good quality, loud alarm clock that plays music or a CD.
I have a Bose Wave Radio alarm clock and it can be cranked quite loud. As long as it's on RADIO and not the beeper, it never fails to wake me...my wife and my neighbors up on time. Oh, and it helps to put the alarm clock on the other side of the room so that you don't accidentally turn it off in your sleep.
"God is dead!" - Nietzsche
"Nietzsche is dead!" - God
When I was in college, I learned how to turn off my alarm clock in my sleep, so here was my solution:
- medium sized metal box from RadioShack.
- Large button I had laying around
- The loudest piezo buzzer RadioShack sells (105 dB)
- telephone wire
- hooked up to the flow control lines on the serial port
- program to control it all
Features I included in the program
- I set the alarm times once, a different time for each day of the week. The only time I have to adjust it is when I need to get up earlier than usual on the weekends.
- when I hit the snooze button, it launches WinAmp to play MP3s until the buzzer goes off again.
- the snooze time starts at 5 minutes per snooze, and steps down over 30 minutes. So 30 minutes after the alarm went off, the snooze button doesn't work anymore.
- To turn off the alarm completely, one has to get up, walk into the next room, and type in a word that is displayed on the screen, chosen random from a dictionary.
This does have one disadvantage, that the computer must either be in the bedroom or have speakers there. I've got it installed on my server machine, which only makes noise for the alarm, so I didn't mind running speakers into the next room (in other words, since it's on the server, I don't miss having sound locally).
This seems to be pretty close to what you're looking for (having your PC be your alarm clock definately has geek appeal). If you want, send me an email and I'll whip up a schematic for the serial port thing and send you my software.
I used to have a real problem with alarms. After about three weeks of having an alarm, I somehow get used to it and tune it out. After a month of having a particular alarm, it simply doesn't disturb me when I'm asleep. If I get a new alarm that sounds different, the cycle simply starts again.
Switching to a radio that goes off at a certain time fixed that for me. Since a different song is on each time, I never get a chance to get used to it. Try a simple radio out before outlandish computer getups.
I have an alarm clock with numbers that are about 3 inches high, because I can't see very well without my contacts or glasses (even the distance from my bed to the alarm clock, less than a foot, is too much to read a normal clock).
:)
The makers of these clocks seem to think that because I'm blind, I'm also deaf. I have layers of black tape over the speaker in the back, and it's STILL quite loud. The first time I used it without black tape, my roommate and several neighbors were all trying to turn off their alarms.
It scares the heck out of my cat, too. He sometimes takes off running when the alarm goes off.
That's my suggestion.
--RJ
P.S. Or, get a cat, and get in the habit of feeding him/her when you get up. The cat will soon make the connection, and will then start waking you up. Mine, in particular, will jingle his collar, jump on the bed, put his nose in my face, chew wires, anything that gets a reaction out of me. This has been known to happen around 4:00 a.m. some days. (I've stopped feeding him in the morning in favor of more at night, but he hasn't gotten out of the habit yet.)
I have a similar problem - when I go to bed late I tend to just smack the alarm clock in the morning and continue sleeping. I don't even remember a thing.
A very quick and dirty solution for me has been to put the alarm clock across the room so that I have to physically get up to turn it off. That forces my body to waken up so that I won't go right back to bed. HTH
> I go to bed at night when I get sleepy
;) You'll "feel" tired sooner.
It may sound odd, but that's too late. Pick a time about 8 hours prior to when you want to get up in the am and go to bed. When you get up, don't hit the snooze, get up. Your body will adjust.
Your "later and later" tendency is normal, but it's due to the fact that it's easier to stay up late without feeling tired. It's because you're not active. Try staying up as late while working on something (other than reading slashdot)
-=sig=-
Just do what i did, go to walmart and buy the loudest alarm clock they have, then pull the buzzer out and solder on 20 feet of zip line so you can put the buzzer in your bedroom, and the snooze button in another, works great for me, i have to get up and go into the living room to turn of the alarm, and by that time, i'm up. (it helps that im in a dorm, so i have to get dressed to leave my bedroom)
another one that i thought of was to put the alarm in a box that required a button to be held down for 30 sec before it would open.
Cogito Eggo Sum, I think therefore I'm a waffle
A friend of mine is notorious for sleeping through alarm clocks.
One day, as a gift, he received an alarm clock that was super loud. It looked like it was made in the 70's, it was huge and had that same "plastic that looks like wood" sort of decoration that my 83 Monte Carlo has... Nowadays, electronics are all smaller, more streamlined, more "japanese" feeling.
Anyway, when I first heard it, I said it sounded like a foghorn, and that name, "The Foghorn", stuck, although it was a bit of a misnomer. On the spot, I couldn't remember the sound that it made, although I remembered relatively quickly. It didn't sound like a foghorn, but it sound exactly like a shop vac. It even ramped up just like one, and it moved a ton of air through this big blower.
It sounded just like a shop vac, it didn't beep or turn the noise off and on, it was just one continuous "vrooom" that was certainly way too loud to talk over... (You know how shop vacs are louder than normal vacuum cleaners)
Well, maybe because the sound was monotonous, my friend started sleeping through this noise anyway... He said that he would just incorporate the noise in his dreams. Literally, the thing would be like 3 feet from his head, and like I said, way too loud to talk over or anything, and he'd be sleeping through it. If you were outside of his house, even with all the doors and windows shut, you could hear it, but he'd be sleeping.
This was in high school, and we eventually left for college. He had 2 roommates for awhile, and then one of his roommates swapped rooms with somebody else.
So, the first night the new guy wsa sharing the room with him (the third roommate was somewhere else that night), my friend gets woken up in the morning. His new roommate is shaking him and saying "Chris wake up, there's a fire drill!" He says "No dude, that's just my alarm", and rolls over and hits the snooze button. His new roommate just stands there and says "Oh my fucking god"...
That's it.
Consider this: you may be trying to treat the symptom rather then the condition. Do you have trouble staying awake during waking hours? Do you snore loudly? If so you may have a sleep disorder. I did. I used to get extremely sleepy, and sometimes fell asleep, at odd hours of the day and usually woke up not very refreshed. My boss caught me asleep at my PC one day and suggested I see a doctor. I checked into a sleep center and found out I have obstructive sleep apnea. Now I sleep with a C-Pap machine every night (my little buddy) and my life has completely changed. I sleep undisturbed through the night and have no problems waking up now and I have no problem staying awake until its time to go to bed. Consider it, seriously. BTW, people with OSA are immensely more likely to suffer heart attacks and strokes. Another thing I've learned: the human REM cycle is 45 minutes long. If you wake up in the middle of one you'll be bleary eyed. If you wake up between them you'll be clear headed. It almost doesn't matter how many you've had (to a point) as long as you time it so that you wake up between them. Try adjusting your wakeup time so that it corresponds to a whole number increment of 45 minutes from when you fall asleep (not go to bed). If it takes you 10-15 minutes (or whatever) to fall asleep take that into account. Also, many people make the mistake of doing other things in bed besides sleeping, like reading and watching TV. DON'T. Make sleeping the only thing you spend time doing in bed so that when your head hits your pillow there are no contradictory associations keeping your eyes open and your mind awake.
Get off the drugs. No caffeine no nicotine NO stimulants, ever!
No games after 9pm or a couple hours before bedtime at least. In fact, stay off the computer completely. The bright lights in your face will render you sleepless.
Eat a banana 1/2 hr before going to bed.
Have sex right before your bedtime, yes with someone else.
Have that someone else help wake you up in the morning.
Try that for a few weeks and tell me you don't sleep better than ever and wake up feeling teenager-fresh.
Liberty.
Don't bother snoozing. It's self-indulgent and offers less real benefit than going to bed twenty minutes earlier. If you have a very hard time waking up, you probably aren't sleeping as well as you should. Possibilities include excess sugar, caffeine or alcohol; sleep apnea; depression or anxiety; attention deficit disorder; or simple lack of exercise. Chances are that adjusting your caffeine intake and going for the occasional walk will make a substantial difference.
The best thing about a Screaming Meanie is setting it for one hour and hiding it in somebody else's room. The second-best is that it is physically tough enough to throw violently across the room without suffering any damage.
This is not my sandwich.
regular exercise is good for the body and I promise it will help you sleep better as well as wake up easier. But its not always 100%... I got a super loud alarm clock from radio shack for about $ 25 that is really loud and if I know Im not going to get enough sleep when I go to bed I set another alarm (my cell phone, its pretty loud too) for about ten or fifteen minutes after the alarm, this helps against turning off the alarm in my sleep (Ive done this too many times ! even though its across the room !).
Yay me! ^^
normal alarms did not work, it had to be something I found very annoying or embarrassing.
So I took out my LP record of the STAR WARS theme, set it up on the turntable, put the needle down on the record to start at the "MAIN THEME" which is extremely grande and pompous (and embarrassing to hear very loudly at 7am...I was a fan, but not THAT big a fan...).
I used the nice manual timer that came with my Betamax SL8200 to turn ON my stereo and turntable at 7am.
a few nights of this and I would be UP and RUNNING into the living room when I heard the distinctive *click* of the Betamax timer go off.
I got to the point where I could lift the needle off the turntable just before the receiver warmed up enough to play the first note.
I like microcars
I had this problem since my college days. One day I showed up to my job late once too often. The boss gave me an ultimatum. Get a better alarm clock or find another job.
The solution was simple, really. Get a normal alarm clock. But put it on the far side of the room. This makes you actually get up out of bed and walk over to turn it off. For best results, put it on the top shelf of a closet, and make sure it has a very annoying beep.
Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!
Appliance timer connected to a model train transformer (Lionel, etc, although various other power supplies would work too I guess) connected to a buzzer from a smoke alarm. That is ear-splittingly loud especially if you turn the transformer up to the highest voltage. I almost had a heart attack the first and only time I used it...
Or set something up that will pour water on you if you don't go into the other room and turn it off. Conditioning will take care of the rest.
Kids
"Academicians are more likely to share each other's toothbrush than each other's nomenclature."
Cohen
Drink 0.5L or more of water (depending on your body size) just before you go to bed. If you figure out about the right amount for your body to take in, you won't actually wake up in the middle of the night, but you'll have a strong urge to piss when you get out of bed to wall across the room and hit that alarm clock. You'll then have two choices: either lay in bed trying to hold your bladder in check (which is only delaying the inevitable and ain't gonna get you back to sleep) or walk to the bathroom and take a piss (which will give you some time and activity to become fully awake). Either way, you're getting up.
Bedwetters please ignore the above suggestion.
Somebody has to mention the home-brew alarm clock used by a heavy sleeper in John Varley's Millenium. Been a while since I read it, but there's something about an air-raid siren....
My mother is my alarm clock when I want to get up late, and my father when I want to get up early.
They both get progressively louder and have progressively shorter snooze times until I am awake enough to actually get out of bed, dressed, and off to school. In fact, they will possibly get as loud as an air compressor combined with a train whistle if I am sufficiently late for a sufficient number of days in a row.
They both work when the power is out, and do not use a UPS socket.
Slapping the snooze button can be done without being awake, and causes the clock to "snooze" for awhile. Slapping a parent causes them to get louder (at least). Telling them to go away sometimes works, if it is still sufficiently early.
If I were to put an alarm system on my room, it would be sufficiently geeky. Especially if they didn't know about it, and it was piped to some earpiece or something. If I was quick, I could jump out of bed in time to make them think they walked in on me.
One or the other of them will automatically go off at a certain preset time every morning -- but only if I am not up already. Unfortunately, this time is non-configurable and somewhat variable.
Unfortunately, if your parents are already dead, you'd have to be pretty cold to just buy some replacements. However, a girlfriend may help. The only problem there is that you cannot have redundancy, or the two girlfriends will not quiet down even after you are fully awake, and will in fact continue to be loud until the contrast is lost and they no longer wake you up.
If you want something more reliable, upgrade one girlfriend to a wife so you get yourself a baby. At first, it will be very unpredictable, waking you up at entirely random intervals.
However, as it is upgraded to a toddler, it will typically take over the wife's job entirely, allowing some redundancy. Unfortunately, although it will wake you up early enough, it's also likely that it won't let you go back to sleep easily.
In fact, to shut it off, you may need a screwdriver, but that would be illegal and too violent for slashdot. It may require you to be cognizant enough to feed it, which may require a cash transaction. Or it may require you to be cognizant enough to go to a bad neighborhood and get yourself some heavy narcotics in order to at least slow it down somewhat.
Unfortunately, as the kid is "upgraded" to a teenager, you may find yourself relying on the one wife to wake the both of you up. Thus, the best solution is really the two girlfriends, if you can find two that are compatible. There's no standard model, after all.
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
IT'S GOATSEX!!!! AAAUGGGHG!!
If that won't get you out of bed, nothing will.
;-)
I used to have one of those old fashioned flip chart style of digital clocks. One day it jammed. I took it apart and fixed it. I thought it looked cool with all of the working parts exposed so I left the case off.
The alarm switch was on the back of the clock. Normally, when it went off, I'd roll over, slap my hand on the top of the clock, fold my fingers over the back and slide my hand across to switch the alarm off. The trick of the title was discovered by accident. The 110V enters the clock and terminates on two prongs at the top of the clock. Normally they are covered by the case.
The first time I used the alarm after I had "repaired" it, I woke up in the corner of my room across from my bed, shaking, with a sore arm, two red dots in the center of my palm and the alarm still on.
I replaced the cover as soon as my hand had recovered enough to use a screwdriver.
I'm sure that something similar could be developed for your needs.
Good judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement.
- W. Wriston, former Citibank CEO
I had an extremely bad experience with them which makes me hesitant to buy any future products at all.
I have a high end Dream Machine. Gradual wake, three different alarm settings (radio, CD, buzzer which can be all activated at different times.. I also started hearing the radio in my sleep when I had an alarm with only radio wake function), adjustable snooze button. It also has a nap button which I had been searching for ever since my original alarm died (which had fine minute tuning rather than ten minute increments).
The thing died on me after three months but the waranty was for a year for parts and labor. Two of the authorized sony centers I was directed to did not have the capabilities to fix it. The third was locked in a "he said, she said" argument with the main company on fixing it.
The main problem stemmed from that I had a Sony paper waranty showing the year coverage but the sony computers EVERYWHERE said it was only for 3 months. I had to send multiple faxes (because they would never make it to their destination) of it and my receipt to various companies. Eventually, with enough harassment on my part, I got out of the center that Sony was not willing to cover them because repair was over 50% of the original cost.
It cost me a quarter of the cost to send it to Sony insured so that they would fix it at their main site. THEN they switched service locations: just packed up and moved from Irvine to somewhere in SoCal. It took me a total of three months harassment to find out that I had to send it to them directly to get it fixed, and then three more months for them to send it elsewhere, take a look, and say that they were going to send a replacement.
I will not buy from them again if I can help it.
"Would you rather have a playstation addicted dork wearing a star wars t-shirt?"
When the keyboard is locked, it's quite hard to accidently turn off the alarm rather than "snooze" (you have to unlock it, which is a two-button task). It's got a battery backup. And it's relatively sturdy, it'll take more of a beating than most alarm clocks. It's also inherently portable. Lastly, it's effectively free. I think the volume increases over time as well, but I'm not entirely certain.
Somebody get that guy an ambulance!
Think about getting this thing.
I've got one and I love it. Volume goes up to 98db, it vibrates your bed (think "magic fingers" at hotels), and flashes your lights (or leaves them steady on). You can do combinations of all of them too. Trust me, 98db will wake you up.
How I do know? I lost my hearing 3 years ago and bought one for myself!
Doesn't look like anyone else has mentioned this, but I've found the best "alarm" clock to be a timer and an electric matress pad (~$60) set to High. It is the most gentle awakening I've ever found, allowing your body to decide to wake up when it's in the right part of the REM cycle. An electric blanket works OK, but it's too easy to throw off when things get too warm.
Note that I didn't make any such generalizations; the poster didn't mention having trouble sleeping.
All he mentioned is that he has a hard time getting up, and my point was that he was looking for a hardware solution (an alarm clock) to a problem that may just be a symptom of something larger. The pot comment was half joking, but not the part mentioning diet, exercise, medical conditions, or simply getting control of his ability to open his eyes in the morning.
Having trouble sleeping is another matter entirely.
So I was ranting about the quality of 'ask slashdots' but really, some of them are ridiculous these days.
Children meet all the above requirements.
My cats have learned well, too. If I am asleep, they will cuddle with me. If the alarm goes off, they get closer to my face. They'll snuggle me when I'm barely awake because I'm more likely to pet them.
;)
The moment I open my eyes more than a slit, though, they're off the bed, at the door, and meowing for breakfast.
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
The Screaming Meanie 110 with a kick. 120 decible alarm. 3 settings; lo, med, high. Timer and alarm clock features. Homing signal can be heard up to one mile in an emergency.
r e/ tz-220.html
http://shop.store.yahoo.com/pacificcornetta-sto
You could probably find them for sale in Truck Stops. They are loud as hell and sure to wake anyone but a deaf person up!
Truckers frequently take naps for an hour or so and need something to wake them up as their body wants to sleep a lot longer. They also need to be on time.
Use your existing computer and speakers.
r windows.
Install, set your time, song and volume.
If it doesn't work, go buy a larger set of
pc speakers.
http://www.downseek.com/download/3534.asp
Use http://www.llornkcor.com/software/vigmeup.zip
fo
2 Why do you oversleep? Are you not getting into trouble enough at work if you show up late?
3 Avoid snooze buttons - they get you used to ignoring the alarm, and eventually sleeping through it. When the alarm goes off, that's it - you must wake up then - no snoozing - it's wasted sleep time anyway.
..........FULL STOP.
Has snooze but better to place walking distance from the bed, and don't keep the remote handy
Battery Backup Check
Defaults to reset same time next day.
I don't awake in a dark room, under the total darkness black out curtains my wife favors, I'll sleep 12 hours at shot. With the filmies and light, 6 hours a night does it. There are timers and such to provide light as well.
Cost, well try for refurbished maybe?
Melatonin is a natural antihistamine, a personal choice to use it or not, I chose not to. I had a prostate infection at the time and inccured an increase in related problems. Like you say melatonin is not good for long term use. If taking a antidepressent such as a reuptake inhibitor some herbal supplements will have a bad reaction. It slips my mind at the moment but there is a herbal supplement that has a natural source of seratonin, it will cause a very bad reaction with reuptakeinhibitors (paxil, celexia), it might be Ginko. As far as a homeopathic suggestion, turn your bed so your head is pointing north, it harmonicaly alligns your own magnetic pattern with the pattern of the earth, believe me it does help.
I eat my grapes at room temperature, cuz the cold ones hurt my teeth
Most of those traits you requested can be accomplished with a cron job.
45 8 * * * aumix -v75;mpg123 song-with-variable-volume.mp3(like Dvorak's New World Symphony);sleep 600;aumix -v80;mpg123 song.mp3;sleep 400; etc.
and snooze is having to get up, turn on monitor, and running 'killall mpg123'
With the additional benefit of letting you set a later time for weekends.
The key thing was that the snooze button (a doorbell switch) and the light were right by the bed, but the keyboard escape key was in another room. Four wires run off of a serial port sufficed.
Another nice feature was that I programmed it to not go off on weekends and holidays. It's very nice to have an alarm clock that doesn't wake you when you don't actually need to get up.
--
I don't want to rule the world... I just want to be in charge of mayonnaise.
is the herbal supplement to avoid when taking reuptakeinhibitors
I eat my grapes at room temperature, cuz the cold ones hurt my teeth
What would be great is a 24-hour clock display!
These are common only in the UK, it seems. I can't find one for sale in the US at all, except for specialty clocks like the ones that have little weather stations in them, or tiny travel clocks.
I'd love to find a normal alarm clock, in the normal alarm clock form factor, with a 24-hour display. I can't count the number of times I have accidentally set the time to AM when I meant PM, or vice versa....
I've taken to using my cellphone as an alarm clock, since it has this feature of 24-hour clock display. Works great for me.
Dr. Demento On The 'Net!
The sunlight will wake you at dawn. Also, the gradual increace in light level wakes you gently.
Environmentalism is the new Victorianism. Everyone ties on a green corset and pretends we're virtuous.
My wife had this alarm clock that scared me awake every time it's amazing loud and annoying buzzer went off. I would jump up feeling like I was having a heart attack. I eventually bought her a nice clock radio and rejoiced when we sent the "Terrorizer" to St Vinnie's.
Later we discovered my son can sleep through an earthquake. I wish I could find that alarm clock!
Features:
Drink water before you go to bed. After a while, you will wake up alarm or no alarm!
A firewall can not protect you from yourself. Turn off what you do not need. Do not use the firewall to do your work.
Try those subject words with any search engine. This is probably what you're looking for.
I have found that a baby is a fairly effective alarm clock.
"...we should just trust our president in every decision that he makes and we should just support that." B.Spears 2003
For a low low price of, say, 50 bucks a week, and your address, I'll gladly do it.
That is, as long as it's not before 10 a.m.
Cole's Law: Thinly sliced cabbage
Check out a Stanford Professor's links on the subject
No Shit!
My Palm Pilot m505 has a built in, single day (others exist) alarm clock. The tones are can be changed, and the one I use (on a near daily basis) is the Reville (think military wake up call). This works great, and I'm a real heavy sleeper.
Granted its a bit on the extreme, but works great! You can get a cheap one now on ebay. Alternatively, get the same tone and then use your Linux/Windows box with scheduling and mpeg123.
Either way its a hell-of-a wake up!
harryk
think before you write, it'll save me moderator points.
Digital Zen Alarm Clock
The each ring of the chime lasts one minute. The chime rings over a ten minute interval, slowly increasing the rate of ringing.
The first ring occurs at the alarms set time.
The next ring occurs almost 4 minutes later
The next ring almost 2.5 minutes later
The next ring almost 1.5 minutes later
Then 1, then 30 seconds, then 20, then 15, then 8, and finally it rings continuously every 5 seconds.
These guys have several models that include vibrator (not that kind...) attachments and lamp outlets to which you could plug in either a lamp or said air compressor and train whistle.
http://www.sonicalert.com/
The Screaming Meanie
Ok, not subtle & the neighbours will hate you, but if you can sleep through *that* nothing will wake you up.
I have a modified version of this...I have high blood pressure and they put me on a water pill...now I CAN'T go more than about 6 - 7 Hours without taking a piss! I'm pretty much always up on time, because my body starts screaming I need to take a piss about an hour before the alarm goes off...I fight the need till the alarm does go off, but when it does its pretty much go time...I will not go into how this has screwed up my sleep cycle...I have always been one of those that needs to be sleep almost as long as I have been awake...and made up the difference on the weekend, however thats not possible anymore.
Power Corrupts,Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely, leaving one person(group)in charge is absolutely corrupt.
yes, and there is no evidence that the planet is slowing down??2 208.shtml?tid=134
http://science.slashdot.org/science/04/01/01/20
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
What I've done is get a 150 watt metal-halide outdoor lamp (like you'd use in a barn) and wire it up to a digital timer rated for 200 watts. The lamp takes about 5-10 minutes to reach full brighness, so it has a nice 'sunrise' effect. I've got a backup alarm that comes on about 20 minutes after the light switches on, but after a week or two I didn't need it. Total cost was about $40.
I used to set my computer up to play something really loud whenever it was important that I get up early. I had some software that would require me to type in some phrase like "I am awake" to turn of the noise. It was pretty effective.
I always thought it would be pretty sweet to have something set up that would gradually open the curtains and turn on the lights at some specified time. Has anyone on slashdot ever rigged something like this up from their computer? I guess you'd need some servos and some kind of interface card, but every time I've looked around on the net for that sort of stuff it's been kind of pricey.
...from my computer, and set the phone to emit a loud series of beeps when I receive an SMS. It is impossible to turn off from the phone (unless you turn off the phone itself, but the keyboard should be locked anyway).
I've found that sometimes setting my alarm up a few hours early helps. I get through the stumble phase, get some clothes rather, things set by the door, flop back to bed under a light pillow until alarm #2. For some reason this seems to satisfy my desire to "go back to bed" so that I feel better on the second waking. Also nice if you aren't sleeping well as you can adjust you comfort levels for the addition 2-3h sleep.
consider the reason for you're late hours. I don't think the clock is the issue. As a child, did you have problems getting up for school but on Saturday get up with sun to watch cartoons? consider your priorities and adjust them accordingly
Your described game is actually my experience every morning. For some reason basically all the alarm clocks I can find come with impossible-to-operate-when-groggy switches, plastic tabs, hard-to-press tiny buttons, and so on, making every morning an adventure. I seriously shopped for something cool and new in these for about three weeks before I completely gave up. There's a nightmare of idiotic user interfaces out there, all meant to be used when sleepy.
Before we knock ourselves out getting someone to develop elaborate games to make waking up even more ridiculous, could we maybe get one alarm clock maker to market a decent, acceptable, basic clock?
Then we can get them to add the neat stuff they've failed to think of:
But criminy, could they at least make the basic thing work, first?
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
I don't think anyone should do this. I am only explaining what I once did in undergrad:
1) subscribe to a 976 style wake-up phone call service
2) buy an adapter that turns your phone ringing into an AC pulse - they are for the hard of hearing, so that a lamp can flicker on and off to indicate the phone is ringing. Got mine for $11 back in '92. It is a wall adapter that has a phone jack an AC plug, and an AC outlet on it.
3) hook a powerstrip to it
4) set the powerstrip to OFF.
5) plug a stereo with your least favorite LP on the turntable and the needle down. turn it way up. Also works with a cassette player, so long as you FF to the middle of a song, and press PLAY.
6) plug a drill into it, pull the trigger, and lock the trigger.
7) put a paint-stir bit on the drill
8) put the drill down in the bed with you.
When the phone call comes, you had better wake up. It is very unplesant. I only did it once, and it worked perfectly. This music blared, the lights went on and off, and this thing, which got bigger and bigger as it gathered more sheets, was jumping around in the bed, and it is starting to restrict your motion.
My plan now is to pattent this device that gives you immediate access to your fight or flight subroutine.
kulakovich
One of my friends used to wake up by blasting Anti-Flag (I think) in his ears. "GONNA DIE GONNA DIE GONNA DIE FOR YOUR GOVERNMENT" really got him up and moving...
bristle at that, cocksucking mods.
There was a news story a year or so ago about a german girl who invented an alarm bed lift. Basically, it lifts two legs of the bed a bit at a time until it dumps out the occupant. Her dad was an oversleeper, IIRC.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
... is a Sonic Alert - aptly named the "Sonic Boom" which is paired with a night table light and a 12V bed shaker. When the alarm goes off, the light and vibrator alternate in a square wave with an obnoxious pulse of noise. She's had others in the past, but they've all been similar. The first time I was woken up by one of these, I almost fell out of bed. My subtle radio alarm is now set to go off well before hers...
Of course, she tells everyone there's a vibrator in her bed.
...wake my dorm neighbor. His alarm was so fucking loud it would wake up everyone in the dorm except for him. We thought he was dead. Every morning! All at the same time we would pound on his windows and doors, call his phones, yell, and blare an air horn. Two hours later he would still be asleep.
The meme police, They live inside of my head
Snooze is evil. Pick a time you want to wake up, and force yourself to get up then. If you have the option to snooze, most people will use it. On top of this get the X10 Alarm Clock Timer and a couple x10 recievers and go to town. Anything you can plug into an outlet you can make go off with it. Lights, sirens, electrodes.. whatever.
Gabe Kangas
"i go to bed at night when i feel sleepy" does NOT mean you are getting enough sleep. If you can't get up in the morning when your alarm goes off, then you are NOT GETTING ENOUGH SLEEP. Plain and simple. If you are actually getting enough sleep, then you should be waking up naturally, *without* any need for an alarm clock.
It can also help if you leave your blinds open. Sunlight seems to wake me up as long as I have close to enough sleep.