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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)
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.
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,
sigfault. comment dumped.
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
I've seen a number of clock radio alarms that have an AC outlet on the back. Nothing wakes me up like bright daylight. Depending on your schedule/environment leave your bed room curtins open and have daylight help you. Another goof-ball option for the smoke detector buzzer in the parent you could hook an alarm to start a toster set to "burnt" and have it set the smoke detector off.
Instead of buying obnoxious alarm clocks and waking up your neighbors, why don't you just try sleeping like a normal person?
This was my first reaction too... going to sleep "when you feel tired" is a losing game. Of course you sleep later and later -- you're probably going to bed later (or going to bed at random times as your body desperately tries to figure out a schedule, which means you're varying sleep amounts by as much as 4 hours a night on a regular basis).
Look, I'm a narcoleptic. I know about sleeping. Don't take caffeine after ~5 pm (chocolate is usually ok, just stay off the caffeinated beverages). Don't take catnaps in that time either (a 15 minute nap may be all you need to get REM sleep in -- it's all I need at times -- and you won't be sleepy for hours afterwards). And keep your sleep pattern as regular as possible. Even though I'm a narcoleptic I'll sleep 7 hours and then be awake. If I vary things then I pay for it -- usually by not being able to sleep until 3-4 am the next night.
Oh, and to address the original poster -- get a regular, loud alarm clock. Position it so that you must walk to turn it off. If you find that you are getting out of bed, turning the alarm off, and getting back into bed, without remembering doing so, then you need to see a doctor. They'll probably refer you to a sleep clinic. Go. I know if I had when I was in high school I wouldn't have slept through every class from 7th grade until I graduated college (not every day, but at least once in every course). I'm on medication now which helps, but it doesn't do it all. I still need a fairly regular sleep schedule.
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.
If you are having problems getting up, then DON'T USE SNOOZE!
I totally agree with this one. It works best when you combine it with your body's natural alarm clock. Maybe this doesn't work for everyone, but I've found if I just think about what time I need to wake up in the morning, and how many hours of sleep that's going to entail, I'll wake up fairly close to that time naturally. Then I just set my alarm clock really loud and obnoxious for 10 minutes later, just in case, and the vast majority of the time I wake up before the alarm clock even goes off. Snooze is not an option, when the alarm clock goes off, I have to get up.
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