Throw away your alarm clock!

Well at least set the time back a little bit. I’ve been reading about the importance of sleep and ran across an article that said “Stop using your alarm clock.” So I did. I still have it set to go off, but I have it go off much later now (for back up). Basically, if you want to get up earlier, go to be earlier. Try not to use an alarm clock.

Just thought I’d share, I’m really happy with the results. My target go to bed time is around 10-11pm for anyone that’s curious.

supermemo.com/articles/sleep.htm

The Sleep test
sleepfoundation.org/nsaw/sleepiq99i.html

Who needs an alarm clock when you’ve got two cats?
mew, wake up mommy. mew!

My alarm clock makes the most hideous sound, something like two cats screaming because their tails are in a blender (as I imagine they would scream, please animal rights people don’t start posting). I hate the sound so much that I always wake up about two minutes before it’s set to go off, just in time to avoid the screeching, turn it off, and go back to sleep.

I set the alarm on my hi-fi to ensure that I wake up to music rather than a screeching alarm. The problem is that my gf has to get up before me, and she has the habit of reaching over to turn off the alarm before I have the chance to wake… so she can sleep in.

So we then set the cellphone alarm, which has also has
d little effect, as she knows it will only beep for about 10 seconds before stopping…

Now I borrow a friend’s 100db super-alarm and hide it in the room, being careful to wear earplugs before I sleep.

alarm clocks are useful for dreams remembered. if an alarm clock wakes you up, in the last nano seconds of the dream, you will hear the clock and wake up and remember the dream. but if you wake up without a clock, chances are good you will forget the dream, not even remember dreaming it. so alarm clocks are important if you value your dreams. if not, cats and dogs and rabbits are best! or the smell of burning toast in the kitchen!

Or percolating coffee.

Haven’t had an alarm clock for years. Wake up at 6 am no problem if required. Why all the fuss?

Well, then maybe we can give you a small stipend to give us wake-up calls each morning. Do you have a pleasing voice?

Not true. I read about (and practiced) lucid dreaming for a long while. You can become very good at sleep control and remembering of dreams. I recall alarms clocks being bad for that too.

I was trying to get up at 5 (or earlier) every day, but I wasn’t going to sleep early enough. I’d still get up at five(ish) but it wasn’t doing a body good. It’s funny because now I wake up around 5 or 5:30 everyday (and on a few instances even before that) and it’s doing a body right.

yeh, HakkaSon, good idea, how about a wake up call for us late sleepers and sleep-inners? I will pay.

No alarm clock for me either. The chirping birds, distant rooster crows and occasional dog barks wake me up pretty early. Dawn is the perfect time for a jog and really gets the day off to a good start.

Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.

Well , at least I am healthy!

miltownkid, have you added exercise into your new routine?

Exercise is coming back soon. It’s my usual habit to work out like a raging bull (but Chinese study has takin’ it’s place for now). I do try to make working out a part of how I live.
Example: Walk everwhere, always take the stairs, do push-ups for fun, taiji every day (even if only for 10 minutes), etc.

I do want to get back into running and streching every morning. I started it up, but caught a cold during the SARS thing and it broke my streak. Then studying Chinese took over the extra time. Now that I study less I’ll start working out more, but I’m at the maintenence level right now. The only work out goal I have is attaining the full splits.

Well, there’s my story (you asked :wink: )

Milton, I followed your advice the past two nights and have to admit that I feel great. Though my boss is slightly angry at my being two hours late for work today and yesterday.

Milton, I followed your advice the past two nights and have to admit that I feel great. Though my boss is slightly angry at my being two hours late for work today and yesterday.[/quote]
SEE! Not only do you feel good. You also might get a vacation! :smiley:

I’m not sure you read the post thoroughly enough.

is there any proven method to redice sleeping time… I need seven hours… would like to get it down to maybe 4 or 5 hours

sleeping is such an ineffcient use of time… however necessary

Maggie Thatcher was famous for her 4 hours a night. Still, look at her now. :laughing:

Milton, I followed your advice the past two nights and have to admit that I feel great. Though my boss is slightly angry at my being two hours late for work today and yesterday.[/quote]
SEE! Not only do you feel good. You also might get a vacation! :smiley:

I’m not sure you read the post thoroughly enough.

I read it. I followed it. I set the alarm for much, much, much later.

[quote=“TNT”]is there any proven method to redice sleeping time… I need seven hours… would like to get it down to maybe 4 or 5 hours

sleeping is such an ineffcient use of time… however necessary[/quote]
I disagree. I think sleep is the most underrated aspect of keeping healthy. Everybody talks about diet and exercise but overlooks the importance of a good night’s sleep. Sleep gets more attention in Chinese medicine, which says that your body needs to be in the slumbering state in certain hours of the night, something like midnight to 3 a.m., to be properly repaired. If you miss it, you’re not getting proper rest no matter how much you try to make it up by sleeping in.

Less sleep = less efficiency, so you don’t gain much by cutting corners.

This may sound silly, but it’s worked for me this summer when I need to get up early, and it’s already pretty late at night. I chug 2 or 3 glasses of milk before going to bed.

This has several effects at once: (1) when I get up, I stay up cause I gotta run to the john - the few extra moments I have to consciously tell myself to stay up, (2) since I became lactose intolerant about 10 years ago, I get the added benefit of ‘cleansing my system’ (I’ll save you the details), and (3) milk does a body good. And (4), I love milk products, but this doesn’t work so well with those yogurt drinks :frowning:

The trouble for me is that milk is expensive. I used this to start an early schedule habit. It worked. So even though I get to bed at around 1:00 am, I’m up at 5:30 am every day. And I don’t have to chug my milk and hit the john anymore.

WARNING: As has been repeated here, regular 4 to 5 hours of sleep, while possible, is no where near as good for you as 7 to 8 hours of sleep.

So, I’ve noticed some negative effects since I started my low sleep habits this summer: (1) stress is up, (2) weight is up, which together means (3) health is down. My back started acting up “all of a sudden” and I started having some nose-throat issues (colds) – and this is not flu season. Flu season starts officially on 17 September.

I believe if I sleep more, I can address my health problems. This means sleeping earlier. My GF also warned me about the midnight to 3 am period. So If I hit the sack at 11, I up my daily sleep quota almost 50%, and I’m still up before 6 (since my wake up habit holds)

As I said above, it’s worked for me