MetaChat - I need help waking up.

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24 February 2009

I need help waking up. Are there any bunnies out there who have figured out how to wake up quickly and efficiently in the morning?

I'm hoping to hear from people who really had a horrible time getting out of bed and figured it out.

My job depends on this!! fyi - I've already tried the put the alarm clock at a distance method. I'll sleep right through it.

post by: sakura at: 14:00 | 29 comments

What helped me:

* Taking a vitamin before going to sleep.
* Giving up caffeine.

But it was mostly the vitamin thing.

Also, I like getting up about an hour earlier than I *have* to so that I can sit and relax in the mornings. If I had to wake up and slam out of the house and be all rushed and anxious, I'd probably want to stay in bed, too.

posted by occhiblu 24 February | 14:03

This may not be possible, or you may have already tried it, but the most effective approach for me seems to be going to bed earlier.

posted by box 24 February | 14:11

I've noticed that being completely off caffeine makes it much easier to roll out of bed. Getting through the rest of the day is another story, however.

posted by DarkForest 24 February | 14:12

Something I learned from metachat due to the opposite problem - not being able to get back to sleep - look at the light! Look out the window, turn on a lamp and look at it. It works for me.

posted by rainbaby 24 February | 14:15

Hey honey, I just thought of something. Let's get a new clock radio - one with a working radio. I have found that setting it to NPR lets me wake up more readily because I start listening to and thinking about the stories.

posted by pieisexactlythree 24 February | 14:22

Kittens are pretty effective too.

posted by mudpuppie 24 February | 14:22

One thing that works for me in the winter is I have an electronic thermostat which is programmed so that it arrives at the daytime temperature when my alarm clock is set to go off. I keep the house about 5 degrees F cooler when I'm sleeping than when I'm up and about.

posted by eekacat 24 February | 14:24

This may not be possible, or you may have already tried it, but the most effective approach for me seems to be going to bed earlier.

What box said. That's the ONLY thing that helps me.

posted by BoringPostcards 24 February | 14:28

Don't drink caffeine past 4pm.

Go to bed earlier.

When the alarm goes off, get up and go into another room.

Make sure you're hydrated before you go to sleep. If not, it makes opening your eyes harder in the morning.

posted by stynxno 24 February | 14:50

I generally stop caffine at noon, though not always.

Going to bed earlier is a rare option, but I try to be there by 11pm. (I have class til 9pm 2 days a week.)

I'm thinking about getting this dude: http://www.hammacher.com/publish/70460.asp
Please keep the ideas coming.

posted by sakura 24 February | 15:04

Have you seen the alarm clocks that roll around the floor? They may not work for you if you sleep through the buzzing sound.

Get some kids if you want to wake up and stay up. ;-) I find that going to bed early is the most helpful. My alarm clock is across the room. Sometimes I'll get up, walk across the room, hit the snooze, and climb back into bed. Most of the time I find the strength not to do that because I'm always disappointed if I don't have enough time to blowdry my hair. Hey, the hair is a good motivator.

posted by LoriFLA 24 February | 15:26

I used to have an alarm clock that played CDs, and so I'd burn a disc of just, y'know, the most unbearable piece of crap songs imaginable (I think it's better if I don't name names). You might could save a few bucks and do the same thing with talk radio.

And while getting to bed earlier helps me a lot, it might be more accurate to say it's part of a whole paying-attention-to-sleep-pattern strategy. I try to go to sleep and wake up around the same time every day, eschew naps unless I'm really exhausted, try to get at least a little exercise every day, etc., etc.

posted by box 24 February | 15:36

I'm thinking about getting this dude:

Looks like a Dalek. If a man in a blue phone booth shows up, you might want to consider going back to bed.

posted by doctor_negative 24 February | 15:36

1) I got an alarm clock that gradually gets louder and louder, instead of waking me up OMG ALL OF A SUDDEN! It helps me wake up before I realize I'm awake. But on it's own it's not enough to convince me to get up. The real kicker recently has been,
2) Bright light in the morning. In the summer I can just leave the blinds open but I'm thinking about getting a clock that will turn a lamp on. Of course, I'll still sleep through it if,
3) I'm not paying attention to my sleep schedule. If I get the right amount of sleep every night, and go to bed on a schedule, I'll wake up a few minutes before my alarm even goes off.

posted by muddgirl 24 February | 15:43

Senior year of college I discovered that many of the very, very Christian honor student youth would wake up, take a caffeine pill; and lay back down. The ?zap? of the pill would get them moving in 10-15 minutes...
I was really surprised that some of these very wholesome kids would be doing the pill thing to wake up...

posted by buzzman 24 February | 15:52

This is the time of year when I plant seeds in flats and keep them under grow lights for 16 hours a day. They're in my bedroom, and I set the timer for the lights at the time I'm supposed go to bed and the time I'm supposed to get up (8 hours). It's really just four full(ish) spectrum florescent lights, but wow it works. The lights pop on at 6. It's hard to stay asleep with them on.

posted by Stewriffic 24 February | 16:28

Monks used to put candles between their toes. When the candle burns down to your foot, it's time to wake up!

posted by Eideteker 24 February | 17:08

I'd burn a disc of just, y'know, the most unbearable piece of crap songs imaginable (I think it's better if I don't name names).

Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music works quite well for this.

posted by Eideteker 24 February | 17:10

I still love the idea of this.

But what I do is have the radio come on softly about a quarter of an hour before I need to be up. It rouses me gently. Then I hit snooze for a quarter of an hour - to half an hour on a bad day like today.

posted by jonathanstrange 24 February | 17:36

Bright light in the first half of the day. Dim light in the second half of the day. Really. And yeah, go to bed earlier.

posted by Specklet 24 February | 18:02

I am so lucky - I usually don't have trouble sleeping or waking. I read for ten minutes or so, put the light off, my head hits the pillow and I'm gone. Then, five minutes before the alarm, I wake up, wide awake as soon as my feet hit the floor.

I have a really loud buzzing alarm, as well as a back-up old-fashioned wind-up clock, just in case I don't wake up on time. I hardly ever need the alarm to wake me.

posted by essexjan 24 February | 19:02

When I have trouble getting to sleep, and staying asleep, I have way more trouble getting up, so, yeah, more sleep.

Having 1 clock radio set to NPR & a 2nd alarm clock set to ring 15 mins later helps.

Setting the coffeepot to start brewing at wakeup time helps (as soon as I start thinking "There's fresh coffee," my motivation to get out of bed increases).

Having clean clothes ready to go helps. In general, anything that can be organized the night before is a huge help.

Somebody on ask.me recommended practicing getting out of bed, during the day, with an alarm clock. Intriguing, but I haven't tried it yet.

posted by theora55 24 February | 20:14

If I must get up with less than 8 hours sleep, say 5 or 6, I drink 2 large glasses of water before going to bed. I don't even need an alarm. This is why I stop drinking anything 2 hours before I go to bed if I do want to sleep a full 8 hours.

eideteker: I love MMM.

posted by Ardiril 24 February | 21:05

Did someone mention getting up at roughly the same time every day, even when you don't have to? That's also helpful.

posted by occhiblu 24 February | 21:09

My alarm is on the other side of the room, so I have to get up to turn it off. Sometimes I go back to bed, but rarely- and it's always a definite decision to do so.

Have you done the train-my-body thing? Get undressed, get in bed and turn off the light at 5pm or whatever, just like you're going to sleep. Set the alarm for 10 min. When it goes off, get up, turn it off, and do whatever you immediately would do if it were morning (pee, brush teeth, put on slippers, etc.). Then lie back down and do it again.

Eventually getting up with your alarm will be an automatic reaction, one you don't necessarily need to be awake-awake for. I can't tell you how many times I've not woken up until I was in the bathroom after my alarm went off.

posted by rhapsodie 24 February | 21:19

A combination of water before bed and a hairdresser's timer does it for me. The timer beeps at 10 minutes, then five minutes til, then beeps for a full minute when it's time to get up.

It's also useful for letting me know just how much sleep I'm going to get. I set it for the hours and minutes from the time to get up and go about the rest of the evening.

One thing years ago that was sure to get me out of bed was the little five minutes of hate that a local radio station broadcast: Rush Limbaugh's morning message. I'd get out of bed and almost kill the radio to turn that nonsense off.

posted by lysdexic 24 February | 21:27

Dawn clock. I've tried nearly everything else and a dawn clock is the only thing that wakes me up and doesn't make me crabby in the process.

posted by jamaro 25 February | 00:47

rhapsodie, I have a friend who swears by that method, although I've never tried it myself...

posted by Specklet 25 February | 12:32

Looks like a Dalek. If a man in a blue phone booth shows up, you might want to consider going back to bed.

(sakura says) Um, no, that would be the BEST way to get me out of bed. (And perhaps back in, if it were sexy 4, 10 or 11...maybe 9...) Did I mention dreaming about the Doctor is one of my 108 secret skills? And one of many reasons I tend to stay in bed well past reasonable? That, and snuggling. Pi r snuggly = stay in bed.

Good news is, day one, every light in the room on by 7:10 - to work by 8:40. We're going to set the alarm 15 minutes earlier tonight.

posted by pieisexactlythree 26 February | 00:34

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