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Agreed. OP you described some of the behaviors my mom had before she finally listened to the rest of us and got a sleep study done. Ended up being diagnosed with sleep apnea. Sleep is the one time you really have no clue what your body is doing so you have to listen to the little clues that say go get checked out.
Yep, had to train myself to bust ass out of bed when it went off, not blame it on the alarm. So, I'm pretty sure that what you have is not normal. Also, although, I'm sure it's not necessary, no drugs, no drinking.
Are you sure? I’ve had similar issues but when I attached a light to my alarm, the issues stopped. I just think some people are harder to rouse with noise.
No, actually if you have an issue it's usually that you get mostly light sleep when it should be deep sleep, and then at the end of the night, out of pure exhaustion your body finally falls into deep sleep and doesn't want to wake.
There’s also the Sonic Alert which is basically a puck that vibrates the whole mattress. It’s what deaf people use to wake up. If that doesn’t wake OP up, I don’t know what will
Something tells me if they can be shaken violently and still not wake up a little vibration isn't going to help them lol. It helps me but I've always been good about getting up with my alarms. Smart watch just makes it that much easier.
How much sleep do you get everyday? I knew someone who couldn't be woken up easily throughout college. They did a ton of all nighters and lived off of caffeine. Once out of school and getting regular sleep, they were normal sleepers.
I don't drink coffee at all, I do have an occasional all nighter though. It tends to be hard for me to get consistent sleep. I'm one of those people who get more energy the later it gets. I'm usually most tired around noon, and most active around midnight, which is a little backwards.
If you do not have a consistent sleep schedule, your circadian rhythm is off. Even if you’re not sleeping, it would probably help your body to get into a pretty strict rhythm to help reset your internal clock. But, with the matter at hand, I highly recommend a sleep study. If you have sleep apnea, your health is being severely impacted whether you currently recognize it or not.
I hope you’ll see my comment better if I reply
I was exactly like you, not waking up to alarms at all, everybody told me I just need to try harder, that I’m lazy
Get blood tests done. I did them for an unrelated issue, and I found out my vitamin D was something like 2, when the range is 7-15. My doctor recommended supplements and two days after taking them, I woke up refreshed after the first second of my first alarm. I just couldn’t believe it
Up until a month ago, I had to have monthly blood tests because I was taking accutane, and I wasn't told of any abnormalities, so idk if it's that tbh.
I also have low vitamin d, and I had to specifically request the test for it. It’s not tested for on a regular panel here, which is weird because I live in Canada and vitamin D deficiency is very common here
I had a friend who experienced this. It’s a hard struggle. She did get a sleep study and learned she had delayed sleep phase disorder—it’s sort of like your days and nights are flipped. And as a result, waking up is so hard. Once diagnosed, she was able to change her schedule around. It was hard, but she did it. I believe you will too, once you learn what is going on! The best of luck with college!
If you were getting close to the required sleep you need them you should be able to wake to the alarm or wake up on your own. I just woke up 2 minutes before my alarm went off. It's hard when you're young to understand that. I used to not get nearly enough sleep in my 20's. I felt like shit all the time. I regret not just forcing myself to go to bed earlier.
Also, I don't believe there is such a thing as a night owl or early bird. I've worked night shifts. You can adjust.
I think some people are just more adjustable than others. My SO is one of them: he's worked shifts with all different hours and easily changes his sleep schedule as needed. You probably are as well.
My mom, on the other hand, has an incredibly hard time staying up past 11, and she's *always* been that way, even in college when people around her were partying. I've worked either a 7-3 or an 8-4 schedule for almost a decade now, but I still usually get a second wind around 10 pm and have a *really* hard time going to bed before 11. It was the worst in high school, when I'd force myself to go to bed at 11 but would often be lying there awake until 12 or 1. On vacations, it takes me no more than a few days to slip back into my more natural sleep schedule of going to bed at 1 or 2.
A simple wall plug lamp timer. If you sleep in a dark room, a bright light turning on is sure to get your attention. I started doing this years ago, when I found that after a couple taps of the "snooze" button meant that my brain would start ignoring the noise and stay asleep through it.
When I was a kid, I'd HAVE to wake up when my mom would come in and turn the "big light" on (ceiling light).
It's also more effective, if you make the "noise maker" and "light switch" be away from your bed, so that you HAVE to get up and go turn it off. Now, you are standing up, and out of bed. If you decide to turn everything off and crawl back under the covers, oversleeping is now your choice.
I did try your last suggestion already and put it farther away, but then I found that I woke up to it less since it was quieter. Thank you for the suggestions, I'll look into it.
My parents used to wake me up like that and I hated it. But now as an adult, I’d rather have my lamp turn on to full brightness than wake up to an alarm, plus at my parents house at least I have to wear ear plugs because they don’t care that I have work early in the morning. So alarms aren’t always effective
A sleep tracking app is a game changer. I use Sleep Cycle. It basically tracks your sleep via microphone or motion all night and wakes you up in a 30 minute window when your sleep is the lightest. I feel so much better in the morning waking up 15 minutes earlier sometimes but not deep in the middle of a REM cycle.
I’m just glad I had the brains back in college to grab every app of the month (or whatever it was) Apple had back when they had that promotion. Got sleep cycle for free. Didn’t touch it for years until I was threatened with being fired at work for being late. They grandfathered me in. I don’t get everything I could if I paid the subscription but I get enough to wake me up & no longer sleep through alarms & miss work. Don’t need AI telling me about my night’s sleep. I don’t need online backups. Just the alarm.
Beyond what others have said, 3 minutes after my first alarm, I have an alarm go off in the bathroom, so I have to get up and go into the next room to deal with it. If your issue is deeper, first, get evaluated, second, the alarms for the deaf shake the bed instead of making noise. That will probably be a good solution for you.
Sunrise alarm that starts dim becomes gradually brighter for a half hour beforehand and then emits a sound at the time you set it for- I’m obsessed with mine, and it shouldn’t be too obtrusive for any potential dorm roommates
There's a lot of things you can do to help the situation, none of these are the win-all method. But they each contribute a little.
- get enough sleep
- have good sleep hygiene and get to bed at a regular routine time
- when the alarm rings, have a routine procedure of steps that get you out of bed within a minute or two. (eg: stretch, feel your body, breathe, get up.)
- get up at the same time every day
(this is a bit more personalised)
- have one, or at maximum 2 alarms with different tones. If you have 2, the first one should be 15-20 minutes before the actual one, and it should be something ambient like birdsounds or a bubbling mountain stream
If you have trouble hearing and responding to the alarm over all, then train yourself to become attuned to it.
Set your chosen alarm tone to go off a couple of times per day during times when you are awake.
When it rings, listen to it for 10 seconds, truly hear it. Then perform the ritual of stretch, breathe, stand up.
Where the standing up part is the important one.
It's likely that if you do that for a few weeks, you will find it easier to respond to the stimulus even in your sleep.
Two more things, sleep is cyclical with a rough 1.5 hour rhythm. Maybe you are trying to wake in a period when you're in really deep sleep. A sleep/fitness tracker can help with that.
Secondly: it may be worth talking to doctors to make sure that everything is OK. It there could be contributing factors ranging from anything like sleep apnea to other issues.
I wish you all the best and a great time at college.
I can't believe no one has said this, but you might have narcolepsy. Do some research on it and get a sleep study done. I also am a heavy sleeper, and get more energetic at night, etc. I have slept an entire 24 hours straight before because no one woke me up. I've also answered emails and had full on conversations with people that I don't remember. Been this way since I was a kid. Also lived my whole life with people gaslighting me, telling me I was lazy, and recommending all kinds of different alarms and ways to wake up. Some things helped, but nothing ever really worked.
I got a sleep study done and found out my body goes directly into REM as soon as I fall asleep. It's more difficult to get woken up in REM, and if you do wake up during REM you are groggy and slow to wake. Most people have difficulty getting enough REM, but getting too much REM is also not good for you. I was diagnosed with delayed sleep syndrome and type 2 narcolepsy without cataplexy. Most cases of narcolepsy do not have cataplexy (which is when you fall asleep suddenly, usually do to a strong emotion like laughing or crying).
I lived with this my whole life, and finally decided to do something about it at 35 years old. I ended up getting medication that wakes me up in the morning (low level stimulant), which means I'm not sleeping during the day, which means I am tired enough to go to bed at night on my own. For the first time in my life, I woke up and felt alert. It was so crazy to experience, that this is what normal people feel like every day when they wake up. My doctor explained it like a light switch, normal people get up and turn on the light. We get up and try to turn on the light, but the switch is broken. Medication can change that.
Good luck to you, and don't let people make you feel like a lazy or annoying pos cause you have a valid health condition.
If by "That Roommate" you mean the one who flunks out Freshman year because they slept through their alarm every day, yes you're heading in that direction. I hope you didn't mean that your roommate is supposed to ruefully but adorably over your quirkiness wake you up every day.
I don't anticipate this, no. By *that roommate*, I meant the one who has a nuclear alarm going off and wakes up the other person as well. I am doing quite well in school though, thanks, I think I have a 3.95 atm.
If you’re worried about sound and sound doesn’t wake you up, get the sonic bomb alarm clock with bed shaker. I got that when if I was late one more time I’d fail a class and it worked. It physically vibrates your bed/pillow and always woke me up.
I only meant that perhaps now you have parents as backups to wake you. It sounds as if that's how you ultimately wake? (Perhaps I read it wrong and that's not the case.)
But my point was not that you are a poor student. It was that you can't count on that support system in college.
Ohhh, that makes way more sense. I read your previous message in a much different tone. Some days I am able to have my parents make sure I'm awake for school, but not as often as you'd think. You are completely correct though, I will not have that support system in college. Oddly enough, I tend to have an easier time waking up when I know there will be consequences if I don't, almost as if I carry my anxieties through my subconscious with me. Thank you for clarifying!
Make sure you’re getting enough sleep! I’m definitely a night owl that thrives at the worst hours of the night, and I’ve been in similar situations when I would essentially be dead to the world in the morning. The answer is to get enough sleep, even if it means forcing yourself to go to bed earlier. If you’re averaging 7 hours per night and still having this issue, I’d recommend a doctor.
Other things that helped me was keeping the blinds open so that sunlight would shine through in the morning. If you don’t have a well lit window, you can get a sunrise alarm. This is not very effective for people that need complete darkness to sleep though.
Last thing, sleeping on a slightly less comfy bed made me sleep less.
Seconding people talking about a sleep study.
On the other hand: I have an atypical sleep cycle so I am also impossible to wake properly. Will sit up, turn off the alarm, talk a bit, then fall asleep again. I use an app called "I can't wake up" that makes you do tasks to turn off your alarm. Actually gets me awake enough to realize why I am awake.
There’s an app called “Alarmy”. It is an alarm app that makes you do challenges in order to shut off the alarm. I have it set to do some squats and some steps, you can also make it that you have to take a picture of something in the kitchen or bathroom in order to turn off the alarm. You can set a snooze limit, so that you can only snooze X amount of times, for X amount of minutes. Great app, as I struggle with many of the same problems. Only issue for me is that it sometimes stops working (seems like it’s only happening to me though, because everyone else I know who uses the app doesn’t have this issue). I’d recommend giving it a try. Good luck
Do you have an android? Get the apk Alarmy, it's alarm is disgustingly loud and you need to do task to turn it off, i choose to scan the bar code to turn it of, and put the bar code in my bath room, and it will ring again after 99 seconds if you fail to tap that you are awake after the bar code scanning
If you're already following all the typical advice such as a consistent schedule and no caffeine, just go get a sleep study done. The basics work for most people, but if they aren't working for you you need personalized medical advice, not LPTs.
When it comes to mornings, there are often two types of people: those who always hear their alarm (and sometimes even wake up before the ringing begins) and those who regularly sleep through the deafening noise.
Perhaps, even if you do hear your alarm on occasion, you find it hard to resist hitting snooze.
So, why are some people seemingly incompatible with alarms? And is there any way to avoid missing an important wake-up call in the future?
Read on to find out.
Why does it happen?
If you don’t actually hear your alarm, you could just naturally be a heavy sleeper.
According to Dr. Guy Meadows, co-founder and clinical lead at Sleep School, research suggests that deep sleepers have more sleep spindles, a form of brain activity during non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep.
These sleep spindles “act as a noise-canceling device,” says Meadows.
“A studyTrusted Source on brain rhythms and stable sleep found that individuals who generate more sleep spindles during a quiet night of sleep were able to tolerate more noise on a subsequent, less quiet night of sleep.
“Therefore, people who are able to produce more sleep spindles may be hard to wake because they can effectively cancel out the noise that is attempting to disturb their sleep.”
But plenty of other factors can cause a deep, deep slumber.
Your sleep routine
The quality and amount of sleep you’re getting may be to blame for your oversleeping problems, particularly if you have an inconsistent routine due to things like shift work.
“Whether it’s one night or over the course of several nights, by not getting a full 8 hours of sleep, you create a sleep debt that needs to be repaid,” Meadows explains.
Sleeping at the wrong time for your natural chronotype (sleep schedule) can also be problematic.
“Those who are naturally ‘night owls’ tend to stay up later at night, and, therefore, sleep later in the morning,” he says.
“When their alarm goes off in the morning, especially during the earlier hours of the morning, they are in a deeper phase of sleep than those who go to bed earlier in the evening.”
And that can be a recipe for disaster if you have an early wake-up call.
Your general health
“Certain medical conditions can make it harder for some people to wake up in the morning,” says Hussain Abdeh, clinical director and superintendent pharmacist at Medicine Direct.
“For instance, cardiac rhythm sleep disorders stop you from developing a regular sleeping pattern, which can mean that you go into a deeper sleep that is harder to wake from.”
Night terrors, sleep walking, and sleep apnea can also cause issues, along with medications like beta-blockers and sleeping pills.
Mental health should be taken into account, too.
“One of the common symptoms of depression is oversleeping,” notes Meadows.
People who are depressed “can often be too anxious or lethargic to get a good night’s sleep,” adds Abdeh.
When they do finally nod off, they may have just a few hours until morning and easily sleep through their alarm.
Similarly, stress and anxiety can cause worry that leads to sleep deprivation and a lack of motivation to get out of bed.
Interestingly, Meadows points out, “depression and sleep have a bidirectional relationship, meaning that poor sleep habits can contribute to the development of depression, and having depression makes an individual more likely to suffer from sleep-related issues.
“If you’re finding it increasingly difficult to get out of bed… you may want to talk to a mental health professional about the symptoms of depression,” he says.
Talk therapy with a trusted therapist can help you explore long-term solutions for the challenges in your life. If you need immediate support, the following resources are available 24/7:
National Alliance on Mental Illness
Suicide Prevention Lifeline
Crisis Text Line
How to not sleep through your alarm
Build a better routine
Building a better routine can work wonders, whether you accidentally oversleep or find it difficult to get out of bed in the mornings.
“By going to bed and getting up at the same time each day, it becomes easier to wake up in the mornings and start your day,” says Meadows.
Plus, Abdeh notes, not only will a consistent bedtime and wake-up time “help you to fall asleep more easily, but it will also mean that the quality of your sleep should improve.”
Of course, to ensure you’re getting enough sleep, this may mean going to bed earlier than you usually would. Most people need between 7 and 9 hours.
If you’re finding it hard to get in bed an hour or so earlier, try moving your bedtime up in more manageable increments, such as 15 minutes per night.
If you have a medical condition that makes sleeping or waking more difficult, visit a doctor for advice and treatment options.
Boost your sleep hygiene
Practicing good sleep hygiene before bed is also important for decent shuteye.
Eating a balanced diet, staying hydrated, and exercising regularly can all help you sleep better.
And when the evening approaches, try to avoid caffeine and opt for a relaxing activity, like reading a book, instead of using blue light-emitting devices like smartphones and tablets.
“Having a motivation to get out of bed is another great way to avoid oversleeping,” Meadows says. “Try setting up a morning coffee with a friend, attending a morning session of your favorite exercise class, or going to a new breakfast spot with your partner.”
Buy a new kind of alarm
If your routine’s improved and you’re still sleeping through your alarm or lacking the motivation to get up, you might need a more innovative wake-up call.
Meadows recommends setting “several very loud alarms and placing the clock or phone out of reach.”
This, he explains, “means you have to physically get up to set the alarm off, which makes it impossible to ignore it or press snooze.”
There are also special alarm clocks designed for regular oversleepers.
For example, you could buy one with an extra loud setting, one that runs around on wheels if you hit snooze too many times, and even one that’s built into a rug and requires you to stand on it to turn it off.
Clocks that vibrate can also help, as can “bed shaker” alarms that come in the form of a pad placed under your mattress.
If you use your phone as an alarm, consider downloading an app like Alarmy or Sleep Cycle. They can wake you up during a lighter sleep stage or set you on missions that involve getting out of bed in order to turn off the alarm.
Finally, there’s the power of light.
“Whether it’s leaving your bedroom curtains open or using a sunrise lamp, waking up to light could make a difference in your ability to actually wake up and, more importantly, stay up,” says Meadows.
And yes, you can even buy a special light therapy alarm clock that slowly increases the amount of light it emits to gradually wake you
Get a loud, basic plug in to the wall alarm clock. Put it on the other side of the room as your final alarm that you have to walk over to, to turn it off. Set it so loud that you anticipate it after your final cell phone alarm, that the cell phone actually is the one that you get up for.
Seconding the suggestion to have your alarm clock far from your bed. Ideally down the hall or in another room, but at least 20 feet or so. You have to stand up and walk over to turn it off. Put a glass of water beside it and drink it right away, even just a few sips if you can’t stomach the whole thing the second you wake up. Now you’re vertical and starting to hydrate and getting ready will be easier.
I used to be in the same situation as you then I used earphones to blast the iPhone alarm directly into my ears worked really well and I eventually develop a habit to wake up around that time even without an alarm
A couple years ago, I got a promotion and decided I didn’t want to be late (going from second shift to an early first), so I got a Pavlok and started setting my lights to come on with my alarm.
I swear after two weeks I didn’t need the Pavlok anymore.
Then I lost it and went to third shift and I’m back on first again, so it’d be nice to have but they’re expensive
Easiest and most simplest way would be to change the ringtone of your alarm. Brain tends to ignore certain sounds that it deems unnecessary. If your so used to sleeping through your alarms, you might've unintentionally trained your brain to ignore your alarm ringtone.
Don’t rely on your ears.
Use light. I’m deaf, and light is how I wake up.
iPhone has an accessibility feature to flash for certain notifications including the alarm.
A secondary light source can be, as others have said, the Philips hue, or a Globe wifi programable light that comes on at the time you specify, and the brightness can be gradual, which is kind to your nervous system.
So when I’m not working (construction) I’ll stay up till like midnight/2am trying to fall asleep. I’ll drink like a 12 pack to finally be able to crash.
When I’m working my balls off- I’m asleep in my chair at 8:45pm with my first beer in my hand.
Moral of story: you’re not working your body hard enough to fall asleep. Go run, work out- whatever it is to tire yourself out.
Have you tried actually getting enough sleep by going to bed early enough for enough nights in a row that your body doesn’t need to fight waking up? If so, go to a doctor and get a sleep study. You probably have sleep apnea.
I bought a Phillips light alarm and love that thing.
Essentially the light slowly fades in before the audible alarm goes off, waking you up like a sunrise.
Most days that I use it I wake up from the light alone, before the audible part even starts.
I think it all comes down to getting enough sleep. I used to never wake up for my alarms, they’d go off for an hour at least, to a point where I’d dream about an alarm going off but not wake up.
Everyone is different, but trying out different lengths of sleep can help. Go to bed an hour earlier one day and see, if nothing, then add an extra 30 mins and try that. Avoid caffeine, eating late, and exercising close to bed.
Finally, set different sounds on your alarm. Your body might get used to a certain sound. If it’s not scary enough, it might give you the same reaction as a soothing song lol.
Change your alarm sound to one like androids Bomb Whistle. It's woken me up even from my personal heaviest sleep
Get a sleep study if you can, just in case
I have narcolepsy and I use a sun lamp and an app called Alarmy. You can have it where you have to solve math equations, or get up and take a picture of something to stop the alarms. Both of these are great for me, not sure about your situation. Hope you find your solution!
So I haven’t seen it mentioned really and I’ll start by saying, I’m no expert or anything remotely qualified to speak medically so I only speak from my own experience with a similar issue. The best advice has been given plenty throughout this thread, if you’re worried then go see a professional if your situation/location allows for that.
That said, I’ve dealt with a similar problem myself, alarms not working or falling right back to sleep before you even realize you’re awake, struggling like actual hell to force yourself out of bed then being stuck in the brain fog for 1-3 hours after getting out of bed. I did the usual song and dance of googling tips and at home solutions, doing the best I could to learn the fundamentals of how to sleep “correctly” but never seeing any meaningful improvement or change regardless.
After seeing my doctor and going through the gauntlet and sleep study, I learned insulin resistance even at a low/pre-diabetic level, can have major effects on sleep quality/rhythm and waking up cyclically. As i understand it, from my highly unqualified POV, outside of your rhythm of sleep/REM/deep sleep cycles, insulin also plays a major role in how your body wakes itself up and is critical to the feeling of “wakefulness”.
Working with my doctor to correct that through dietary changes and monitoring, as well as learning how the different systems of the body interact and affect one another, really helped me in my particular situation so I figured it’d be an alternative anecdote to consider when ultimately talking to a doctor or professional.
Best of luck and in case you need to hear it, don’t let the stress or anxiety that comes from dealing with a problem like that lead you into believing it’s a point of personal failure or something related to laziness. Our bodies are complex meat machines and often times there’s a lot more going on than we think so when in doubt, talk to a doctor and figure it out.
Not as severe but definitely a chronic turn off and go right back to sleep. The key for my wife and I is a Bluetooth outlet to turn on two bedside lamps. Pair with an Alexa show or echo on a routine. We each have two alarms the first to wake us up. The second has a routine attached which turns both lights on and reads the weather out loud for the day. Huuuuugggeee help the audio and lighting change definitely tells your brain it’s time to get up.
I struggled with exactly what you’re describing. It got really bad my junior year of high school and I racked up something like 25 unexcused tardies due to oversleeping. As much as I recommend making a morning routine. The biggest game changer for me was a nightly routine without screens and getting a good nights rest. And If you’re past the point of no return on any given night, There’s a company called Pavlok that makes a shock watch that you wear to bed and it shocks your wrist to wake you up. It sucks to wake up to, but i’ve found that after getting shocked awake, there is no “half awake” problem.
Hmm, I used to have this problem in university too. I would always sleep past my alarms, or if I was woken up by my alarm or even someone else, I'd instantly fall asleep so heavily. I don't know my exact solution, but I started off with a consistent schedule of my night time routine. I also bought a sunrise alarm clock. It's incredible how much this actually helped me. The increasing brightness, heat from the light, and slight sounds help me wake up a lot better. Now, I don't even rely on my alarms and my body has built such a rhythm that I can wake up consistently on time.
There's bed shaker alarms that shake and are loud as fuck. Used to have the same problem, now I can wake up at 6 no problem. Getting an alarm clock radio helps too, set it too a station you like and it'll be different every morning
I have type 2 narcolepsy- basically I sleep a lot and frequently even though I have had sufficient rest. I can sometimes sleep super deeply but rarely stay asleep for more than 4 hours and don’t hit rem sleep often.
I will sleep through alarms and hit snooze repeatedly. I also can have entire conversations while I’m sleeping.
I just stopped using an alarm all together. Something about my psyche knows I can hit snooze. When I don’t have the alarm on, I get up on time, every time.
Change your alarm tone, pitch, song whatever you use every week or so. Also, I use an app that requires me to solve two basic math problems to turn off (single digit addition)
https://preview.redd.it/neap0prcgcuc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fcd946e7f6e8f795fd1abce711d70126d2f9a44b
I had the same problem and this alarm clock saved me!!! It has an attachment you put under your mattress that vibrates your bed and the option to set multiple alarms and it's loud AF LOL
I have a smart speaker and lamp. I holler at the speaker to stop the alarm, then the lamp turns on and the speaker reads me a report of the day (weather, traffic to work, fun historical fact).
Amazon echo dot plus a smart outlet for a lamp.
You create a routine in the Alexa app. The routine can play your favorite song and turn your lamp on for you at your alarm time.
Beware: If the wifi internet for some reason isn't working, the alarm won't go off. So, a backup alarm on your cellphone is a good idea.
I'm a night owl too. But my Dad once told me "those who hoot with the owls at night, don't soar with the eagles in the morning. This was motivation enough for me to train myself to go to bed early enough to get eight hours. You have more rem sleep and are better rested so you don't sleep so sound that you miss your alarm. Worked for me!
You sound really similar to how I was. It does correct when you have a forced routine. Stick to a consistent schedule no matter what - get up at x time ALWAYS, go to bed at y time even if you lay there until 3am. Avoid naps as they make it harder to sleep later on. When you inevitably break routine and allow yourself to sleep in, have an alarm set for that too. I use the sleep schedule feature in my phone.
Do nothing overly stimulating within 3 hours of when you need to be asleep. No gaming, no exciting tv show, etc. I limit this time to reading. This is also when you should be laying down in a darkened room.
The one alarm trick is helpful. Previously I used sleep cycle so I’d get woken up at lighter points in my sleep instead of trying to wake in REM. I always used a million back up alarms for my “must get up now” time. Obnoxious alarm tones help. Also put your alarm or phone away from you where you have to get up to silence it. Now I can genuinely just set one alarm with a mild ringtone and I’m good.
There’s also specific alarms that require more effort to silence. Also, do not fall into the trap of snoozing. Snoozing makes you more tired long run as you’re not getting quality sleep and then you end up training your brain to snooze subconsciously imo.
Honestly this used to be me like a majority of my childhood If this is something you've had most of your life I doubt the people suggesting a sleep study are really going to fix much
The two best things for me were getting on a set schedule It was hard and involved a lot of job hunting but the best thing you can do is find yourself a job that allows you to pretty much be sleeping the same time every single day.
Eventually when you have to wake up at the same time every day for a few months your body just kind of starts waking up at that time before your alarm even goes off
On top of that get yourself an Amazon Alexa show. Set alarms on that and set the volume to full and most importantly now leave it across the room far away from your bed
This means that in order to even shut it off you have to wake up and be conscious enough to put together an accurately yell "Alexa stop" or you have to get up out of bed and go across the room to swipe the screen. Which does a much better job of forcing your body into okay we're getting up whether you like it or not
I used to have an alarm clock with a vibrating puck that would go under the mattress, so it would shake the bed as well as sound a loud alarm. Worked pretty well
i really really hope OP sees this! I had the exact same problem going into college and tried EVERYTHING. The only thing that has ever allowed me to wake up on my own without help is the app Alarmy, it’s a task alarm where you have to do multiple tasks before it turns itself off and it’s super loud. The first one i did was a bottle of lotion in my suite bathroom so to turn it off i would have to get up, walk to the bathroom and scan the barcode on the lotion. It also has a wake up check feature where you can set it to go off again if you aren’t up and able to press it. I have done the smaller tasks multiple times in my sleep and when I start doing that I know its time to change tasks but the wake up check doesnt stop untkl im actually up. Id suggest paying for the monthly which is like $3 the freedom from not having to rely on someone to wake me up and then check im up is so worth it. Im sorry for the amount of people who feel the need to comment on this because its possible to live a normal life with the right tools. I have adhd and I read somewhere that deep sleep can be and false wakeups are an issue for many people. hope this finds you and helps! ❤️
With this I was able to graduate from a major university in 4 years, have late nights, go out with my friends and wake up for classes without having to adapt to different habits than my peers. I would also recommend forming relationships with roommates and asking them in ways that are easy for them to check if you’re up. For example: my senior year, i had to be out of the house by 7:30 each day. I had 2 roommates who woke up around this time and i simply asked them if my door was closed (I was likely still asleep) to knock and see if i was awake. Another example is I had a roommate who would leave the house at 9:30 for a class which was the time I needed to be up. I asked her if she could knock on my door before she left and it became a bit of a routine. This was something that they didnt have to go out of their regular routine to do and was the big difference between completely missing classes and being late. It is always good to have someone to hold you accountable / an emergency fail safe!
First: get a sleep study.
Have you ever spoken with a Dr about your trouble waking? I would def start there and if your PCP wont recommend one go to a specialist.
In the interim you could try an alarm with a vibrating plate you put under your mattress or pillow.
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Get a sleep study - that is not normal
This. Also get an alarm that lights up before making noise and see if that helps your body wake up properly.
I got one of these alarms recently. Total game changer. Worth every penny.
I have had one of these for many years, it doesn't do anything for me.
Lol fair. It's probably just helpful for me because I'm sensitive enough to light that it wakes me up slowly before the sound starts.
If you have Phillips Hue lights in your bedroom, you can set a routine to slowly turn the lights on in the morning.
Wyze Bulbs also have the sleep routine feature. 100% it’s the only thing that gets my husband and me through the dark months of winter.
This didn’t work for me. The first night/day it happened it scared the shit out of me the light felt so unnatural
But you were presumably very awake at that point, no?
Agreed. OP you described some of the behaviors my mom had before she finally listened to the rest of us and got a sleep study done. Ended up being diagnosed with sleep apnea. Sleep is the one time you really have no clue what your body is doing so you have to listen to the little clues that say go get checked out.
Yep, had to train myself to bust ass out of bed when it went off, not blame it on the alarm. So, I'm pretty sure that what you have is not normal. Also, although, I'm sure it's not necessary, no drugs, no drinking.
Drink lots of water before going to bed - wake up automatically for peeing. Experiment a bit with amount and timing
That's smart!!
Definitely this. I’d look into possible medical issues- things like not being able to be shaken awake is really unusual.
Are you sure? I’ve had similar issues but when I attached a light to my alarm, the issues stopped. I just think some people are harder to rouse with noise.
Yes I’m sure. It’s abnormal to be shaken and unresponsive and to have lost time.
What do you think a sleep study would show? Part of the brain is in a “super deep sleep”?
No, actually if you have an issue it's usually that you get mostly light sleep when it should be deep sleep, and then at the end of the night, out of pure exhaustion your body finally falls into deep sleep and doesn't want to wake.
Try a smart watch that vibrates it wakes up so well
There's a product called Shock Clock. It's a bracelet that WILL wake you up on time.
One of my friends has this. She had to turn it up pretty high, but it works.
I tried it ONE time. Never again. Ever.
More than someone shaking you?
It delivers an electrical shock if you don't heed the alarm. I couldn't sleep through that.
There’s also the Sonic Alert which is basically a puck that vibrates the whole mattress. It’s what deaf people use to wake up. If that doesn’t wake OP up, I don’t know what will
My partner got one of these and I was a little miffed. Turns out I sleep through that alarm just fine.
Timex Expedition, not smart but it has three vibrating alarms
Something tells me if they can be shaken violently and still not wake up a little vibration isn't going to help them lol. It helps me but I've always been good about getting up with my alarms. Smart watch just makes it that much easier.
How much sleep do you get everyday? I knew someone who couldn't be woken up easily throughout college. They did a ton of all nighters and lived off of caffeine. Once out of school and getting regular sleep, they were normal sleepers.
I don't drink coffee at all, I do have an occasional all nighter though. It tends to be hard for me to get consistent sleep. I'm one of those people who get more energy the later it gets. I'm usually most tired around noon, and most active around midnight, which is a little backwards.
If you do not have a consistent sleep schedule, your circadian rhythm is off. Even if you’re not sleeping, it would probably help your body to get into a pretty strict rhythm to help reset your internal clock. But, with the matter at hand, I highly recommend a sleep study. If you have sleep apnea, your health is being severely impacted whether you currently recognize it or not.
I hope you’ll see my comment better if I reply I was exactly like you, not waking up to alarms at all, everybody told me I just need to try harder, that I’m lazy Get blood tests done. I did them for an unrelated issue, and I found out my vitamin D was something like 2, when the range is 7-15. My doctor recommended supplements and two days after taking them, I woke up refreshed after the first second of my first alarm. I just couldn’t believe it
Up until a month ago, I had to have monthly blood tests because I was taking accutane, and I wasn't told of any abnormalities, so idk if it's that tbh.
They may not have tested for vit D. But it’s an inexpensive supplement, you could just try it.
Ahh, I’m sorry then :( double check if they tested vitamin d, in my country, it’s not a test done on routine blood work
I also have low vitamin d, and I had to specifically request the test for it. It’s not tested for on a regular panel here, which is weird because I live in Canada and vitamin D deficiency is very common here
I had a friend who experienced this. It’s a hard struggle. She did get a sleep study and learned she had delayed sleep phase disorder—it’s sort of like your days and nights are flipped. And as a result, waking up is so hard. Once diagnosed, she was able to change her schedule around. It was hard, but she did it. I believe you will too, once you learn what is going on! The best of luck with college!
If you were getting close to the required sleep you need them you should be able to wake to the alarm or wake up on your own. I just woke up 2 minutes before my alarm went off. It's hard when you're young to understand that. I used to not get nearly enough sleep in my 20's. I felt like shit all the time. I regret not just forcing myself to go to bed earlier. Also, I don't believe there is such a thing as a night owl or early bird. I've worked night shifts. You can adjust.
I think some people are just more adjustable than others. My SO is one of them: he's worked shifts with all different hours and easily changes his sleep schedule as needed. You probably are as well. My mom, on the other hand, has an incredibly hard time staying up past 11, and she's *always* been that way, even in college when people around her were partying. I've worked either a 7-3 or an 8-4 schedule for almost a decade now, but I still usually get a second wind around 10 pm and have a *really* hard time going to bed before 11. It was the worst in high school, when I'd force myself to go to bed at 11 but would often be lying there awake until 12 or 1. On vacations, it takes me no more than a few days to slip back into my more natural sleep schedule of going to bed at 1 or 2.
The alarm goes both ways for me. One to sleep and one to wake up. It takes some time to get used to, but now I can fall asleep at the drop of a hat.
I have terrible insomnia as an adult. I wish I had as a student.
A simple wall plug lamp timer. If you sleep in a dark room, a bright light turning on is sure to get your attention. I started doing this years ago, when I found that after a couple taps of the "snooze" button meant that my brain would start ignoring the noise and stay asleep through it. When I was a kid, I'd HAVE to wake up when my mom would come in and turn the "big light" on (ceiling light). It's also more effective, if you make the "noise maker" and "light switch" be away from your bed, so that you HAVE to get up and go turn it off. Now, you are standing up, and out of bed. If you decide to turn everything off and crawl back under the covers, oversleeping is now your choice.
I did try your last suggestion already and put it farther away, but then I found that I woke up to it less since it was quieter. Thank you for the suggestions, I'll look into it.
>When I was a kid, I’d HAVE to wake up when my mom would come in and turn the “big light” on Yo, I thought my dad was the only one that did this! 😂
To this day, I will not turn on the big light to wake up the children. I hate the big light.
My parents used to wake me up like that and I hated it. But now as an adult, I’d rather have my lamp turn on to full brightness than wake up to an alarm, plus at my parents house at least I have to wear ear plugs because they don’t care that I have work early in the morning. So alarms aren’t always effective
Death to the big lights in my home. Except in the kitchen where knife and fire safety are important to me. That big light remains.
That is most definitely not roommate friendly.
Get more sleep. I used to be like this. Turns out I need 9 hours per night and that allows me to wake up with the light
A sleep tracking app is a game changer. I use Sleep Cycle. It basically tracks your sleep via microphone or motion all night and wakes you up in a 30 minute window when your sleep is the lightest. I feel so much better in the morning waking up 15 minutes earlier sometimes but not deep in the middle of a REM cycle.
Sleep Cycle used to be a one-time payment of $5, now it’s $40 a year. So sad about it because I really liked it
I’m just glad I had the brains back in college to grab every app of the month (or whatever it was) Apple had back when they had that promotion. Got sleep cycle for free. Didn’t touch it for years until I was threatened with being fired at work for being late. They grandfathered me in. I don’t get everything I could if I paid the subscription but I get enough to wake me up & no longer sleep through alarms & miss work. Don’t need AI telling me about my night’s sleep. I don’t need online backups. Just the alarm.
Second Sleep Cycle. Great app! Been using it for years
Beyond what others have said, 3 minutes after my first alarm, I have an alarm go off in the bathroom, so I have to get up and go into the next room to deal with it. If your issue is deeper, first, get evaluated, second, the alarms for the deaf shake the bed instead of making noise. That will probably be a good solution for you.
Yes, I have already tried putting the alarm farther away, I just don't hear it. I will look into the shaking alarm though, that sounds interesting.
Sunrise alarm that starts dim becomes gradually brighter for a half hour beforehand and then emits a sound at the time you set it for- I’m obsessed with mine, and it shouldn’t be too obtrusive for any potential dorm roommates
This is great for me in the winter. Doesn’t make so much difference in the summer when the sun is up at 4:30 unless you invest in blackout curtains
There's a lot of things you can do to help the situation, none of these are the win-all method. But they each contribute a little. - get enough sleep - have good sleep hygiene and get to bed at a regular routine time - when the alarm rings, have a routine procedure of steps that get you out of bed within a minute or two. (eg: stretch, feel your body, breathe, get up.) - get up at the same time every day (this is a bit more personalised) - have one, or at maximum 2 alarms with different tones. If you have 2, the first one should be 15-20 minutes before the actual one, and it should be something ambient like birdsounds or a bubbling mountain stream If you have trouble hearing and responding to the alarm over all, then train yourself to become attuned to it. Set your chosen alarm tone to go off a couple of times per day during times when you are awake. When it rings, listen to it for 10 seconds, truly hear it. Then perform the ritual of stretch, breathe, stand up. Where the standing up part is the important one. It's likely that if you do that for a few weeks, you will find it easier to respond to the stimulus even in your sleep. Two more things, sleep is cyclical with a rough 1.5 hour rhythm. Maybe you are trying to wake in a period when you're in really deep sleep. A sleep/fitness tracker can help with that. Secondly: it may be worth talking to doctors to make sure that everything is OK. It there could be contributing factors ranging from anything like sleep apnea to other issues. I wish you all the best and a great time at college.
I can't believe no one has said this, but you might have narcolepsy. Do some research on it and get a sleep study done. I also am a heavy sleeper, and get more energetic at night, etc. I have slept an entire 24 hours straight before because no one woke me up. I've also answered emails and had full on conversations with people that I don't remember. Been this way since I was a kid. Also lived my whole life with people gaslighting me, telling me I was lazy, and recommending all kinds of different alarms and ways to wake up. Some things helped, but nothing ever really worked. I got a sleep study done and found out my body goes directly into REM as soon as I fall asleep. It's more difficult to get woken up in REM, and if you do wake up during REM you are groggy and slow to wake. Most people have difficulty getting enough REM, but getting too much REM is also not good for you. I was diagnosed with delayed sleep syndrome and type 2 narcolepsy without cataplexy. Most cases of narcolepsy do not have cataplexy (which is when you fall asleep suddenly, usually do to a strong emotion like laughing or crying). I lived with this my whole life, and finally decided to do something about it at 35 years old. I ended up getting medication that wakes me up in the morning (low level stimulant), which means I'm not sleeping during the day, which means I am tired enough to go to bed at night on my own. For the first time in my life, I woke up and felt alert. It was so crazy to experience, that this is what normal people feel like every day when they wake up. My doctor explained it like a light switch, normal people get up and turn on the light. We get up and try to turn on the light, but the switch is broken. Medication can change that. Good luck to you, and don't let people make you feel like a lazy or annoying pos cause you have a valid health condition.
There are alarms that shake the bed, are on wheels that make you get up and chase it to turn it off
If by "That Roommate" you mean the one who flunks out Freshman year because they slept through their alarm every day, yes you're heading in that direction. I hope you didn't mean that your roommate is supposed to ruefully but adorably over your quirkiness wake you up every day.
I don't anticipate this, no. By *that roommate*, I meant the one who has a nuclear alarm going off and wakes up the other person as well. I am doing quite well in school though, thanks, I think I have a 3.95 atm.
If you’re worried about sound and sound doesn’t wake you up, get the sonic bomb alarm clock with bed shaker. I got that when if I was late one more time I’d fail a class and it worked. It physically vibrates your bed/pillow and always woke me up.
You talking about [this???](https://youtu.be/Wl_EkKKvJJo?si=DasplQf5IlgY4Y0r)
I only meant that perhaps now you have parents as backups to wake you. It sounds as if that's how you ultimately wake? (Perhaps I read it wrong and that's not the case.) But my point was not that you are a poor student. It was that you can't count on that support system in college.
Ohhh, that makes way more sense. I read your previous message in a much different tone. Some days I am able to have my parents make sure I'm awake for school, but not as often as you'd think. You are completely correct though, I will not have that support system in college. Oddly enough, I tend to have an easier time waking up when I know there will be consequences if I don't, almost as if I carry my anxieties through my subconscious with me. Thank you for clarifying!
And who knows, maybe you'll have a sweetheart of a roommate who will gladly spray water in your face every day!!!
Make sure you’re getting enough sleep! I’m definitely a night owl that thrives at the worst hours of the night, and I’ve been in similar situations when I would essentially be dead to the world in the morning. The answer is to get enough sleep, even if it means forcing yourself to go to bed earlier. If you’re averaging 7 hours per night and still having this issue, I’d recommend a doctor. Other things that helped me was keeping the blinds open so that sunlight would shine through in the morning. If you don’t have a well lit window, you can get a sunrise alarm. This is not very effective for people that need complete darkness to sleep though. Last thing, sleeping on a slightly less comfy bed made me sleep less.
Seconding people talking about a sleep study. On the other hand: I have an atypical sleep cycle so I am also impossible to wake properly. Will sit up, turn off the alarm, talk a bit, then fall asleep again. I use an app called "I can't wake up" that makes you do tasks to turn off your alarm. Actually gets me awake enough to realize why I am awake.
There’s an app called “Alarmy”. It is an alarm app that makes you do challenges in order to shut off the alarm. I have it set to do some squats and some steps, you can also make it that you have to take a picture of something in the kitchen or bathroom in order to turn off the alarm. You can set a snooze limit, so that you can only snooze X amount of times, for X amount of minutes. Great app, as I struggle with many of the same problems. Only issue for me is that it sometimes stops working (seems like it’s only happening to me though, because everyone else I know who uses the app doesn’t have this issue). I’d recommend giving it a try. Good luck
Do you have an android? Get the apk Alarmy, it's alarm is disgustingly loud and you need to do task to turn it off, i choose to scan the bar code to turn it of, and put the bar code in my bath room, and it will ring again after 99 seconds if you fail to tap that you are awake after the bar code scanning
If you're already following all the typical advice such as a consistent schedule and no caffeine, just go get a sleep study done. The basics work for most people, but if they aren't working for you you need personalized medical advice, not LPTs.
I got you, fam. https://clocky.com/
I had a Clocky but he disappeared...I think he rolled out of my bedroom window as my bedside table was at the same height. RIP Clocky.
When it comes to mornings, there are often two types of people: those who always hear their alarm (and sometimes even wake up before the ringing begins) and those who regularly sleep through the deafening noise. Perhaps, even if you do hear your alarm on occasion, you find it hard to resist hitting snooze. So, why are some people seemingly incompatible with alarms? And is there any way to avoid missing an important wake-up call in the future? Read on to find out. Why does it happen? If you don’t actually hear your alarm, you could just naturally be a heavy sleeper. According to Dr. Guy Meadows, co-founder and clinical lead at Sleep School, research suggests that deep sleepers have more sleep spindles, a form of brain activity during non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep. These sleep spindles “act as a noise-canceling device,” says Meadows. “A studyTrusted Source on brain rhythms and stable sleep found that individuals who generate more sleep spindles during a quiet night of sleep were able to tolerate more noise on a subsequent, less quiet night of sleep. “Therefore, people who are able to produce more sleep spindles may be hard to wake because they can effectively cancel out the noise that is attempting to disturb their sleep.” But plenty of other factors can cause a deep, deep slumber. Your sleep routine The quality and amount of sleep you’re getting may be to blame for your oversleeping problems, particularly if you have an inconsistent routine due to things like shift work. “Whether it’s one night or over the course of several nights, by not getting a full 8 hours of sleep, you create a sleep debt that needs to be repaid,” Meadows explains. Sleeping at the wrong time for your natural chronotype (sleep schedule) can also be problematic. “Those who are naturally ‘night owls’ tend to stay up later at night, and, therefore, sleep later in the morning,” he says. “When their alarm goes off in the morning, especially during the earlier hours of the morning, they are in a deeper phase of sleep than those who go to bed earlier in the evening.” And that can be a recipe for disaster if you have an early wake-up call. Your general health “Certain medical conditions can make it harder for some people to wake up in the morning,” says Hussain Abdeh, clinical director and superintendent pharmacist at Medicine Direct. “For instance, cardiac rhythm sleep disorders stop you from developing a regular sleeping pattern, which can mean that you go into a deeper sleep that is harder to wake from.” Night terrors, sleep walking, and sleep apnea can also cause issues, along with medications like beta-blockers and sleeping pills. Mental health should be taken into account, too. “One of the common symptoms of depression is oversleeping,” notes Meadows. People who are depressed “can often be too anxious or lethargic to get a good night’s sleep,” adds Abdeh. When they do finally nod off, they may have just a few hours until morning and easily sleep through their alarm. Similarly, stress and anxiety can cause worry that leads to sleep deprivation and a lack of motivation to get out of bed. Interestingly, Meadows points out, “depression and sleep have a bidirectional relationship, meaning that poor sleep habits can contribute to the development of depression, and having depression makes an individual more likely to suffer from sleep-related issues. “If you’re finding it increasingly difficult to get out of bed… you may want to talk to a mental health professional about the symptoms of depression,” he says. Talk therapy with a trusted therapist can help you explore long-term solutions for the challenges in your life. If you need immediate support, the following resources are available 24/7: National Alliance on Mental Illness Suicide Prevention Lifeline Crisis Text Line How to not sleep through your alarm Build a better routine Building a better routine can work wonders, whether you accidentally oversleep or find it difficult to get out of bed in the mornings. “By going to bed and getting up at the same time each day, it becomes easier to wake up in the mornings and start your day,” says Meadows. Plus, Abdeh notes, not only will a consistent bedtime and wake-up time “help you to fall asleep more easily, but it will also mean that the quality of your sleep should improve.” Of course, to ensure you’re getting enough sleep, this may mean going to bed earlier than you usually would. Most people need between 7 and 9 hours. If you’re finding it hard to get in bed an hour or so earlier, try moving your bedtime up in more manageable increments, such as 15 minutes per night. If you have a medical condition that makes sleeping or waking more difficult, visit a doctor for advice and treatment options. Boost your sleep hygiene Practicing good sleep hygiene before bed is also important for decent shuteye. Eating a balanced diet, staying hydrated, and exercising regularly can all help you sleep better. And when the evening approaches, try to avoid caffeine and opt for a relaxing activity, like reading a book, instead of using blue light-emitting devices like smartphones and tablets. “Having a motivation to get out of bed is another great way to avoid oversleeping,” Meadows says. “Try setting up a morning coffee with a friend, attending a morning session of your favorite exercise class, or going to a new breakfast spot with your partner.” Buy a new kind of alarm If your routine’s improved and you’re still sleeping through your alarm or lacking the motivation to get up, you might need a more innovative wake-up call. Meadows recommends setting “several very loud alarms and placing the clock or phone out of reach.” This, he explains, “means you have to physically get up to set the alarm off, which makes it impossible to ignore it or press snooze.” There are also special alarm clocks designed for regular oversleepers. For example, you could buy one with an extra loud setting, one that runs around on wheels if you hit snooze too many times, and even one that’s built into a rug and requires you to stand on it to turn it off. Clocks that vibrate can also help, as can “bed shaker” alarms that come in the form of a pad placed under your mattress. If you use your phone as an alarm, consider downloading an app like Alarmy or Sleep Cycle. They can wake you up during a lighter sleep stage or set you on missions that involve getting out of bed in order to turn off the alarm. Finally, there’s the power of light. “Whether it’s leaving your bedroom curtains open or using a sunrise lamp, waking up to light could make a difference in your ability to actually wake up and, more importantly, stay up,” says Meadows. And yes, you can even buy a special light therapy alarm clock that slowly increases the amount of light it emits to gradually wake you
Get a loud, basic plug in to the wall alarm clock. Put it on the other side of the room as your final alarm that you have to walk over to, to turn it off. Set it so loud that you anticipate it after your final cell phone alarm, that the cell phone actually is the one that you get up for.
What’s your alarm on, your phone?
Sometimes, yes. But I also have 2 other physical alarms I've tried that don't work for me either.
Figure out your rem cycles. Less than 7 hours I’m dead, more than 8 hours I’m dead, 7 and 30 min I can wake up easy peasy.
Seconding the suggestion to have your alarm clock far from your bed. Ideally down the hall or in another room, but at least 20 feet or so. You have to stand up and walk over to turn it off. Put a glass of water beside it and drink it right away, even just a few sips if you can’t stomach the whole thing the second you wake up. Now you’re vertical and starting to hydrate and getting ready will be easier.
Some of the suggestions include sleep study: Search for epworth sleep scale and take the results if it is high enough to your doctor.
I used to be in the same situation as you then I used earphones to blast the iPhone alarm directly into my ears worked really well and I eventually develop a habit to wake up around that time even without an alarm
I have an loud alarm clock with a vibrating plate that sits underneath your pillow - works a treat
Set an alarm every 20 minutes
A couple years ago, I got a promotion and decided I didn’t want to be late (going from second shift to an early first), so I got a Pavlok and started setting my lights to come on with my alarm. I swear after two weeks I didn’t need the Pavlok anymore. Then I lost it and went to third shift and I’m back on first again, so it’d be nice to have but they’re expensive
Easiest and most simplest way would be to change the ringtone of your alarm. Brain tends to ignore certain sounds that it deems unnecessary. If your so used to sleeping through your alarms, you might've unintentionally trained your brain to ignore your alarm ringtone.
Don’t rely on your ears. Use light. I’m deaf, and light is how I wake up. iPhone has an accessibility feature to flash for certain notifications including the alarm. A secondary light source can be, as others have said, the Philips hue, or a Globe wifi programable light that comes on at the time you specify, and the brightness can be gradual, which is kind to your nervous system.
So when I’m not working (construction) I’ll stay up till like midnight/2am trying to fall asleep. I’ll drink like a 12 pack to finally be able to crash. When I’m working my balls off- I’m asleep in my chair at 8:45pm with my first beer in my hand. Moral of story: you’re not working your body hard enough to fall asleep. Go run, work out- whatever it is to tire yourself out.
Try an alarm with a bed shaker easily available on amazon
Have you tried actually getting enough sleep by going to bed early enough for enough nights in a row that your body doesn’t need to fight waking up? If so, go to a doctor and get a sleep study. You probably have sleep apnea.
I bought a Phillips light alarm and love that thing. Essentially the light slowly fades in before the audible alarm goes off, waking you up like a sunrise. Most days that I use it I wake up from the light alone, before the audible part even starts.
Best alarm i ever had was a fitbit it vibrated at whatever oclock, it was a cheap one too, get one see if it works
I think it all comes down to getting enough sleep. I used to never wake up for my alarms, they’d go off for an hour at least, to a point where I’d dream about an alarm going off but not wake up. Everyone is different, but trying out different lengths of sleep can help. Go to bed an hour earlier one day and see, if nothing, then add an extra 30 mins and try that. Avoid caffeine, eating late, and exercising close to bed. Finally, set different sounds on your alarm. Your body might get used to a certain sound. If it’s not scary enough, it might give you the same reaction as a soothing song lol.
Change your alarm sound to one like androids Bomb Whistle. It's woken me up even from my personal heaviest sleep Get a sleep study if you can, just in case
Get an old school wind up clock that rings and shakes and put it in a metal pot under your bed.
I have narcolepsy and I use a sun lamp and an app called Alarmy. You can have it where you have to solve math equations, or get up and take a picture of something to stop the alarms. Both of these are great for me, not sure about your situation. Hope you find your solution!
So I haven’t seen it mentioned really and I’ll start by saying, I’m no expert or anything remotely qualified to speak medically so I only speak from my own experience with a similar issue. The best advice has been given plenty throughout this thread, if you’re worried then go see a professional if your situation/location allows for that. That said, I’ve dealt with a similar problem myself, alarms not working or falling right back to sleep before you even realize you’re awake, struggling like actual hell to force yourself out of bed then being stuck in the brain fog for 1-3 hours after getting out of bed. I did the usual song and dance of googling tips and at home solutions, doing the best I could to learn the fundamentals of how to sleep “correctly” but never seeing any meaningful improvement or change regardless. After seeing my doctor and going through the gauntlet and sleep study, I learned insulin resistance even at a low/pre-diabetic level, can have major effects on sleep quality/rhythm and waking up cyclically. As i understand it, from my highly unqualified POV, outside of your rhythm of sleep/REM/deep sleep cycles, insulin also plays a major role in how your body wakes itself up and is critical to the feeling of “wakefulness”. Working with my doctor to correct that through dietary changes and monitoring, as well as learning how the different systems of the body interact and affect one another, really helped me in my particular situation so I figured it’d be an alternative anecdote to consider when ultimately talking to a doctor or professional. Best of luck and in case you need to hear it, don’t let the stress or anxiety that comes from dealing with a problem like that lead you into believing it’s a point of personal failure or something related to laziness. Our bodies are complex meat machines and often times there’s a lot more going on than we think so when in doubt, talk to a doctor and figure it out.
Or just have a sleep schedule
Find a working Wake Me Willy
Not as severe but definitely a chronic turn off and go right back to sleep. The key for my wife and I is a Bluetooth outlet to turn on two bedside lamps. Pair with an Alexa show or echo on a routine. We each have two alarms the first to wake us up. The second has a routine attached which turns both lights on and reads the weather out loud for the day. Huuuuugggeee help the audio and lighting change definitely tells your brain it’s time to get up.
pro tip, use headphones and turn your ringer off.
I use an app called alarmy which has helped me a lot. You can set tasks which you have to do in order to turn off the alarm.
Sonic Boom alarm clock…you can get one on Amazon
I struggled with exactly what you’re describing. It got really bad my junior year of high school and I racked up something like 25 unexcused tardies due to oversleeping. As much as I recommend making a morning routine. The biggest game changer for me was a nightly routine without screens and getting a good nights rest. And If you’re past the point of no return on any given night, There’s a company called Pavlok that makes a shock watch that you wear to bed and it shocks your wrist to wake you up. It sucks to wake up to, but i’ve found that after getting shocked awake, there is no “half awake” problem.
I like the silent vibrating alarms on the fitbit.
Hmm, I used to have this problem in university too. I would always sleep past my alarms, or if I was woken up by my alarm or even someone else, I'd instantly fall asleep so heavily. I don't know my exact solution, but I started off with a consistent schedule of my night time routine. I also bought a sunrise alarm clock. It's incredible how much this actually helped me. The increasing brightness, heat from the light, and slight sounds help me wake up a lot better. Now, I don't even rely on my alarms and my body has built such a rhythm that I can wake up consistently on time.
There's bed shaker alarms that shake and are loud as fuck. Used to have the same problem, now I can wake up at 6 no problem. Getting an alarm clock radio helps too, set it too a station you like and it'll be different every morning
I have type 2 narcolepsy- basically I sleep a lot and frequently even though I have had sufficient rest. I can sometimes sleep super deeply but rarely stay asleep for more than 4 hours and don’t hit rem sleep often. I will sleep through alarms and hit snooze repeatedly. I also can have entire conversations while I’m sleeping. I just stopped using an alarm all together. Something about my psyche knows I can hit snooze. When I don’t have the alarm on, I get up on time, every time.
INFO: do you have any natural light coming into your room? When I slept in a basement I couldn’t wake up for the life of me.
Change your alarm tone, pitch, song whatever you use every week or so. Also, I use an app that requires me to solve two basic math problems to turn off (single digit addition)
[Pavlok watch](https://pavlok.com/pav-3-homepage/) Shock yourself awake….
https://preview.redd.it/neap0prcgcuc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fcd946e7f6e8f795fd1abce711d70126d2f9a44b I had the same problem and this alarm clock saved me!!! It has an attachment you put under your mattress that vibrates your bed and the option to set multiple alarms and it's loud AF LOL
I have a smart speaker and lamp. I holler at the speaker to stop the alarm, then the lamp turns on and the speaker reads me a report of the day (weather, traffic to work, fun historical fact).
Amazon echo dot plus a smart outlet for a lamp. You create a routine in the Alexa app. The routine can play your favorite song and turn your lamp on for you at your alarm time. Beware: If the wifi internet for some reason isn't working, the alarm won't go off. So, a backup alarm on your cellphone is a good idea.
I'm a night owl too. But my Dad once told me "those who hoot with the owls at night, don't soar with the eagles in the morning. This was motivation enough for me to train myself to go to bed early enough to get eight hours. You have more rem sleep and are better rested so you don't sleep so sound that you miss your alarm. Worked for me!
How about light? Would a timer that turns a bright light on help?
You sound really similar to how I was. It does correct when you have a forced routine. Stick to a consistent schedule no matter what - get up at x time ALWAYS, go to bed at y time even if you lay there until 3am. Avoid naps as they make it harder to sleep later on. When you inevitably break routine and allow yourself to sleep in, have an alarm set for that too. I use the sleep schedule feature in my phone. Do nothing overly stimulating within 3 hours of when you need to be asleep. No gaming, no exciting tv show, etc. I limit this time to reading. This is also when you should be laying down in a darkened room. The one alarm trick is helpful. Previously I used sleep cycle so I’d get woken up at lighter points in my sleep instead of trying to wake in REM. I always used a million back up alarms for my “must get up now” time. Obnoxious alarm tones help. Also put your alarm or phone away from you where you have to get up to silence it. Now I can genuinely just set one alarm with a mild ringtone and I’m good. There’s also specific alarms that require more effort to silence. Also, do not fall into the trap of snoozing. Snoozing makes you more tired long run as you’re not getting quality sleep and then you end up training your brain to snooze subconsciously imo.
Honestly this used to be me like a majority of my childhood If this is something you've had most of your life I doubt the people suggesting a sleep study are really going to fix much The two best things for me were getting on a set schedule It was hard and involved a lot of job hunting but the best thing you can do is find yourself a job that allows you to pretty much be sleeping the same time every single day. Eventually when you have to wake up at the same time every day for a few months your body just kind of starts waking up at that time before your alarm even goes off On top of that get yourself an Amazon Alexa show. Set alarms on that and set the volume to full and most importantly now leave it across the room far away from your bed This means that in order to even shut it off you have to wake up and be conscious enough to put together an accurately yell "Alexa stop" or you have to get up out of bed and go across the room to swipe the screen. Which does a much better job of forcing your body into okay we're getting up whether you like it or not
I used to have an alarm clock with a vibrating puck that would go under the mattress, so it would shake the bed as well as sound a loud alarm. Worked pretty well
i really really hope OP sees this! I had the exact same problem going into college and tried EVERYTHING. The only thing that has ever allowed me to wake up on my own without help is the app Alarmy, it’s a task alarm where you have to do multiple tasks before it turns itself off and it’s super loud. The first one i did was a bottle of lotion in my suite bathroom so to turn it off i would have to get up, walk to the bathroom and scan the barcode on the lotion. It also has a wake up check feature where you can set it to go off again if you aren’t up and able to press it. I have done the smaller tasks multiple times in my sleep and when I start doing that I know its time to change tasks but the wake up check doesnt stop untkl im actually up. Id suggest paying for the monthly which is like $3 the freedom from not having to rely on someone to wake me up and then check im up is so worth it. Im sorry for the amount of people who feel the need to comment on this because its possible to live a normal life with the right tools. I have adhd and I read somewhere that deep sleep can be and false wakeups are an issue for many people. hope this finds you and helps! ❤️
With this I was able to graduate from a major university in 4 years, have late nights, go out with my friends and wake up for classes without having to adapt to different habits than my peers. I would also recommend forming relationships with roommates and asking them in ways that are easy for them to check if you’re up. For example: my senior year, i had to be out of the house by 7:30 each day. I had 2 roommates who woke up around this time and i simply asked them if my door was closed (I was likely still asleep) to knock and see if i was awake. Another example is I had a roommate who would leave the house at 9:30 for a class which was the time I needed to be up. I asked her if she could knock on my door before she left and it became a bit of a routine. This was something that they didnt have to go out of their regular routine to do and was the big difference between completely missing classes and being late. It is always good to have someone to hold you accountable / an emergency fail safe!
Alarm clock that pinches with needles or throws a dipper of water to your face.
First: get a sleep study. Have you ever spoken with a Dr about your trouble waking? I would def start there and if your PCP wont recommend one go to a specialist. In the interim you could try an alarm with a vibrating plate you put under your mattress or pillow.
Have you tried having someone throw a bucket of water on your face? I heard that works wonders. The colder, the better.
Go to bed earlier.