Waking Up
 

OK, so I need some advice.

It's really hard for me to wake up in the morning. The doctor says it has something to do with 2-4 hours of sleep, but I think hes lying...

Anyway. Here's the deal. My mom says that she's tired of trying relentlessly to wake me up every morning, and that she is going to stop trying. And she also said, that if I miss the bus, then she's going to charge me $50 to drive me into school, and there is no possible way that I can miss school.

Now for the second part of the dilemma. Alarm Clock. For me to set my alarm clock loud enough for me to wake up, it wakes up the whole rest of the family, and doesn't always wake me up. I have a surround sound in my bed, but again, this is very loud, and wakes everyone else up. This just makes them angrier.

So what should I do? The only solution that I have thought of was wearing headphones to sleep that is hooked up to my computer to wake me up on time (wireless headphones of course. Safety issues with cords.)

Any suggestions? I can't afford too many 'motherly' rides into school...

Jacob

Re: Waking Up
 

How about something inside the pillow case that vibrates when it's time to wake up?

or!!!

you can make some robot that smacks you upside the head numerous time until you get up and turn it off via the backside of the robot in a 4 digit shut off code.

but, yeah. i like number 2 better. :P

Re: Waking Up
 

Bed shaking alarm clock!

http://www.soundclarity.com/productd...asp_Q_id_E_870

It's the best help I've got.

Re: Waking Up
 

Great Idea!

We are teamed with the American School for the Deaf, and thats what they use to wake up (vibrating blankets, I think.)

I will try this tomorrow night. Sounds like a little EE project for tomorrow!

EDIT: Forget the EE project.. This is already built!



Jacob

Re: Waking Up
 

Mornings suck. I've always had a problem there. As of recently I have 5 Alarm clocks, and barely get up in the morning. (3 normal alarm clocks, cell phone, and computer alarm via mp3 to stereo). :ahh:

Recently I discovered this: https://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/lights/8f1a/

The most uniqe thing about that is not the mission statement, if you will call it that, of "This alarm clock will get you up. It's alarm is louder than a jackhammer!"

It's the "bed shaker" part that is attached to it. For less than your one time payment of 50 bucks for missing the bus, you can get this clock.

I'm going to purchase it now that finances have slowed (yay offseason lol)

Maybe make a deal with your Mom to front you some money for this, and then if it doesn't work.. idk.. lol

But I'm certainly trying it. :)

Good luck from one insomniac/deep sleeper to another.

Edit: Darn it Clark, thanks for getting the jump on me on this one. lol <rolls eyes>

Re: Waking Up
 

Thank you so much for the suggestion. I just ordered one. I have enough dough in the old PayPal cougher to cover this... And it's cheaper than a ride into school!

OK. Now how about thinking of some ways to have a robot wake me up... :p

Jacob

Re: Waking Up
 

You could try getting a few more hours of sleep.. just throwing that out there.. :)
Me, I used to have trouble waking up in the morning (well not waking up, just not wanting to because I felt dead tired). Then I discovered that if I left my blinds open just a crack, so that the morning light could come in as the sun came up, it allowed me to wake up much easier.

Re: Waking Up
 

Sleep works in patterns so once you train your biological clock to wake up in the morning, it will automatically wake you up. The key is to set a schedule for yourself and follow it. The first few days might be harder but it gets easier. Read this page for more info.

Re: Waking Up
 

Now you just have to acquire the match starting sound and I'm sure you'll pop right out of bed every morning, autonomously carrying on with your daily routines.

Re: Waking Up
 

I actually have a Skylight directly above my bed (I have a loft in my room. The skylight is about 4 feet from my head). This has actually helped me quite a bit since it has been installed.

Thanks for the greating reading info! Yeah, I hope that after a few weeks of using my 113dB vibrating bed device (which PayPal just accepted) that I can turn it down and let my body help get me up.

YES!!!!!! I REALLY WANT TO DO THIS!!!! All of those sounds are not available, at least not the official ones (I think.. right?) I'm sure the CHARGE sound would not be hard to find though.

Yeah.... Think of all that wasted TIME though! :eek:

But you are probably right. I'm going to bed now.

Jacob

Re: Waking Up
 

I have to say it:

Go to bed earlier.

Re: Waking Up
 

I agree, go to bed earlier--but at the same time, consider some alarm where the ability to shut it off requires leaving your bed.

I know this works because I'm living proof. My alarm clock is on the far side of my desk, a couple of steps away over a precarious trek of Standard Dorm Room Pile Of Something. Meanwhile, my iBook (which I have an alarm set on that I use more frequently) is within arm's reach--and it usually gets a snooze button that puts myself half an hour off the pace before I roll out of bed.

Re: Waking Up
 

My alarm is across my room... however, I just go right back into bed after I turn it off... I've missed several 8AM math classes because of this... no big deal though. Heh...

Re: Waking Up
 

A while back I remember reading about a few crazy alarm clocks, and I managed to find these again. They are pretty entertaining if nothing else. And most or all (I can't remember) force you to leave your bed. :D

http://www.hemmy.net/2006/03/06/puzzle-alarm-clock/

http://www.aarontang.net/design/product_clock.html

http://www.nandahome.com/products.clocky.html?

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/m...ere-141731.php

If all else fails you could invest tons of money into constructing your own android that you could program to wake you up.:yikes:

Re: Waking Up
 

In stores i have seen pillows that you can hook up to your ipod or radio how about getting one of those and have your radio come on at a certain time and have it turned up loud enough for you to wake up in the morning all you have to do is sleep on the pillow also if you have a cell phone have some of your friends that wake up at the same time as you call you for a morning wake up call that always work for me

Re: Waking Up
 

Jacob,
After many years of starting work at 6AM there is no substitute for a getting to bed at a decent time. However the best way to make sure you get up on time is to have a first period gym class. Gym teachers are not nearly as sympathetic as parents or other teachers when you are late to class. This is a fool proof, no fail, method of fixing the problem permanently.

Re: Waking Up
 

I too have a fair bit of trouble getting up, and though I don't have it any more, I used to have this alarm clock that had "wacky wake up calls" where it had a cycle of recorded messages. It broke a while back, but having human voices waking me up instead of music or a buzzer really seemed to help!

Re: Waking Up
 

I've heard of that "sonic bomb" alarm clock before, let us know if it actually works well. I could really use something good to wake me up in the morning.. I'm a user of the "hit snooze until your mom comes in" method, which kinda sucks..

Re: Waking Up
 

I have to say it, even as anti-FIRST spirited as it is, you need to try to catch a few more Z's. Now for me though, I have found that a regular alarm modified to where the switch to turn it off is attached to a Hex Bug so you have to get up and find the switch every day in a different spot. You need a long wire, but it gets you out of bed!! Personally I have 4-5 alarms daily. I have a regular alarm, then my stereo turns on, then when it shuts off it clicks real loud, then another regular alarm. Then I sleep another 15 minutes before finally getting up.

Re: Waking Up
 

Maybe you aren't getting a good enough sleep because of your matress?

Some people naturally prefer firm beds, some people naturally prefer soft beds. That probably makes a difference.

Re: Waking Up
 

I also remember a movie I watched once where the main charachter in college had a hard time waking up so he tried all kinds of inventions throughout the movie. During the closing credits, a voice would announce "You have 1 minute to leave the bed before 220 volts will be applied to your bed springs!" "You have 30 seconds..." It counted down 'three, two, one' and then dipped to black at zero with a lot of yelling and electrical SFX.

Re: Waking Up
 

I'll vouch for that. Sometimes I look forward to just thorwing my sleeping bag on the ground and sleeping on the hard floor. Other nights, the bed is the easiest (especially these last few weeks. Between schooling and our school musical, I've just completely been exhausted! You don't even want to see my room!

I can never sleep any later than 8 o'clock. Don't know why. Truthfully, I would rather it be around 7, more time to do... whatever! Make some French Toast, Get an early bike ride, Chief Delphi.

Every night, I turn my alarm on. Every morning, I wake up and it is off and I have no recolection of turning it off. Maybe I should turn my Cellphone's Alarm on, and My MP3 Players alarm on.

As for getting to school, walk or ride your bike. It'll save you some money and give you a good exercise.

Re: Waking Up
 

Sleep is indeed a pattern. Once your body is trained to wake up at a certain time - takes about 2 weeks - it will do that on its own unless outside influences occur. the key is consistency - always go to bed at exactly the same time, no matter what. I go to sleep just as Futurama comes on Adult Swim on Cartoon Network (22:30 EDT). (Bonus: I think I'm sleep-learning the scripts).

Waking up was never easy for me, but now that I'm ancient 6:45 am works just fine. Consistency.

To help you wake up, get some sugar in your system as soon as you get up. Not refined sugar or HFCS,instead try some orange juice. If you can manage, wake up 30-60 minutes early, drink a glass of juice, then snooze (yes, go back to sleep!) until it's time. You will be amazed at how easy it is to get up, because your body is already working.

Use that routine without any variation at all for 2 weeks, then tell me what happens. You'll be amazed.

Oh, I should mention: It is remotely possible that you have a sleep disorder, it is not uncommon, and in reality you might not be getting any good sleep at all. The ideal is to have a sleep study (your doc can help there). The cheap (but not a good substitute) alternative is to set a video camera on yourself all night and watch it the next day (on fast forward) - how well do you sleep? Toss and turn? Stop breathing? Or sleep like a rock?

Final alternative: Wire up a servo to dump 1 liter of water on you, that'll wake you up.

You definitely have to address this, it can have serious consequences. Ins chool the worst you get is an F, in the real world you get fired. And, at college, there's no one who cares to bother waking you.....

Don

Re: Waking Up
 

:p If I could do this, I would love it! Unfortunatley, I have a lot of stuff to do, plus I'm a night person. So, good tip, but not too much of an option for me.

YES! This is a great tip. I forgot I used to do this. I used to put my laptop under my bed (I'm in a loft) so that I had to climb down the ladder to shut it off. This worked until my parents complained about the music being too loud.

My problem right now. Sure, I'll wake up to the clock, but there is nothing preventing me from turing it off. I don't even remember turning it off.

Some of that stuff is crazy. I ordered the Sonic Bomb mentioned earlier.

My sister's friend has one of these. It's not terribly loud.. probably design for music to put you to sleep, not to wake you up :rolleyes: ... good suggestion tho. Constructing an alarm clock pillow would be fun.

I'm done with my gym credits :D ... No more disgruntled gym teachers barking in my ear in the morning :p .

Hmm. This is a thought. Perhaps I'll set my alarm song to The Pi Song... three point one four one five nine two six five....

Will do.

Good use of hexbug! Sounds like an EE project!

This is a good point. I have recently switched matresses, and I sleep a lot better. I don't think that the problem is my quality of sleep, rather, my length of sleep.


This is a good point. Right now, I have no set sleep schedule, and wind up going to bed anywhere between 1 and 4 (AM EST). My wake time is pretty consistant howeverl; About 1.5 minutes before the bus leaves my house.

As far as the sugar, I have been doing this for a while. As soon as I get on the bus, I have a 10 FL OZ bottle of grapefruit juice. Juice, not drink. Tropicana.
This makes me totally on the ball when I get to school, so I'm happy with this. I'm not one to eat in the morning (usually around 11-12 is when I have breakfast), so this small amount is fine for me.

And as far as sleep disorders, I think I have SAD. I did an Invention Convention project in 5th grade about a cure for SAD, and created a device that mounts in-line with your light circuit which 'cures' the disorder. Essentially, you set the timer for when you want to get up, and it slowly brings up the lights in your room gradually over 45 minutes before you get up, to simulate natural sunrise. It's a pretty corny invention, and I haven't used it in years. Maybe I should consider finding it again...

Thank you, everyone, for your suggestions. I haven't had to pay this fee yet... and I can't wait until my Sonic Bomb Clock gets in.. that should be fun!

Jacob

Re: Waking Up
 

Have you considered that the volume you require to get you up is damaging? You might consider adjusting your sleep habits, like getting 3 hours at night and taking a 3 hour nap in the afternoon. Or maybe a full nights sleep. I know it's a radical concept, but I suspect you are a radical type guy. In short, I recommend you sleep enough to stay healthy and don't use anything to wake you that is potentially damaging.

Re: Waking Up
 

I have a problem with alarm clocks as well. I think I turn them off in my sleep. If I manage to not turn it off in my sleep (only happened when I found a corner on the opposite side of the room to put it), I wake up to a horse sound. Actually, it is rather amusing, because normal alarm clocks don't wake me up. I got this alarm clock free (I don't remember where) but it sounds like a neighing horse. It's really annoying though. The only thing that saves me from waking the rest of my family up with it is the fact that their bedroom are upstairs, and mine is down.

So maybe just trying abnormal, random sounding alarm clocks.

Also maybe try different psychological approaches. I once did an experiment about waking up. In one, I fell asleep thinking about what time I had to wake up, and I ended up waking up a few minutes before that time. I don't know if that was just a fluke or if it would really work.

Yeah, I do agree with setting a sort of pattern though. That used to work for me. You go to bed at the same time, wake up at the same time, and establish a cycle. It would take some effort, but it might work.;)

Re: Waking Up
 

I hate to say it but go to bed earlier. Trust all of us and trust me I am the same way and college was a big eye opener and I get up easier now. No offense but I highly doubt that your too busy to get everything done to go to sleep early. What do you have to do that you HAVE to do. go to school, come home do hw, eat and shower. there is no was you have 6 hours of homework every night. How much time do you spend on CD? How much time do you spend on aim? How much time do you spend watching tv?

-John

Re: Waking Up
 

Most of my time is consumed running my $1M company. I'm lucky if I get all my schoolwork done (usually not), let alone TV (I don't watch any... at all.) Then there is the act of going to school, and eating and stuff. As far as CD, its open on a monitor in my cubicle, and I respond when I see something cool, or need advice.

So I guess every minute that I'm awake I'm doing something productive. I wish there were more hours in a day, or rather, days were broken up differently, to accommodate for people like me.

But yes, I will try to get as much sleep as possible. Thanks for the tip.

Jacob

Re: Waking Up
 

If you weren't so close to the ceiling, I'd suggest making a device attached to your bed that would, at a given time, tip the bed. Result? You are on the floor, (hopefully) fully awake. (The problem with extra height is that you would need padding at the bottom to avoid hurting yourself.)

Re: Waking Up
 

huh?

Re: Waking Up
 

I run a corporation called Computers For Communities...

Started out as a garage venture.. Now we provide computers and services to the residents of Connecticut. We have distributed over 2000 computers and are training 250 high school students to become IT Technicians. Recently we have obtained a Million Dollar Grant from the NSF to run this IT training program in Hartford, CT. We have smaller branches all over the U.S. with the same mission as us.

The site is a bit basic, but has most of the information about the company:
http://computers4communities.org/

I won the BR!CK Award for my efforts, and was running for the Golden BR!CK Award (hence my sig a month ago). Look for me on the back of Doritos bags starting this month!

Jacob

Re: Waking Up
 

Well since you are close to the ceiling cut the legs off one side of your bed and put a pnuematic shelf in. So when it is time to wake up the shlef drops, making your bel tilt to a 60* angle and making you fall off. It may hurt, but so does 50$ for a car ride.

-John

Re: Waking Up
 

ZOMG!!!!

Just got my Sonic Bomb Alarm Clock!!!!!!

I set it up in my bed. It pretty much shakes my whole room... So I don't really think it matters where under my bed I put it. This could be a replacement for a subwoofer....

The interesting thing, is that not only is it a vibrating alarm, but it has a built audible alarm. This alarm can be set for VERY LOUD. Not only this, but the tone can be changed (low-high and anywhere in-between.) I guess you just have to find your sweet-spot that really annoys you and set it. I put the clock itself under my bed (I'm in a loft, remember?), so I need to get out of bed, down the latter, around the side of the cubicle, open the door, stumble over the chair, and reach up to shut it off. Let's see how this goes!

EDIT: OH MY GOD!!!! I WAS SITTING HERE, AND THE ALARM CLOCK WENT OFF (I guess I hit the snooze button 9 minutes ago). IT SCARED THE CRAP OUT OF ME!!!!!

Jacob

Re: Waking Up
 

AHAHAHAHAHAHA!! I just actually ordered mine last night from thinkgeek.
Can't wait till it comes in & to have the sleep scared out of me. :D :D

Re: Waking Up
 

Well, this morning, I got out of bed faster than I ever have. I practically JUMPED down the latter (9 ft.) to get out of the shaking bed and away from the ear piercing alarm.

Here's the problem. After I shut it off (which I had to go around the bed, and into the cubicle, I got out of the cubicle thinking of getting dressed, and just collapsed on the floor. Snooze woke me up 9 minutes later, when I finally got up. Was almost late for the bus (OH NO!!!)

Last night I only got about 2 hrs of sleep though (final projects...), so this test was pretty inconclusive. It got me out of bed though! I'm thinking that perhaps I set it even earlier to account for the single snooze time... Man that thing is scary!

Jacob

Re: Waking Up
 

OK, that solves the first part of the problem - physically out of bed.

Now, on to mentally awake. If you can get the juice into yourself earlier, it'll help more. Trying that corny sunrise thingie sounds plausible, especially if you already have it. And, of course, more sleep, with a regular schedule.

For the next several years, you'll do OK. You're a very smart kid and understand the issues and their solutions. Just remember that by the time another decade passes, this will gradually stop working, and your body will force you to a more sane schedule.

But until then, enjoy it!

Don

Re: Waking Up
 

"I'm sleeping from a quarter to half the time recommended for my age and I can't wake up... what should I do?"

...
If sleeping more isn't an option, either make it one or deal with the consequences of not giving your body what it needs. Maybe now all you're feeling is tired, but if your body wants rest it will get it sooner or later. How are you going to run a million dollar company when you're horribly sick due to sleep deprivation?

Re: Waking Up
 

Thats what I do, I have the problem with hitting snooze a bunch of times, but I set my alarm earlier so by the time I have hit snooze two times, its actually the right time for me to get out of bed lol. Seems to work for me!

Re: Waking Up
 

I also set my alarm early to account for hitting the snooze button. I think I'll get that alarm.

You might want to look into that whole, falling asleep on the floor thing... you really should get more sleep if that is the case.

Re: Waking Up
 

I have two alarms at work right now- One to wake me up, and the other to play some music at the normal volume. For me, the music keeps me awake and gets me mentally going. And it won't shut off for another 45 minutes, so I am definetly awake when my mom calls for me.
Try setting an alarm on your favorite radio station at a normal volume level along with your current alarm. Maybe it will get you thinking and help get you up.
Just a thought from a Freshman.:D

Re: Waking Up
 

This morning I had my dog and cat and other cat sleeping on me. My parents thought it would help but the fuzzyness and warmth just made it worse. But unless you have a dog that can jump 6 feet you dont have a problem....:p