# sleeping through alarm clocks



## Noca (Jun 24, 2005)

I sleep such a deep sleep that even my cell phone and my alarm clock ringing at top volume beside my head for 45 mins wouldnt wake me up. :sigh i need to find some method of waking myself up. I always fall asleep waiting for appts and then sleep through my alarms.


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## njodis (Nov 8, 2006)

One of my great tricks is waking up, turning off the alarm, falling back asleep, waking up again later, and having no recollection of ever turning off the alarm.

It's pretty damn annoying.


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## millenniumman75 (Feb 4, 2005)

:lol Njodis - I like your avatar. That show about the land of misfit toys makes me cry, though :cry. I don't like toys being rejected; it makes me feel bad  :lol

Noca - part of that is probably depression-related, I would think. I put my alarm on the other side of the room so that I would have to get up to turn it off. On some morning, I have a backup alarm that goes off five minutes after the first one!


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## mserychic (Oct 2, 2004)

njodis said:


> One of my great tricks is waking up, turning off the alarm, falling back asleep, waking up again later, and having no recollection of ever turning off the alarm.
> 
> It's pretty damn annoying.


I've been doing that tons lately  Luckily my grandparents will come wake me up if it gets past the time I usually leave for work.


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## X33 (Feb 13, 2005)

njodis said:


> One of my great tricks is waking up, turning off the alarm, falling back asleep, waking up again later, and having no recollection of ever turning off the alarm.
> 
> It's pretty damn annoying.


Put your alarm a bit away from where you sleep (ie. desk across the room) so you have to get up and walk to switch it off.. By the time you reach it, you should hopefully be wide awake.


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## Eraserhead (Sep 23, 2006)

njodis said:


> One of my great tricks is waking up, turning off the alarm, falling back asleep, waking up again later, and having no recollection of ever turning off the alarm.
> 
> It's pretty damn annoying.


Now wait just a second... how could you know that happened if you had no recollection of it? :b

I almost never sleep through alarm clocks, but most mornings I can't help hitting the snooze at least once or twice (usually more). Recently, I've had to muster an enormous amount of willpower just to get out of bed. Sad really.


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## nothing to fear (Mar 23, 2005)

njodis said:


> One of my great tricks is waking up, turning off the alarm, falling back asleep, waking up again later, and having no recollection of ever turning off the alarm.
> 
> It's pretty damn annoying.


i've done that so many times and slept through classes. in the mornings i'm so disoriented and sleepy that i'll just smash my hand on my alarm clock until my alarm stops ringing.

Noca, do you mean you have naps while waiting for an appointment then sleep through your alarm? if so then maybe avoid falling asleep in the first place. if you only tend to sleep for a few hours then it would be very difficult to get up after that since you'll be in a very deep sleep.

i find what works for me is putting the alarm clock on the other side of the room, that way i am force to get up and turn it off (or set it to 'sleep'). but if you can't even hear it when it's beside your head then that wouldn't work.


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## Noca (Jun 24, 2005)

nothing_to_fear said:


> njodis said:
> 
> 
> > One of my great tricks is waking up, turning off the alarm, falling back asleep, waking up again later, and having no recollection of ever turning off the alarm.
> ...


good thinking :idea I will try not to fall asleep.


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## embers (Dec 19, 2006)

I used to know someone who had a light attached to his alarm clock so the lights would flash when the alarm went off. I have no idea where to find this though, that would be so annoying, I like to wake up gently, even if it means sleeping through my alarm clock. :b


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## embers (Dec 19, 2006)

Or have it be a voice alarm, I had Donald Trumps voice on the ringer on my phone and I never got used it, it would freak me out every time.



> well well well, look who's getting another phone call, who do you think you are, Donald Trump or something? your phone is terminated! i have no time for small talk, and neither do you, time is money, pick up your phone


 :afr


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## workinprogress87 (Dec 5, 2007)

I set three vibrating alarms, each a minute after another, on my cell and sleep with it in my pocket. It's been able to get me up despite my having slept only a few hours over the course of a couple days so with an ordinary alarm, you should be set.


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## CoconutHolder (Oct 13, 2007)

I vote for never falling asleep in the first place.





:lol


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## katelyn (Jul 11, 2006)

njodis said:


> One of my great tricks is waking up, turning off the alarm, falling back asleep, waking up again later, and having no recollection of ever turning off the alarm.
> 
> It's pretty damn annoying.


I do this a lot, and my alarm clock is the other side of my room so I have to get up to turn it off. I really am not good in the mornings.

I'm hoping to get a Lumie clock soon, which is supposed to make waking up a lot easier because it simulates sunrise. It has a light that comes on gradually an hour before the alarm goes off.


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## Eraserhead (Sep 23, 2006)

embers said:


> Or have it be a voice alarm, I had Donald Trumps voice on the ringer on my phone and I never got used it, it would freak me out every time.


:lol

I have a better idea actually: a Tony Robbins voice alarm!! If he can't motivate you to get out of bed, no one can.


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## embers (Dec 19, 2006)

Nicolay said:


> embers said:
> 
> 
> > Or have it be a voice alarm, I had Donald Trumps voice on the ringer on my phone and I never got used it, it would freak me out every time.
> ...


Every day would be just a super day when you wake up to Tony Robbins! 

This gives me an idea, what would be the worst way to wake up? I'm thinking having a rooster right there on the night stand would be pretty bad.


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## ilikeshinythings274 (Nov 13, 2007)

My sister had this alarm clock that would hook up to her lamp. It had a vibrate thing that was supposed to be put under the mattress. Whenever her alarm went off, first off, it was really loud, second, since it was connected to the lamp it would turn the light on and off, and third the vibrate thing would violently shake from under the mattress. You'd definitely be wide awake by the time you hit the snooze button. They might as well have added a feature that dumped cold water on you as well. That was the scariest yet most effective alarm clock I've ever seen. 

Also, I saw in this catalogue an alarm clock that would run away from you when you reached for the snooze button. That would seem like a funny yet cruel joke.


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## nubly (Nov 2, 2006)

hmm none of the 11 meds your taking is causing this to happen?


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## SebFontain (Jan 27, 2004)

Why not use the Worlds Best Alarm clock?? This alarm clock will wake anybody up!! Here I will link.

http://break.com/index/worlds-best-alarm-clock.html

I once slept through a fire alarm.. Thank god they were just testing it.. The funny thing was that I was staying in a dorm, and all of the alarms were outside in the hallway, except one of the alarms was inside my room.. and I still managed to sleep through it hahaha.


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## sctork (Oct 23, 2006)

katelyn said:


> I'm hoping to get a Lumie clock soon, which is supposed to make waking up a lot easier because it simulates sunrise. It has a light that comes on gradually an hour before the alarm goes off.


I have one of those and it works really well. My problem is that I usually hit the snooze as soon as it starts lighting up and then the light turns off and doesn't come back on, the alarm just sounds. I am not and never will be a morning person! I'll always hit the snooze :b The alarm I have also has a place for aromatherapy beads in the top too so it releases a scent as soon as the light starts warming it up. this is the one i have: http://www.hammacher.com/publish/70460. ... larm+clock


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## Bryan (Nov 26, 2007)

The only way I can get out of bed is to literally JUMP out. I have slept through alarms for hours before. My brother who is narcoleptic is obviously a little difficult to wake up. Been looking into the more extreme 100+ decibel alarm clock with things that supposedly shake your bed heh. Found one that you can turn off two of the three alarms with one button, but there other requires you to press like three buttons in sequence or at at the same time.


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## irishgirl (Dec 12, 2007)

I bought 4 alarm clocks trying to find the loudest one, put it across the room, set my phone and still nothing. Needless to say I was late many days. Now I'm a stay at home mom, so my kids just wake me up by jumping on my ribs! Good Times!!!!


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## WineKitty (Nov 26, 2004)

I used to do this. I would have to, as someone else said, put my alarm across the room so I would actually have to get up and turn it off. 

I dont have a problem with this anymore and usually wake up before my alarm goes off. I have no trouble waking up at all now. Not sure why.... :stu


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## eagleheart (Jun 14, 2007)

Man oh man, do I know what you are talking about. I have done that sooo many times (not to mention resetting the alarm and ultimately sleeping through it, resetting the alarm wrong, hitting snooze so many times it eventually stops going off...). I am not good with mornings, especially if I didn't sleep much (nine hours is optimal for me).

For a while I put a bunch of obstacles on and around my alarm clock so that I wouldn't be able to just hit the snooze button.I kinda want that alarm clock that rolls away and hides, lol :boogie


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## Noca (Jun 24, 2005)

nubly said:


> hmm none of the 11 meds your taking is causing this to happen?


maybe the paxil


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## Partyofone (Jun 2, 2004)

I'd recommend having at least one alarm clock running on batteries in case there's a power flicker at night. What I've found that works is to to set an mp3 alarm to go off on the computer, a regular bedside alarm that goes off about 5 minutes after, and one more backup alarm to go off if I miss the second one. As suggested, they definitely need to be a little out of reach but still loud enough to be heard.


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## Noca (Jun 24, 2005)

I had 3 alarms set to wake me up this morning!!!! and I still slept through them all!!


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## nenad (Jan 3, 2008)

I used either sleep through, or turn the alarms off in my sleep. A few things that helped were
Setting the alarms at a few minutes apart in case i hit the snooze.
Keeping the alarms out of reach and regularly changing their positions.
Trying to go to sleep earlier. I'ts hard but your less likely to be in a deep sleep when the alarm goes off.
I was living with people. So if the alarms didn't wake me, they would wake someone else would bang down my door anyway...
i think it was med related becuase is hasn't really happened since i stopped taking various SSRi's.


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## Chrysalii (Jun 24, 2006)

I'm one of those who has no need for an alarm clock (especially since I wake at 5am...no matter what).
It's annoying, especially since I don't have to be at work until 10. 
That said, I did use an alarm clock for a while (even when I started waking up 2 minutes _before_ it was scheduled to go off) and I was never able to sleep through it.


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## nightmahr (Jan 2, 2008)

SebFontain said:


> Why not use the Worlds Best Alarm clock?? This alarm clock will wake anybody up!! Here I will link.
> 
> http://break.com/index/worlds-best-alarm-clock.html


And that guy probably has hearing loss in at least one ear now because of that. Real funny. Another reason to avoid people.


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## tainted_ (Feb 20, 2008)

My bf bought me an alarm clock that flies around the room and you have to get up and find two parts that fall in different places, put them back together and theb put them back into the main alarm clock before the (very annoying) wailing sound will turn off... I dont use it because it freaks me out too much and I found a way of turning it off without getting up. Sticking a pen in it 

But you can also get ones that roll off your bedside and hide or one where you put this thing under your pillow or bed and it starts vibrating.


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## Noca (Jun 24, 2005)

tainted_ said:


> I found a way of turning it off without getting up. Sticking a pen in it


 :lol


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## WhatsThePoint (Feb 6, 2008)

njodis said:


> One of my great tricks is waking up, turning off the alarm, falling back asleep, waking up again later, and having no recollection of ever turning off the alarm.
> 
> It's pretty damn annoying.


ha, i used to do that a lot when i was in high school. ive since trained myself to stop turning it off and hitting the snooze button instead


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## Noca (Jun 24, 2005)

my alarms go off at 8:10 and 8:30 every morning.


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## SebFontain (Jan 27, 2004)

nightmahr said:


> SebFontain said:
> 
> 
> > Why not use the Worlds Best Alarm clock?? This alarm clock will wake anybody up!! Here I will link.
> ...


Sorry sometimes I don't know when it is ok and not ok to joke around. I was just trying to joke around a bit. Didnt mean to upset anyone so my appologies.


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## livingnsilence (Feb 4, 2008)

Most the time I wake up to my alarm clock but rarely I do sleep through it. If I've only been asleep for a short time a lot of the time noises can't wake me. There were several times last year that I slept through the loudest fire alarms (the alarms were even sometimes incorporated into my dreams) and my roomate had to shake me to wake me up.


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## Shauna The Dead (Jun 16, 2005)

I used to be that way too when I was younger...my mom had to get me a REALLY loud alarm clock.


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## Jennifer1234 (Feb 17, 2008)

I don't sleep through my alarm clock, but it is and always has been (since grade school) a struggle to get out of bed each morning. I have to talk myself out of calling in sick each day so I can stay home and sleep. I get 8+ hours so I just don't know why I don't ever feel rested. Sucks....


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## Polar (Dec 16, 2006)

Alarm clocks wake me up, but often I just completely unconsciously turn it off and go back to bed. That happened today.


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## morningmud (Jan 17, 2008)

I can sleep through alarm clocks too. I turn them off in my sleep, curse people out who try to wake me, anything I can to keep sleeping and not even have a clue that I've done it until people tell me. I had to buy a clock with a radio and turn the volume to the loudest setting. To stop myself from turning it off in my sleep, I have to keep a book on top of it. the snooze button sticks up farther than the rest, so I just press the book to snooze. I have still slept through this and often incorporate the music into my dreams. I've overslept 20 minutes every day since the time change because I keep snoozing thinking that it's not time yet. Waking up sux!!! I make my son late for school all the time becuase I can't get my *** up!


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## Noca (Jun 24, 2005)

morningmud said:


> I can sleep through alarm clocks too. I turn them off in my sleep, curse people out who try to wake me, anything I can to keep sleeping and not even have a clue that I've done it until people tell me. I had to buy a clock with a radio and turn the volume to the loudest setting. To stop myself from turning it off in my sleep, I have to keep a book on top of it. the snooze button sticks up farther than the rest, so I just press the book to snooze. I have still slept through this and often incorporate the music into my dreams. I've overslept 20 minutes every day since the time change because I keep snoozing thinking that it's not time yet. Waking up sux!!! I make my son late for school all the time becuase I can't get my *** up!


 :hug its bad enough when we make ourselves late, but when others suffer because of our love for sleep its sad :sigh


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## UltraShy (Nov 8, 2003)

I've regularly turned off alarm clocks, waking up later with no recall that I did so. Other than I know I set it and I know it's not still going so I clearly turned it off in a semiconscious state.


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## bezoomny (Feb 10, 2007)

I've definately done this before. What I need to get is one of those old-fashioned alarms with the bells. I jump a foot whenever I hear them, they seriously scare me to death. That would wake me up.


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## morningmud (Jan 17, 2008)

Just remembered: I once slept until 10:30 when I was supposed to be awake at 7 and at work at 8:30. My work had been trying to call and I didn't hear the phone, they thought I had died in a wreck! I felt terrible and incredibly lazy.


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## Holz (Feb 19, 2008)

njodis said:


> One of my great tricks is waking up, turning off the alarm, falling back asleep, waking up again later, and having no recollection of ever turning off the alarm.
> 
> It's pretty damn annoying.


I'm always doing that. And when I go back to sleep, sometimes I'll dream that I get up, get ready etc, then wake up and realise I've got 10 minutes to get ready and catch the bus. ops

I saw on TV they were talking about this alarm clock that monitors your sleeping pattern or something, and goes off when you're at the lightest stage of sleep, so you wake up more gently. I dont get that though, wouldn't you either wake up really early or really late? Unless the stages of sleep only last a few minutes each or something.


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## iliketocolor (Apr 18, 2008)

I totally know what you mean. I unconsciously turn off my alarms. I don't even know that I do it. My mom has told me this cause my alarm is on full volume, so she wakes up and my alarm goes off forever. I have 3 alarms all over my room and it doesn't work. Someone actually has to come and physically wake me up and my mom said she won't do it. I am clueless about what else I can possibly do. :stu i get a good amount of sleep, so sleep deprivation is not the issue.


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## Marylandgreeneyes (Feb 10, 2008)

Open your blinds up at night, so when the sun comes up it will wake you up. I usually put my alarm clock outside my roomates door, so when it goes off hes gets furious and punches me in the face. Haven't slept through a face punch yet.


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## nubly (Nov 2, 2006)

tainted_ said:


> My bf bought me an alarm clock that flies around the room and you have to get up and find two parts that fall in different places, put them back together and theb put them back into the main alarm clock before the (very annoying) wailing sound will turn off... I dont use it because it freaks me out too much and I found a way of turning it off without getting up. Sticking a pen in it
> 
> But you can also get ones that roll off your bedside and hide or one where you put this thing under your pillow or bed and it starts vibrating.


wow. not sure if youre joking but if youre not, i was not aware people had so much problems waking up that there was a need to invent these devices.

i had an army buddy that you would shake and shake and shake and he would sleep through it. but i found out a good way to wake him up, just pull the sheets off him. course that only worked during the cold weather


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## Phibes (Mar 8, 2009)

I've been getting some phone calls at random times from this number I don't even know and I never answer it but it's so ****ing annoying... 
Today, they rang again at 8.30am and I was sleeping and hungover which made the early wake-up call much worse. 

I'm going to use a pay-phone and ring them up later tonight or something..


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## Anxiety75 (Feb 10, 2004)

I keep my alarm clock unplugged unless I need to get up to go somewhere. It makes me nervous and I look at it too often. So it's in a drawer.


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## nothing to fear (Mar 23, 2005)

after many many years of sleeping through alarms, through classes and appointments, i have _finally _perfected waking myself up on time (laziness and sleepiness is still an issue but that depends on when i go to bed).

i have three devices going:

1 - my normal alarm, which is situated at the end of my bed. have it set to 2 alarms, both very VERY loud to the point where it wakes up the others in the house before me.

2 - my cell phone alarm, which would be on the bedside table. have 3 separate alarms set, all of them different rings, extremely annoying.

3 - my ipod alarm. i have my ipod plugged into speakers and i have the alarm set so that a playlist begins to play (usually at 7:10am). this is a really great idea. the playlist usually consists of three albums: first is not too loud without too many high frequencies, and bit soothing but loud enough so that it will keep me awake (music i'm really really familiar with doesn't work as well since my brain is adapted to it and i end up falling back asleep quickly). i listen to that first album in bed (which is a great way to start out the day), then the next album is usually something much louder (punk, hardcore, metal, noise, etc), which would be my signal to get the **** out of my bed. next album reminds me to rush and leave the house.

before even when i'd use methods 1 and 2 i would _still _have mornings where i wouldn't wake up, which is insane considering how loud they are. using method 3 on top of that is a really great idea and works really well to get me out of bed.



nothing to fear said:


> i've done that so many times and slept through classes. in the mornings i'm so disoriented and sleepy that i'll just smash my hand on my alarm clock until my alarm stops ringing.
> 
> Noca, do you mean you have naps while waiting for an appointment then sleep through your alarm? if so then maybe avoid falling asleep in the first place. if you only tend to sleep for a few hours then it would be very difficult to get up after that since you'll be in a very deep sleep.
> 
> i find what works for me is putting the alarm clock on the other side of the room, that way i am force to get up and turn it off (or set it to 'sleep'). but if you can't even hear it when it's beside your head then that wouldn't work.


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## Meee (Oct 24, 2005)

Alarm clocks do not wake me. I have three ridiculously loud alarm clocks - they wake everyone else except for me (but then those people wake me up to turn off my alarms, so i guess they do work, kinda.. heh).

Also i once slept through one of them when it rang for about 30 minutes. Neighbour thought it was a fire alarm :|

The weird thing is that if i do wake up it's usually before the alarm goes off. Hmm.


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## CreamCheese (Jul 21, 2010)

njodis said:


> One of my great tricks is waking up, turning off the alarm, falling back asleep, waking up again later, and having no recollection of ever turning off the alarm.
> 
> It's pretty damn annoying.


this is so weird because in the past two days In the row, I have been avidly sleeping throughout my alarm clocks. I wake up an hour later (by default) and realize that I shut them, but can't remember at all how I did that! I even kept one on my computer so I can get up to shut it. When I woke up this morning, the volume was off, so either I or my roommate shut it, but most likely I did because I don't think she knows where the volume button is on my computer. I'm so freaked out. Why does this happen?


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## GD8 (May 7, 2011)

X33 said:


> Put your alarm a bit away from where you sleep (ie. desk across the room) so you have to get up and walk to switch it off.. By the time you reach it, you should hopefully be wide awake.


that's what I do, my alarm clock has the most annoying ****ing alarm on it so putting it on my computer desk pretty much forces me to get out of bed.


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## stupiditytries (Jan 10, 2011)

Look up sleep cycles. Wake up right after you complete a sleep cycle.


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## Revenwyn (Apr 11, 2011)

X33 said:


> Put your alarm a bit away from where you sleep (ie. desk across the room) so you have to get up and walk to switch it off.. By the time you reach it, you should hopefully be wide awake.


I've tried this, set it for 8:00 AM and it's still ringing by 2:00 PM when I finally wake up...


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## arnie (Jan 24, 2012)

njodis said:


> One of my great tricks is waking up, turning off the alarm, falling back asleep, waking up again later, and having no recollection of ever turning off the alarm.
> 
> It's pretty damn annoying.


 I used to do that all the time. The solution I found was to set the alarm to radio mode with NPR in the morning. That what I actually wanted to hear the alarm so I wouldn't turn it off and go back to sleep right away.


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## Meta14 (Jan 22, 2012)

I remember reading somewhere that an alarm can be damaging to the brain.


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## Revenwyn (Apr 11, 2011)

I've also slept clear through tornado sirens; and one of those sirens was a block away.


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## Jujube05 (Feb 26, 2012)

Ha, I know what you mean. Thunder storms, construction, small earthquakes... those things don't mean a thing to my sleep cycle. I have had neighbors who live beneath me come up and complain about the loud never ending music that was coming from the alarm right next to my head. My mom used to have to throw water on me to get me up in high school. Do you ever wake up, close your eyes and before you look st the clock you're like "please be 8am, please don't be noon"? I hate that feeling of helplessness


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