Let me preface this by making a statement which is probably true of lots of people; I am not a morning person! In fact, I actually believe that"sleeping me" and "awake me" are two separate people. "Sleeping me" is devious, and sneakily changes snooze times from five minutes to ten minutes, and sometimes even turns the alarm clock off, all to make "awake me" annoyed, and very late for work! I can count one one hand the amount of times that I have jumped out of bed without hitting snooze at least once. However, the times where I have managed this, I have noticed myself feeling less lethargic, and more productive than is usual before midday. In fact, I often find that my whole day goes a lot more smoothly when I haven't had "just five more minutes..."
Upon making this discovery, I got to thinking that the way in which you wake up is important. More specifically, I need something to help me get out of bed, and not just push "snooze" and drift back off to sleep.
Primarily, my mobile phone is my gadget of choice for reminding me of important dates, keeping my phone numbers safe, and general information storing, but I realised after a while that it is not ideal as an alarm clock. The tones are often horrendous beepy tunes, or whatever your favourite song is at the time, that you have decided to download. I can guarantee that it won't be your favourite song for long, once it blasts from your phone at 6:30 am threatening to wake the neighbours too. Plus, it's all too easy to "accidentally" turn the alarm off, and go back to sleep.
I have tried positioning an alarm clock outside of my bedroom, so that I have to get up and locate it before turning it off. I reasoned that once I was out of bed, the problem would be solved. Apparently this was not true - "Sleeping me" simply located the clock, and brought it back to bed, therefore assisting the snoozes further.
Maybe if I used a radio alarm clock, I thought, I could stay in bed for a little while after waking up without falling back asleep, as the sounds of the music and talking would keep me awake, yet relaxed. This idea was also a flop, as I still managed to drift off, perhaps because of how consistent the volume was.
Then I made a discovery - The king of alarm clocks! The brand that I have is LifeMax Sunrise Clock, and I purchased it from an eBay electronics shop for around £25.00, but I know there are other brands with varying price tags. The first time I used it, I awoke feeling fully rested, refreshed, and ready to face the day. I thought it might have been the novelty of it, but continued to notice positive results. It works by mimicking a sunrise (in your bedroom!) with a gradually brightening bulb. This way, you don't feel like you're getting up in the middle of the night. especially on dark winter mornings. This type of light is thought to alleviate SAD (seasonal affective disorder), and also, your eyes don't need to "adjust" once you open them, making waking up much more comfortable.
But that's not all! The LifeMax Sunrise Clock also allows you to choose a "natural sound" to wake you up. You can choose from tweeting birds, croaking frogs, chirping crickets, and many more, including (bizarrley!)a heartbeat. Deciding against the latter, for fear of some repressed infantile memory, I decided on ocean waves. This has been the best gadget purchase that I have made for years, as waking up happy is the start to a good day. And it doesn't end there! Because you can set the sounds at any time you like, I have used them to help drown out the sound of annoying burglar alarms that decide to malfunction at three in the morning. So all in all, it has helped me to feel much more well rested.
There is one type of alarm clock that I would still like to try though, perhaps in conjunction with the Sunrise alarm clock - a Teasmade! I can't think of anything nicer than waking up to a personal sunrise, crashing open waves, and a lovely hot cup of tea - I'd definitely stay awake then!
