Introduction
You’re late again and you have no idea how it happened. You set your alarm and went to bed at the right time, but it just didn’t go off. This is a common problem that many people face, but there’s no need to feel helpless! There are many things you can do to train yourself to wake up with an alarm and get out of bed when you need to be somewhere important. Later in this article I will tell you my own experience of how I used to set my alarm to wake me up at 5 40 everyday and how nowadays I set my alarm to wake me up at 6 40 or even at 7 40 on the weekend.
Create a realistic sleep schedule.
To prevent sleeping through your alarm, you need to create a realistic sleep schedule. This may sound like a no-brainer, but in all likelihood, your current sleep schedule is far from ideal (I used to set my alarm to wake me up at 5 40 every day, now I set my alarm to wake me up at 6 40).
For starters, set a regular bedtime and wake time each night. Your body will get used to this rhythm if you stick with it for at least two weeks (and preferably longer). If possible, set up an alarm that wakes you just before the desired wake time so that when the first alarm goes off at the designated hour, you’ll be mentally prepared for it—and thus less likely to drift back into slumberland.
You shouldn’t go to bed earlier than when you have school/work/whatever; instead of getting less sleep as some people think they should do when they’re tired or have trouble waking up on time in the morning (or both!), aim for eight hours of sleep per night (seven is also fine). Sleep deprivation can make even simple tasks more difficult; imagine how much harder it would be if those tasks were something like remembering what day it was!
Wake up at the same time every day.
- Wake up at the same time every day.
- Establish a routine that helps you to wake up at the same time each day (for example, by getting up and showering before work).
- If you sleep through your alarm, try setting it for 15 minutes earlier each morning until you reach a time that works best for you.
- You need to create a realistic sleep schedule: I used to set my alarm to wake me up at 5 40 every day, but now I set my alarm to wake me up at 6 40.
Let the sunlight in.
- Open the curtains in the morning.
- Open your windows and let in sunlight during the day.
- Keep your curtains closed at night, so that they can block out light while you sleep.
Place your alarm across the room.
- Place your alarm across the room. The best way to get yourself up is to set up your alarm so that you have to physically get out of bed in order to turn it off. If it’s right next to you, there’s no reason not to hit snooze and go back to sleep.
- Set reminders on all of your devices. Even if you don’t want a notification sound going off while everyone else is sleeping (and trust us—we sympathize), there are other ways of reminding yourself when an important event is coming up without waking the whole house in the process: Reminders on calendars, texts from friends who know how late you stay out at night…the possibilities are endless!
Keep moving once you’re awake.
It may seem counterintuitive, but getting out of bed as soon as you wake up is the best thing you can do. If your body has been in one position for several hours, it’s going to take time to fully wake up. The more time you spend lying down before getting up, the longer it will take for your body and mind to get going. By standing up right away, we’re forcing ourselves to move around and thus waking ourselves up faster (and better) than we would if we remained still. It also helps us feel more alert and energetic once we’ve gotten going with other tasks throughout our day.
Eat breakfast.
Having a healthy breakfast can make you feel more alert and focused. It keeps your metabolism running smoothly, helps with weight loss, and improves brain function.
A nutritious breakfast is essential to keeping your body running smoothly and efficiently, especially if you’re trying to lose weight or meet other goals (like getting enough sleep). A good breakfast can keep you energized throughout the day without making you feel hungry or tired later on.
Get more sleep.
Get more sleep.
Sleep is one of the most natural remedies you can use to help you get back on track. There are so many reasons why getting a good night’s rest is important, but here are just a few:
- Sleep is when your body heals itself while resting and restoring energy. If you’re not sleeping enough during the night, it’ll be harder for your body to repair itself and heal injuries or sicknesses.
- Sleep helps with weight loss by allowing the metabolism to work at its highest efficiency, which means burning more calories than usual throughout the day (even when resting).
- Sleep also helps eliminate toxins from our bodies through sweating at night while we sleep—and let’s face it—sweat smells! Getting extra sleep will allow us all one less thing to worry about when waking up in the morning…not having to wash off toxins from our skin 😉
Take natural remedies.
If you’re looking to take a more natural approach to getting your sleep patterns back on track, try taking one of the following herbs:
- Melatonin, which is sold over-the-counter as a dietary supplement and can be found in many health food stores. It’s made from plants like cowslip and corn silk.
- Valerian root is also available in health food stores. It’s been used for centuries in Europe as a remedy for insomnia and anxiety.
- Lemon balm has been used since ancient times to soothe nerves; it’s often brewed into tea or added to other beverages like water or soda. (Be careful not to overdo it—lemon balm can make some people feel queasy.) It is also available as a supplement that can be taken with water or added directly into food like soups, stews, and sauces if desired.(If you’re pregnant or breastfeeding: Do not use lemon balm without first consulting your doctor.)
See your doctor if you are still having problems with sleeping through your alarm and getting up on time.
If you are still having problems with sleeping through your alarm and getting up on time, it could be a medical problem. You should see your doctor or a sleep specialist to rule out any underlying medical conditions that may be contributing to this issue. It could also be a psychological problem. If you have been suffering from depression or anxiety, then this could potentially cause you to oversleep or not feel like getting out of bed in the morning. Medication can also make it difficult for people to wake up at the right time every day. If you think that medication is causing your sleepiness in the morning, talk to your healthcare provider about adjusting your dosage or changing medications altogether. Finally, there are various sleep disorders that can cause excessive daytime drowsiness such as insomnia and hypersomnia (excessive daytime sleeping). The most common causes of hypersomnia include narcolepsy and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).
You can train yourself to wake up with an alarm by creating a more healthy sleep schedule and routine.
The most important thing to remember about waking up with an alarm is that you need to create a healthy sleep schedule and routine. Waking up at the same time every day will help you get into a rhythm, which will eventually make it easier for you to wake up on your own each morning. Make sure that you are getting enough sleep—7–9 hours is ideal—and that your room is dark when it’s time to go to bed so that your body knows when it’s time for rest. If possible, try getting sunlight in the morning so that your body can produce melatonin naturally (which helps regulate sleep cycles).
Sleep experts recommend getting out of bed as soon as possible after waking up if possible; otherwise, they suggest setting an alarm 40 minutes later than usual and marking this time on a calendar so that you can keep track of how long it takes before you’re able to wake naturally. Be patient with yourself—it may take several days or even weeks for this method to work fully!
My experience
I’ve always been a morning person. In fact, I used to set my alarm to wake me up at 5 40 am every day without fail—and I’d be awake and alert! But now that I’m in my late 20 and my body has begun slowing down in the morning. So if you’re suffering from the same problem, here’s what worked for me.
It was kind of scary
When I set the alarm to wake me up at 5:40 am, I was afraid. Not only was I worried that I would be tired all morning and late for work, but also that being awake at such an early hour would be terrifying. Fortunately, the actual experience of waking up at this hour wasn’t as terrifying as I’d imagined it might be but the truth is, that schedule was not working for me. Nowadays I set my alarm for 6 40 or on the weekends I set my alarm to wake me up at 7 30 and I am feeling more refreshed during the day.
The first few mornings were actually kind of nice—I felt energized and refreshed after my newfound routine of going to bed earlier than usual (often around 10 pm). However, after about a week of setting my alarm to wake me up at 5:40 am every day without fail, my body adjusted to this new schedule and began craving its normal amount of sleep again. Nowadays if I don’t go to bed until 9 pm or later after a long day at work then when my alarm goes off in the morning it feels like torture!
All those early mornings are catching up with me
The truth is, even though I’ve been waking up at 5:40 every morning, it’s not really working for me.
All those early mornings are catching up with me. I feel tired all the time and that means I’m not getting enough sleep, which means my brain isn’t working properly and I’m not doing the things that make me happy because of how tired I am from not sleeping enough. And then there’s the fact that when we wake up so early in the morning it makes everything else seem like it happens later than it actually does: eating lunch feels like only twelve hours after breakfast; reading an article online feels like two hours before bedtime; going on a walk sounds like something that should happen three nights from now instead of just tonight—and even then, once you get home from walking around outside (which is pretty much impossible if you’re awake at 5:40), there are still another four hours until bedtime!
Now, I have a different schedule and is working much better for me. To set my alarm to wake me up at 6 40 or 7 30 on the weekend improved my quality of life like I never imagined before.
I just kept snoozing
If you’re anything like me, hitting the snooze button several times is a part of your morning routine. I kept hoping that someone else would wake up and get things started for me. It’s probably obvious by now that I’m not a morning person anymore.
When I was younger, I’d find myself in bed until 10 am or later on some days. By this point in my life though, my body had become accustomed to waking up early and set my alarm for 6 40 because of its natural circadian rhythms (or “circadian clock”). Even so…there are still mornings when everything feels wrong about being awake at such an early hour!
I’ve heard people say “Getting up early is hard.” But let me tell you something: If someone can convince themselves that their alarm clock isn’t real and turn off their alarm clock multiple times before finally getting out of bed…then they won’t have any problems with waking up early!
I used to be a morning person, but now I get tired really easily and wake up so slowly every day
I used to be a morning person, but now I get tired really easily and wake up so slowly every day. I can’t be the only one who has experienced this.
When I was younger, I used to set my alarm to wake me up at 5 40 am every day to go to the gym for an hour or two before work. Now that I’m older and have a full-time job, my body has changed how it reacts with time zones and daylight savings changes. Even though it’s summertime here it still takes me at least 20 minutes longer than usual just to get out of bed each day because my body is still set on a different schedule than everyone else’s around me!
It may seem like you’re waking up later than ever before, but there are actually plenty of other people who are having similar problems as yours right now too – so don’t feel alone!
Did you know that there are only two sleep cycles in a night?
Did you know that there are only two sleep cycles in a night?
The first cycle consists of light sleep and then deep sleep, with REM (rapid eye movement) taking place at the end of each cycle. The second cycle is a repeat of the first with deeper levels of REM. In this way, it’s possible to get up to eight hours worth of healthy restful sleep in one night.
Sleep cycles last between 90 minutes and two hours each—though they vary depending on our age, sex, stress levels and other factors. They also help us remember what we’ve learned during the day by storing new information in short-term memory as well as strengthening connections between brain cells so that we can retain those memories over time through long-term storage processes.
Most people wake up in the middle of a sleep cycle, which is why you can feel groggy or disoriented when you wake up.
When you wake up in the middle of a sleep cycle, your body is confused and can’t tell whether it should be awake or asleep. You feel groggy, disoriented and unrested. It’s not uncommon to hear people say they feel like they just woke up from a deep sleep even though they have been up for hours.
This happens because our body has an internal clock that regulates when we should be sleeping and when we should be awake. When we are asleep, our brain produces melatonin in order to help us fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer at night. Melatonin also helps regulate our circadian rhythms which regulate how much melatonin is produced every day. Every human being has their own unique circadian rhythm which means some people naturally go to bed earlier than others (and vice versa).
The first sleep cycle is the shortest one, so if you set your alarm to go off before the end of it, you won’t feel as bad when you wake up.
Waking up in the middle of a sleep cycle is not ideal, as your body needs time to get out of it. By waking up during this stage, you’re likely to feel groggy and disoriented.
As opposed to waking up right before the end of a sleep cycle (which can leave you feeling refreshed), waking up in the middle makes it more difficult for us to adjust quickly enough for our brain and body to be fully awake by the time we need to get out of bed.
So now I’m back to waking up at 6 40 am, because getting out of bed at 5 40 am was too much to ask of myself.
So now I wake up at 6 40 am, because setting my alarm to wake me up at 5 40 am was too much to ask of myself. But if you’re one of those lucky people who are able to wake up at the crack of dawn, I salute you. And for those who are struggling with their own sleep habits and want some advice on how to improve them:
- Start by tracking how much time you spend sleeping each night. Use an app like Sleep Cycle or SleepBot and record how long it took you from when you laid down until when your alarm went off in the morning (or whenever). This is helpful because it allows us all — whether we’re early birds or not — a baseline for what our natural sleep patterns are like.
- When trying anything new, start small! If there’s any chance that trying something drastic might make things worse instead of better (like going from 7 hours per night down to 4), then don’t do it right away — give yourself time first so that if things go south later on down the road there isn’t too much damage done; this applies with exercise programs as well as diet changes and anything else involving health/fitness related activities (including weight loss).
Waking up at 5 40 am wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, but it still wasn’t easy for me to do, so I’ll stick with 6 40 for now!
Setting my alarm to wake me up at 5 40 am wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, but it still wasn’t easy for me to do, so I’ll stick setting my alarm to wake me up at 6 40 or at 7 30 on the weekened for now!
I’m going to try to be more consistent about waking up at the same time every day so that my body will get used to this new schedule and things will get easier.
Conclusion
And that’s it for my experiment! It was a fun experience and I learned a lot about myself, but now that I’m back to waking up at 6 40 am, I think I’ll stick with it for a while.
There’s no reason you can’t learn to wake up on time with an alarm. After all, it is only a matter of habit! You don’t have to be perfect at this right away—just keep trying and eventually you will get there. Remember that exercise, eating breakfast, and getting more sleep are all helpful tools for anyone who wants to wake up early in the morning. If you find yourself struggling with these things even after trying our tips above, please see your doctor as soon as possible so they can help figure out what is causing your problem and how best to solve it.
Check out my article 6 Modern Health Risks That Are Linked to Insomnia.
