I have been using the alarm on my telephone for the last 4 or 5 months to help me wake up at a regular time every morning.
Background: I used to throw 400 to 500 newspapers every morning ( did it for 9 1/2 years, maybe missing 6 days in that whole period of time) and had to get up at 1 to 2am in the middle of the night. It got to where I would wake up before my alarm would go off, sometimes in a panic that I had over slept. Frequently my alarm would startle me awake as well. Thus I disliked alarms and tried not used one once I stopped throwing newspapers for a while unless I had to, which meant some mornings I forgot to set one when I should have. Even though I haven't done this job for over 6years, I still sometimes would wake up startled that I might have over slept and then fight to get myself to go back to sleep.
Well my consistent alarm going off at 6:24am method has worked pretty well and although I still sometimes wake in the middle of the night, I don't worry if I've overslept (see PS for a recent exception). Weekends a second alarm goes off at 8am, if I decide to sleep in, but not too late mind you. : ) It really has helped with the sleeping habits.
So I made this suggestion to my Mom the other day (She has been dealing with waking up at 1 and 2 and 3 o,clock in the morning and not able to go back to sleep for the last 2 years) and even helped her set her alarm and wah lah - it worked! She actually slept until 6:30 am for the first time in what to her feels like forever. She reported this to my sister Donalyn, who says to me today, "what a stroke of genius!" to which I gratefully acknowledge came from inspiration, not of my own genius. None-the-less. I'm thankful for alarm clocks. What a crazy thing to spend time worrying about, whether or not we will over sleep, let alone the anxiety of over-sleeping the next 3 months of life, at the cost of very poor sleep in exchange. How silly we are about what we worry about sometimes.
PS: Last week I fell asleep while I was reading a book and didn't get the light turned off. I woke up about 3:30, but as is my pattern laid there with my eyes closed without looking at the clock. I know my alarm had not gone off, so I just relax and try to go back to sleep. However, it sure did seem pretty light behind my eyelids. Way too bright for the 6:30am time my alarm goes off to get up. The longer I laid there with the bright light behind my eyelids the more anxious I got worrying about the fact the perhaps my alarm had not gone off!!!? What if I have overslept and am late for work . .. It is a work day right?!!!!! So I pop my eyes open and look at the clock. 3:30!!!!! In the afternoon? What? Oh it says AM . . . . Then I realize the light is on! Good grief! I get out of bed, turn the light off and go back to bed (in the dark it really was). Gratefully I fell back to sleep easily. I wonder what woke me up in the first place? Oh well. I was sure tired! : )
