Ding A Ling A Ling! What Gets You Up in the Morning? (ow Far Do YOU Throw Your Alarm Clock?)

Hey Everyone,

Even though I have chronic insomnia, my system usually wants to wake up at 4:30 in the morning. As I like awake catching up on things like the news and CC, I sometimes here the alarm clock in the apartment next door go off -- and I smile to myself at how long it sometimes take the poor person to shut it off.

If I'm feeling extra motivated, I'll get up and go for a walk around my apartment complex before I start my day, and often hear the ringing of alarm clocks from behind the doors and windows... A few days ago, I heard one alarm going off -- and it was still going off when I walked by again, about 15 minutes later. The poor person -- I prayed that they would be able to get the extra sleep they need.

I'm always paranoid about being on time (preferably 30 minutes early,) so before the days of having a phone, I would set two alarms -- one that ran on batteries, and one that ran on electricity. I always had a backup just in case either the batteries ran out in one clock or the electricity went out to the other.

These says, I set 2-3 alarm notices on my phone. And if it's REALLY important, I'll still set an old-fashioned alarm clock, just in case.

Thankfully, I'm usually the person who's able to turn off my alarm almost immediately, and my insomnia keeps me awake. But I always wonder what other people, especially those who rely on the "Snooze" button or aren't morning people, do to cope.

* What kinds of alarms/systems do you need to wake yourself up in the morning? Alarm clocks? Your phone? The fact that someone else in the household gets up before you?

* Do you have a pet or other living being that routinely wakes you up?

* Do you naturally wake up as the sun floods through your room? (What do you do in winter?)

* If you're someone who has a really hard time waking up, do you have to take drastic measures? (Like those alarm clocks that roll away from you if you don't shut it off?)

I'm always interested in hearing about people's relationships -- this time, I'd like to hear about the relationship between you and your alarm clock.

Dang nab it.

I accidentally posted the thread before I could fix the typo in the title and add some funny alarm clock memes... Rather than asking poor OnceFallen to delete the thread and start over, I'll just post a few helpful visuals here.

(As you can see, my "natural alarm" went off at about 4:30 this morning... But I'm still really tired and not quite awake.)







Feel free to post in words, pictures, or memes about what YOUR reaction is to your alarm going off in the morning!

I go to bed about 8 or 9pm and get up about 4am. I don't go to w*rk until 9am. What are these alarm things y'all keep talking about?

I always wake up whenever I wake up, have a good breakfast, shower, and sometimes complete three side quests on a video game before I go to w*rk.

My life does remind me of what a comedian said though.


Comedian quote:

If you want a real addiction, try early bedtime. THAT'S addictive. Start going to bed at 10pm, "Oooh, where has this been all my life?"

10pm is the gateway drug to 9:30. Soon you're curling up at 9.

8pm, that's the overdose of early bedtime. You wake up at 3:30am, out on the street with all the other addicts. Peering in the windows of the closed coffee shops... "They'll be open in another couple hours."

i use the power of mind to wake up. when i was 16, i read an article in the reader's digest about training your mind to wake up when you want. the article was very interesting to me as i have an attraction to mind power. that was my 1st experience with mind power. i repeated many times just when i went to bed, the time i wanted to wake up which at the time, was 7:00. 1st day, i woke up about 6:35, 2nd day around 6:45, 3rd day: 6:55, 4th day, 7:00 & for the rest of my life, i woke up when i wanted to. from there, i learned other habits concerning time that assist in my daily schedule. in the summer time, i wake up by light, early in the a.m.

I typically go to bed and get up early. Unless I have something scheduled for early in the morning I don't set an alarm. I usually get up between 4 and 5 and the first thing I do is go for a jog. Since I lived in Fairbanks AK most of my life, the sun or a bright moon doesn't bother me sleep-wise.

I rely on waking up every so often LOL although I did sleep in this morning... it is a day off so hardly matters that I slept until the time I would normally start work, partially because I have been away from home at my daughter's place cat-sitting her felines while she holidays with her aunt and their canines... which translates into not sleeping as well as usual, which, come to think of it, is not that great to begin with heh. I have a Goldilocks situation going on with the beds here... my daughter's bed is too small, and auntie's bed is too soft, and the couch is too narrow LOLOLOLOLOLOL. I would normally sleep in my daughter's bed (this is my fourth stint cat-sitting for her since her dad passed away) but her newest cat has a broken tail and is on drugs for nerve damage pain and other issues related to that, which makes her stumble-bumble and slow moving at times - a dead weight when being held or sleeping. That contributes to my fear of hurting her if and when I shift my weight while half or even fully asleep, since her reflexes are slow-to-non-existent while she is on this drug cocktail. My own cat is very quick to move when I move, if she is close to me in bed, but I cannot sleep with her here unless I am on the couch which is not good for my back. Ugh! Life is complicated!!! I have Cadillac problems, I am aware... I have slowly been introducing all the cats to each other, and all four of us are in the same enclosed space for the second time, with no fur flying so far...

My bedroom drapes are closed at all times to keep it as dark as possible, though ambient light comes
in from the living room, as I must leave the bedroom door ajar so my cat can come and go freely...

What I do have is a clock radio, and the last time I know for sure I used it as a waking device of any kind on a regular basis was almost ten years ago. One morning I awoke to the CBC as per usual, and they were playing a song I had never heard before, so I made note of the artist (before snoozing some more LOL) and then looked her up. So impressed was I with her body of work, that two weeks later I went to see her in concert.


I have never heard of such clocks! My daughter did comment to me recently that she has no idea how
I get to work on time not using an alarm clock or any other device to make sure I wake up on time.
My cat does not normally wake me up, either, thank goodness! I have heard of such animals LOL

I've talked to a lot of people who don't need alarms and just wake up naturally when they need to wake up.

Although my internal "clock" is fairly reliable, because of my insomnia, I never know when I'm going to have an "odd" day or night when things get thrown off, so I've always set alarms as an insurance policy.

I admire the people who never need an external backup -- and I can't help but think of how many alarm clock-makers they would put out of business!

This image reminds me of how a co-worker used to grumble that I was "too dang perky" in the morning.

Lol! (Not every morning. But on a select few...)

I wake up at 0600 hours no matter when I go to bed and there’s no alarm clock involved lol.

I've got three alarms (one phone and two older kindle pads). They are set monday through friday at 325a, 326a, and 330a... I do that in case one of them happens to shut down at night. Usually I'm up before they go off. During the weekends, I'm up between 3a and 4a out of habit...

How old are you people?😂

My mother is 66 and is up at 0500 every morning.

Uh oh...

Susanna is on to us.

Assume your positions everyone!!!

Nothing to see here.



Oh look!!! I think I got a Bingo!!!



Thank goodness I woke up early or I might not have had enough energy to pay that much attention!

So I suffer from insomnia as well so I take sleep aid meds to fall asleep I guess the dosage is fair since I wake up around 7am fully rested and awake. I don't need alarm clocks but my dog wakes me up and begs me to take her out to do her business outside and its a drag but eventually I get the hang of it so we basically have a routine other than that I can't stand the sun when its hits the window luckily I have a thick dark curtain so that helps. I love the winter so much sometimes I be waking up more energized because I love the chilly weather (gets me more motivated).

I've dealt with insomnia since I was 13.
I worked nights for 30 years so it wasn't much of a problem unless you looked for me awake during the day.
These days I'm kind of all over the place but , I always wake up between 3 and 4 no alarm needed.
I usually go for a walk to get my blood flowing and my head working.
With daytime temps at 100+ thats the best time to go.
When my alarm does go off its an anoying rooster that sounds sick and screetches loud so i turn it off quickly.

I seem to have developed cyclical habits that follow the seasons. I go to bed late and get up early in the spring, go to bed early and get up late in the summer, go to bed early and get up early in the fall, and go to bed at a normal hour and get up at a normal hour in the winter. I am in tune with the seasons as I work on a farm. I am not sure this is good or normal but it works pretty well for me.

Ah, a farmer...

I knew a farmer once who said he goes to bed with the chickens. Another guy said that was silly... His family made the chickens sleep outside in their own coop.

We try to be in bed by 11 pm. Get up at 6 am. Every day. I have an alarm on my phone, but on most days, I wake up 10-15 mins before it goes off. 🫠

Toward the end of my working career I got up at 4:30am and was at work at 6:30am as I worked 4 10 hour days Mon-Thurs and had three day weekend.

I would shower, do my daily devotions and be at work early and got a lot of things done from 6:30 to 8:00am which was the normal start to work. Worked at a stock and bond business and it was a mad house most days they called the open floor the bull pen all open with many desks and people everywhere.

It was so noisy when I first started I cried every night when I went home for about a week as I just wasn't used to it, but at the end of my 25 years there I could work through anything and nothing bothered me.

Now days having been retired since June of 2013 I get up when I want and plan all my Doctor or lab appointments after 10 am. Trained myself to be like a teenager and sleep later. Tourist goes to bed around 6pm and gets up shortly after I go to bed which is late for me and too early for him. You could say we are like night and day. Some might even wonder how our marriage works since we are so opposite. I think we pick up where the other one lacks.

Some of our differences. He was raised Catholic and I was raised Seventh-Day-Adventist, he is a Republican and I am a Democrat, he goes to bed way too early and I go to bed way too late.

The thing is we agree on the major stuff like loving God and trying to treat people well and fair.