No clue how quitting waking up to an alarm ever will work but I can’t wait to try it
I don’t know about you but I hate alarms. I have tried all types: different sounds, different music, white noise and even the ones that start out at low volume and build until you shut them off. I hate them all.
I don’t understand the psychological factors but I’m more tired when I wake up to an alarm. I can sleep five or six hours, have to get up to use the bathroom and be alert and rested. And yet, if I go back to bed for another 30 minutes or so and get woken up by my alarm I’m dragging like I need another three or four hours’ sleep. It all has to be in my head. Maybe it’s a control thing.
I feel like I’m being ruled by my alarm clock if I get up when it tells me to. I know that’s a little cracked but I think somehow it factors into the equation. It’s probably just a fraction but there’s something empowering with waking up when you’re darn good and ready or when your body says its time even if that time is a little earlier than you had to get up. Then again, maybe it has something to do with setting the alarm to wake you up with just enough time to make a mad dash through the shower, into your clothes, brush your teeth and hair, put in contacts and use deodorant before you run out the door. I know my practice of not using an alarm on the weekends is bliss.
My experience is I wake up within 20-30 minutes of my normal alarm on the weekends anyway. I think we get conditioned to wake up when it’s about so light out. I also think there’s an internal clock that tells us it’s time to get out of bed. For others it’s their back that wakes them up after about so many hours. In my case it’s my knee or shoulder. Whatever the cause, the effect for me anyway is I’m much happier when I wake up on my own. I don’t drag myself out of bed. I’m not saying I leap out of bed energized to meet the day but I don’t come out with a snarl wondering what’s going to offend me next either.
Being in charge of your wake time can be the little nudge you need to make your day what you want it to be. I know my practice of always making my bed in the morning moves me along in the right direction. More and more I’m of the opinion that Richard Carlson (“Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff and It’s All Small Stuff”) was either 180 degrees out of phase or he just didn’t realize that the actual small stuff is the big stuff. Maybe I’m the one that’s off (it’s been postulated before) but these little things add up for me.
So, beginning this Thursday, no more alarms ever unless absolutely necessary (I’m thinking catching a 5:30 a.m. flight) and even then I’m hoping to wake up on my own. I’m looking forward to it and telling you how it goes.
I like freedom more than I like order. I might be an oddity in this alarm-hating thing but I think we all have wanted to smash our waker-upper a time or two. Maybe someone you know needs to know there’s a goofy guy in Omaha that has eschewed alarms all around. If so, please pass this along.
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