I believe it's a major design flaw that the common alarm clock wakes people up using sound - which is a kind of media that transmit easily in air and permeate through wall.
Recently I have been very busy and I can only take brief sessions of sleep. But it's hard to try to wake up in the middle of the night when I know my wailing alarm clock will wake up others living with me.
Google didn't help me much. There is this neat concept, but it seems that it's not even a real product.
Anyways, TL, are you familiar with any alarm clocks that wakes you up using something other than sound? If you do (or better yet, if you own one), please give me some suggestions.
EDIT: One solution which I tried today is to use my iPod as the alarm clock with ear buds plugged in. It worked, but I was very worried about me moving around while sleeping and the ear buds fell off for the whole night. One solution I am considering is going cable-free (i.e. bluetooth).
I use my cell phone on vibrate, seems to do the trick pretty well. Im a light sleeper so I just leave it somewhere on my bed and the vibrations wake me. If you are not a light sleeper I would imagine you could get pajamas with pockets or just tuck it into the waistband of your under garments if you dont toss around alot.
If you wanted to get imaginative with it though, you could hire someone to violently shake you awake every morning.
A light based alarm clock that is supposed to wake you by simulating dawn. I think they start out with low light levels increasing over time to simulate sunrise (or something).
On March 07 2011 20:28 tSaR wrote: I use my cell phone on vibrate, seems to do the trick pretty well. Im a light sleeper so I just leave it somewhere on my bed and the vibrations wake me. If you are not a light sleeper I would imagine you could get pajamas with pockets or just tuck it into the waistband of your under garments if you dont toss around alot.
If you wanted to get imaginative with it though, you could hire someone to violently shake you awake every morning.
I just tried this, and it didn't work well for me. I tried holding it on my hand as well as binding it on my arm (and other places which I believe are more sensitive), but it didn't work too well for me.
The problem is not so much that vibration does not wake me up, it's that I can't maintain tight skin contact with it. Maybe I should try this again by warping it a bit tighter to my arm, but then again, I am not sure if that's worth the effort if I can just buy one.
A light based alarm clock that is supposed to wake you by simulating dawn. I think they start out with low light levels increasing over time to simulate sunrise (or something).
This seems a bit sketchy. Since my sleep cycles does not depend on sunrise (hasn't been for years), I am skeptical that light can actually wake me up unless it's as bright as laser.
That is interesting... Immediately put the image of a comically giant hammer falling on my head to wake me up...
A quick google found me the glo pillow, which I'm sure if you googled you saw... Looked around for where to buy one, but couldn't. This site seems to sell it but idk where http://www.coroflot.com/ianwalton/glo/2?sort_by=1&
On March 07 2011 20:38 Terrix wrote: That is interesting... Immediately put the image of a comically giant hammer falling on my head to wake me up...
A quick google found me the glo pillow, which I'm sure if you googled you saw... Looked around for where to buy one, but couldn't. This site seems to sell it but idk where http://www.coroflot.com/ianwalton/glo/2?sort_by=1&
Yes I think I saw that one too. I dismissed it because I don't usually use pillows when sleeping.
The only one I saw which may work and can be bought and reasonably cheap is this one:
when i was little, i used to get up at weekends way early, like 4am-ish to play computer before my parents got up and could stop me - the way i did it was using light as well:
i had a bright as hell lamp at my bed, i think it was a 60W regular light bulb. It was connected through a timer clock power plug. I basically just clamped it up at the head end of the bed, flashing me into the face directly with full 60W insta light power at 4am. That works brilliant ^^
So: Screw wussy dawn simulators or vibration shit, just build yourself a "slap in the face" uber flash waking mechanism, works fine. ^^
i also use phone on vibrate, sorry this didnt seem to work for you, i leave it on my bed next to my pillow (half a foot from my head or so roughly) and the vibration alone wakes me up easily even on just 3-5 hours of sleep.
hmm... I was thinking of you soldering and modifying an alarm clock. Electric voltage that goes to the buzzer of the clock... now goes into you leg through the cables *ZZZZzzzZZAP!*. Feels good man, never tried such a thing, but I'm a crazy scientist
Hmm i have come to use my computer as my personal alarm clock. What i do is to schedule the playing of a specific song using the "at" command. This is of course acoustic as well but from my experience (i usually need very loud alarms to wake up) by choosing the right song (something energetic that you like at the same time but dont listen to every day) this can wake you up using a relatively low volume. The downside is of course that you have to keep your comp running through the night (mine also acts as a local server so i do not have that problem)
Oh but if you find that one you posted first available for sale somewhere please post it here that might be interesting for me too
On March 07 2011 21:48 Ation wrote: hmm... I was thinking of you soldering and modifying an alarm clock. Electric voltage that goes to the buzzer of the clock... now goes into you leg through the cables *ZZZZzzzZZAP!*. Feels good man, never tried such a thing, but I'm a crazy scientist
I actually think it's engineers that may do this. But yea, that *could* work. Slightly painful, but that *could* work....
This week I'll perhaps give the light solution a go. I have never tried it before. I wonder how I should implement this, though.
On March 07 2011 20:26 Ghostcom wrote: I think phillips and sony have both made some using light to simulate dawn...
What if you turn over in the middle of the night (to face the wall instead of the clock), or like to wrap your covers over your head (or have some other comfortable position that doesn't lend itself towards necessarily facing the clock)?
Seems very flawed, whereas sound will obviously fill the entire room and reach your ears regardless of your position on your close bed.
they light your whole room, so you don't have to be facing the clock. They usually start at a low light intensity approx 30 mins before your alarm time and gets brighter to simulate dawn. So facing the wall shouldn't be an issue, but if you wrap your head in the covers......then it probably wont work.
On March 07 2011 22:38 Lor wrote: they light your whole room, so you don't have to be facing the clock. They usually start at a low light intensity approx 30 mins before your alarm time and gets brighter to simulate dawn. So facing the wall shouldn't be an issue, but if you wrap your head in the covers......then it probably wont work.
Cool, that makes sense. I'm sure that solves the bigger of the two problems, although I would think that more people are more susceptible to waking up via sound than sight (unless maybe they're in REM sleep). I guess the whole "gradual light" part of it should make waking up a nicer experience, which is why I'm happy that I have an alarm clock that starts off low and slowly gets louder, rather than just immediate blaring
Get a fan, plug it in to a timer and set it for however many hours you want to sleep.
Put it on your nightstand or somewhere where it will blow wind onto you and you're set. A good idea would be to set a normal alarm as well, 10 minutes later just so that you are sure the first times.
I tend to wake up about 10-20 minutes before my alarm goes off. I know a few other people who are like this too... It is either because I'm stressed and thinking about when I need to wake up, or it's because I give myself the amount of time I think I'll need to sleep... I'm not really sure which.
I think theres only 5 ways to wake you up: touch, sound, vision, taste or smell.. I don't imagine the latter two do be useful. Only thing I can think of is u sleep with an ipod/earphones, or put a cellphone on vibrate under ur pillow
Before you go to sleep, check to see what time it is. After you get in bed, keep repeating in your head "I need to get up at X o'clock", at least five times, possibly more.
It's literally never failed for me.
But I'm weird.
However, iPod/cellphone earbuds seems to be the best method, maybe an over the ear type is better as it might be less likely to fall out
I have one, I like the concept and I have the phillips one. It is very buggy though from a mechanical perspective. The buttons seem to get stuck in certain modes and I've had a lot of trouble fixing it. I would return it, but I bought it from a friend when he was moving out of the country.
On March 07 2011 21:48 Ation wrote: hmm... I was thinking of you soldering and modifying an alarm clock. Electric voltage that goes to the buzzer of the clock... now goes into you leg through the cables *ZZZZzzzZZAP!*. Feels good man, never tried such a thing, but I'm a crazy scientist
I actually think it's engineers that may do this. But yea, that *could* work. Slightly painful, but that *could* work....
This week I'll perhaps give the light solution a go. I have never tried it before. I wonder how I should implement this, though.
Eh, I'm not sold that would actually work. The voltage going to the buzzer in the alarm clock is probably pretty low voltage DC; I doubt they put line voltage to it. The human skin is actually reasonably resistive at low voltages (can be as high as 100,000 ohms if dry and intact at low voltage). As such the current will end up being pretty low, probably too low to wake someone or even feel.
Also there is the fact that electrocution is very dangerous.
Has a little piece that vibrates like crazy to wake you up (you can disable sound iirc). Even if you miss your little cell phone vibrate, I doubt you're sleeping through this.
Set your alarm to play the "nuclear launch detected" alert at a low volume. This will wake you and not your roommates as long as they are not starcraft players.
On March 08 2011 05:32 Yotta wrote: Set your alarm to play the "nuclear launch detected" alert at a low volume. This will wake you and not your roommates as long as they are not starcraft players.
I use my cellphone, it has a vibrate alarm option, and It jut sits by my side, on a night table. When it vibrates, it makes a sound, enough to wake me up but not enough to wake up antbody else.
On March 08 2011 05:32 Yotta wrote: Set your alarm to play the "nuclear launch detected" alert at a low volume. This will wake you and not your roommates as long as they are not starcraft players.
Very funny, but I am not a sc player either.
Do you come to Teamliquid for entirely non-starcraft-related things?
Saw this, thought I should definitely post it here. Today's amazon deal of the day is for one of said clocks, but it's the one I have and I don't really use it since it's mechanically buggy and it only allows for a 30 minute setting which doesn't work for me: http://www.amazon.com/gp/goldbox?ref_=pe_36900_19081370
On March 07 2011 22:38 Lor wrote: they light your whole room, so you don't have to be facing the clock. They usually start at a low light intensity approx 30 mins before your alarm time and gets brighter to simulate dawn. So facing the wall shouldn't be an issue, but if you wrap your head in the covers......then it probably wont work.
Cool, that makes sense. I'm sure that solves the bigger of the two problems, although I would think that more people are more susceptible to waking up via sound than sight (unless maybe they're in REM sleep). I guess the whole "gradual light" part of it should make waking up a nicer experience, which is why I'm happy that I have an alarm clock that starts off low and slowly gets louder, rather than just immediate blaring
The Philips Wake-Up light. Uses a combination of light and sound. It starts about 30 minutes before you wake up with emitting a low glow and soft nature sounds (I believe it can also be programmed to be a radiostation) and increases this until your desired wake-up time.
In this way you wake up more rested and you won't wake up in the middle of you REM sleep leaving you with a shitty feeling after getting up.
On March 07 2011 23:49 Chef wrote: I tend to wake up about 10-20 minutes before my alarm goes off. I know a few other people who are like this too... It is either because I'm stressed and thinking about when I need to wake up, or it's because I give myself the amount of time I think I'll need to sleep... I'm not really sure which.
A light alarm clock sounds really cool tho.
I also normally wake up 10 minutes before my alarm clock goes off. I believe it has something to do with a finely tuned internal clock. Even if I don't set my alarm I can say to myself before I go to sleep "I want to wake up at X" and then I wake up at the desired time.
I went to that link for the silent alarm clock but got a little distracted by the Starcraft ghost cosplay. mmm.
Also it's an interesting concept, but eh. We've evolved to wake up to noise, so I'd still argue for normal clocks. But who knows, maybe it'll be a less annoying process waking up in the morning.
I believe it's so popular because it works pretty well. Your hearing is basically the one sense that isn't turned off (or turned down) when you're asleep.
I read somewhere awhile ago about silent alarm clocks. It didnt strike me as something new so I didn't read how it worked. (Damn I kind of wish I did for you) Do u just sleep through the beeps or do you subconsciously hit it the off button. I use to wake up turn off the clock then go right to bed. Now I set like 3 if I have something really important. I put 2 on opposite sides of the room so I have to get out of the bed to turn them off.
I think the alarm clock was a vibration alarm clock that was built into a pillow.
edit: If that doesnt work, try throwing ur phone on vibrate and shoving it in ur pillow case for a night.
On March 07 2011 20:28 tSaR wrote: I use my cell phone on vibrate, seems to do the trick pretty well. Im a light sleeper so I just leave it somewhere on my bed and the vibrations wake me. If you are not a light sleeper I would imagine you could get pajamas with pockets or just tuck it into the waistband of your under garments if you dont toss around alot.
If you wanted to get imaginative with it though, you could hire someone to violently shake you awake every morning.
I just tried this, and it didn't work well for me. I tried holding it on my hand as well as binding it on my arm (and other places which I believe are more sensitive), but it didn't work too well for me.
The problem is not so much that vibration does not wake me up, it's that I can't maintain tight skin contact with it. Maybe I should try this again by warping it a bit tighter to my arm, but then again, I am not sure if that's worth the effort if I can just buy one.
It doesn't have to make contact with your skin. Just put it under the pillow and the vibration will go right through your head. Much more effective than your hand etc. I am a really deep sleeper, and I do this every night. No problem.
EPT
