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If there's a life-or-death situation that I absolutely cannot miss, I'll set two alarms 15 minutes apart.
But in all honestly, you should be able to wake up fresh without even having an alarm. It requires that you practice good sleep habits, including a consistent sleep schedule.
In college, this came down to me finally crossing the bridge to being an adult, and agreeing with myself that the alarm would go off, and I would wake up. When I went to sleep, how distracted I was at night, and why and when I was getting up were all on me, but I had to get up to the alarm. It changed my thinking knowing no magical parent was going to force me to get up. I either went to the morning class, or failed the class.
I personally use Sleep as Android which comes with a bunch of options to help ensure you've actually woken up. I utilize the "captcha" option in which when I go to turn off the alarm, it displays a screen full of sheep and all of them but one are sleeping - you have to click the one that is "awake" in order to dismiss the alarm. I guess the process wakes up my brain just enough so that I don't go back to sleep, whereas with a regular alarm that has just a simple dismiss button I'll absolutely either hit dismiss or one of the volume buttons to turn off the alarm before I've fully woken up.
I also have it set to buzz on my watch for 90 seconds before playing a sound on my phone (which escalates in volume) - I've not had a problem waking up with this in the years that I've been using it.
There are other options too, such as answering math questions, scanning a QR code, pressing your phone to an NFC tag, heavily shaking the phone, one called "Say cheese!" that makes you smile as hard as you can and uses the camera to detect it, and one that you have to "laugh out loud".
Get some smart bulbs and set them to a timer. The lights coming on helps wake you up naturally since your body thinks the sun is coming up.
It sounds really counter intuitive, but wake up slower. It's really easy for me to startle awake just enough completely turn off my alarm, not just snooze, and fall back asleep hard. If I wake up to an alarm that slowly increases in volume from barely audible, then I tend to wake up much more gently and slower. That little bit of extra time means makes it much harder to fall back asleep and by the time I reach for my alarm to silence or even snooze it. I'm clear headed enough to not either actually snooze the alarm instead of turning it off or be awake enough to not fall back asleep at all. Going from awake straight to sitting up or standing is super stressful and just makes everything awful. Being mostly awake before my head even leaves the pillow is much less stressful.
If you're going to bed with music or sound, make sure it's at a barely audible level or shuts off after you fall asleep. Otherwise your brain gets used to tuning out the noise and will tune out your alarm
Despite the name being stupid, Alarm Clock Extreme is a great app. I paid for it years ago, and have recently paid for it again due to it being bought out by another company. I do not feel cheated by this fact. It's been worth it.
If you are sleeping so heavily that you sleep through your alarm every time, you probably aren't getting enough sleep. Go to bed earlier.
And if you are getting 7-9 hours and still having this issue, please ask your doctor about sleep apnea.
That’s a wrap folks. These 2 are the most likely answers.
No sure shot but it does sound like it's not the alarm that's the problem. You've trained yourself to be able to ignore your alarm, that it doesn't mean "get-out-of-bed" time to your unconscious brain. Change the alarm tone on your phone and have a few practice sessions. Set your new alarms after a short nap and as soon as those alarms go off throw off all the covers and stand up fully as soon as you can. The idea is to retrain your brain to get up all the way at the sound of that alarm.
Another thing that's really helped me personally is installing a smart light bulb that turns itself on just before my sound alarms start going off. That way I'm not trying to force myself awake in a dark noisy room.
I use an old standalone alarm clock, that I put on the other side of the room. So I have to get up to turn it off.
And if it’s not loud enough put it in a small metal pan or bowl, and place that inside a partially opened dresser drawer. Amplifies it quite a bit in addition to your suggestion to physically get up to turn it off.
Put your phone/alarm somewhere that makes you get up to turn it off. Then you're already out of bed.
Go to bed earlier. If you're frequently sleeping through your alarms or falling asleep immediately after turning them off, then you're not getting enough sleep. Any tips and tricks like "two alarms 5 minutes apart" or "drink water before bed so you have to pee when you wake up" will only get you so far where sleep deprivation is concerned.
Turn the volume up on your alarms, and pick an annoying ring tone helps a lot. As well setting the phone away from the bed if you're able to.
I use a smart alarm app. It uses your mic to track your breathing, and uses that information to identify when you're in deeper and lighter phases of sleep. You set a range of time for the alarm, and when it detects you coming out of a deep cycle it starts the alarm. I've always slept through alarms, and this works like a dream.
Be super anxious that your spouse is going to start belittling you for not getting anything done so that the moment movement anywhere in the house happens you bolt awake and start cleaning something, get a divorce, move to a new house so all the noises are different and everything sets off the "oh fuck I need to wake up and clean" response, then carry that anxiety over to assuming your super caring new roommate is going to secretly hate you unless you're always awake and cleaning something. Worked for me anyway I can wake up hours earlier than I used to I don't even need an alarm
There are devices that literally shake the bed to wake up a sleeper. Most often used by deaf or hard-of-hearing people for whom audio alarms are non-starters, but it could work for you if you're actually sleeping through and not snoozing. There are a few that work on smells as well.
They also have strobe light alarm clocks for the same reason. Get both and turn your wake up routine into a rave.
Practice getting up in response to your alarm.
Seriously.
Once or twice a day, in the middle of the day, go lay down in bed, like you're going to sleep, and set your alarm for maybe 5-10 minutes. The moment it goes off, shut it off and stand up. Teach your body the habit of standing up, immediately, in response to the alarm. So long as you're getting enough sleep, you'll start doing it in the morning, on reflex.
Does this occur even after a few nights of proper sleep?
If you generally sleep enough and don't have other sleeping problems you could try to change the ringtone. Or if you are like me and turn off the alarm half a sleep and don't remember it, put your alarms further away from your bed.
Well, it mostly depends on why you're missing them.
Believe it or not, sometimes there's nothing you can do. Some people will sleep through any noises at all, though it's really unusual.
Most likely, your brain is telling you that you aren't sleeping enough by refusing to react to the stimulus.
So you gotta fix what's wrong. If you're staying up late, begin rest earlier, even if you don't sleep earlier (which can be the case for some types of insomnia). Just being in dark/low light with as little external stimulus as possible can help your brain and body "recharge" a little even when you don't sleep enough. That's a short term fix, you'll eventually need to figure out what to do to address the insomnia directly.
If you're not staying asleep it's harder to address without outside help. Tbh, it isn't usually something that you can crowd source an answer for just because there's too many possibilities. A sleep study tends to end up being the real answer. But you can try various meditative methods when you wake up to help drop back out faster, if you're waking up enough to do so.
The major problem comes in when you can't tell you're waking up, or are just sleeping so poorly that it amounts to the same thing. Apnea is a bitch like that, so you'd want to rule it out one way or another.
All of that being said, you can also try vibration based alarms, like the kind that go under the mattress or pillow. There's also wrist and headband based ones. Sometimes, especially if your brain is just inviting the alarms because it's pissy about ignoring sounds, tactile stimulation gets the job done because our brains process it differently, and it's harder to filter out past a point.
I would try getting more and better sleep as the primary fix though. Get to bed earlier, make sure you minimize light and noise, and learn some techniques like progressive relaxation and deep, controlled breathing. If you need background sound, err on the side of "white noise" over music, but music will do in a pinch as long as it's on a timer so it doesn't interfere with the sound of the alarm later.
Make sure you aren't snoring heavy, and if you are, address that. The problem is that it often takes a ton of experimentation to figure out what actually helps you. Snoring isn't the same as apnea, necessarily, but it does disturb your sleep sometimes.
Avoid stimulants at least 4 hours before bed. No caffeine, no tobacco, no meth (the last is mostly a joke, but check that any prescription meds or OTC meds aren't stimulants).
And, obviously, if you can, talk to your doctor about a sleep study.
Thank you for a well thought out response to the op
There is an app called Sleep As Android that I used to use. You put your phone on your bed next to you and it tries to determine what level of sleep you’re in. You tell it when you’d like to get up and if it detects that you’re in a lighter stage of sleep within a certain amount of time before that, it triggers the alarm. You’re then more likely to hear it, and more likely to feel rested, than if it went off like, twenty minutes later.
Also played nice with WearOS watches.
I’m really sensitive to light when I sleep. I’ve got blackout curtains, no annoying little lights on any devices, the usual. One of the advantages is that by having a smart light bulb set to gradually turn on alongside my alarm, it really wakes me the hell up. Maybe try incorporating a light to yours?
Check your settings to see if the alarm isn't giving up after a set amount of time, had this happen to me. Try changing the ringtone to a song you hate and putting it the furthest away you can inside your room so you have to get up.
I use an app called AMDroid, it makes me do math in my head before I can shut it off. Works every time.
I too use AMDroid math questions but for snoozing.
Too disable the alarm i have to get up, walk to the bathroom and scan a QR-Code next to the mirror.
I personally use sleep as android for my wake up alarm when I really need to get up. Has various options that help me. Like forcing me to get out of bed to scan a QR code to dismiss the alarm. Among other great things.
I second this, been using it for years.
The smart alarm feature that senses when you're already moving around a bit is great too, especially when used with a smart watch/fitness band of some kind
Sleeping earlier should help, if the issue is falling asleep earlier, consider light exercise a couple hours before trying to sleep. I'm personally not a big fan of medicated sleep assist, but some people may need it.
I used to be a very deep sleeper. The things that helped me wake up on time were making sure I was tired enough at the end of each day to sleep soundly, and getting up at the same time daily. I usually wake up a bit before my alarm goes off these days.
Drink a full glass of water before bed, eventually you'll learn how much to drink to wake you at about the correct time. I used to be absolutely dead to the world while sleeping, I even needed a shock bracelet to wake me. Drinking water was one method I used though.
I use an app called QR alarm or something. It only turns off when I scan its QR code which I've pinned to the other side of the room. Having to get up and actually think about scanning something helps me more than when I just used an alarm clock across the room
Android lets you set custom alarms. The best one I have is a recoding of me screaming into my phone to "get the fuck up"
When do you go to sleep?
I wish I could sleep in past 6. We are all wired differently. It may never be easy for you to do. Your best bet is to shift your sleeping time forward by an hour or so. Once your mind gets used to it hopefully the alarm will do a better job.
My hack was to get older and have a couple of kids that wear you out, fall asleep on the couch around 9:30 and get up daily around 5:30am without an alarm because your body says you slept enough.
All jokes aside, start sticking to a consistent sleep schedule and your body will wake itself up, no phones or alarms required.
I had the same problem, and the solution that worked best for me was to buy a vibrating alarm clock for the hearing impared.
I put it under the mattress topper so there is no way I can ignore or snooze it without getting out of bed.
Back in the '90s when we were teenagers, my sister had to get the loudest possible alarms you could find and set it up on a dresser on the far side of her bedroom.
Personally, I always set two alarms when it's time to get up. Put the loudest, most obnoxious ringtone on you can think of, set them to repeat every 5 minutes, and offset them by a few minutes so that you're basically getting an annoying alarm every 2 to 3 minutes. I taught this trick to my fiancee because she's a heavy sleeper and a reluctant waker too. You can combine both tricks too if you need to.
I forget the name of it, but back before I got old and started waking up consistently before the alarm went off, I had an alarm clock app that made you do math problems in order to shut it off or snooze it. They got progressively harder with each snooze, so you eventually had to actually wake up.
Can't get you out of bed, but it can definitely force your brain to kick into gear which usually kept me from falling back asleep.
Vibrating smart watch seems to do the trick for me.
Smart alarms on a smart watch. Set a time window where it'll wake you up at an optimal time in your sleep cycle. Been using the one built into Sleep as Android for years, which another person also mentioned, but a lot of smart watches have smart alarms built in
There are alarm clocks that have a lamp built in, and instead of a loud alarm they play things like birdsong and rushing water at increasing volumes while brightening up the lamp to simulate dawn. I much prefer that to a nuclear launch siren, when I have to use an alarm. I don't like to post shopping links because I'm not an ad machine, but if you search around for "gentle wakeup alarm light" you'll definitely find some.
1. Set even more alarms. Annoy yourself into being awake. Identify when you want to be awake, and start your first alarms at that time. Increase frequency as you approach the time you need to be awake. Make your wake up time harder to ignore.
2. Involve multiple senses. Sound alone isn't doing it? Add sight, touch, taste, or smell to your alarm regimen. There are several products that can do these kinds of things. For example, I have Home Assistant turn on my room lights to full when my phone alarm goes off, and I could easily add a diffuser, or a vibrator under my mattress. Bonus points if it takes multiple steps to reset your alarm. Which leads me to...
3. Increase alarm reset difficulty. The more you have to conciously engage your brain to reset your room to sleep mode, the harder it will be for your brain to automate the snooze button. Put your phone across the room, use an app that continues to scream until you scan a QR code in another room or solve math problems, make a deal with your partner that they get to spray you with cold water unless you correctly answer these riddles three, anything. Make it difficult for your brain to remain in sleep mode when your alarm goes off.
4. Enlist the humans in your life to help. Ask, cajole, or haggle with your parent, partner, sibling, roommate, friend, or whoever else you've got available to help you wake up. Be it pleasurable reward or punishing annoyance, whatever they can do that is hard to ignore and can get you going will be better than one phone screaming into the void.
5. #4 part 2: Involve medical professionals. Sleep is a process that involves your body, and when your body isn't working as you expect, you take it to the Body Shop. If nothing is working, talk to your doctor about your struggles with waking up when you want. They can help you narrow down the root cause and supply treatment if necessary. This treatment can range from sleep hygene coaching, to OTC medication recommendations, to prescription medication addition or adjustments, or even doing a whole-ass inpatient sleep study to figure out what's going on. If nothing else is working, present your problem to a licensed Professional Human Animal Mechanic.
6. Don't give up. This is a problem that can be addressed. It may take adjustments to your life that are unusual or unpleasant, but remember that, just like exercise, you are trading one unsustainable unpleasantness (i.e.: employment problems due to chronic tardiness), for another sustainable unpleasantness (i.e.: going to bed earlier, or changing your sleep environment)