The Awaking

This holidays, how did I manage to wake up at 7 am almost every weekday morning?

It is due to a method which surprises myself quite considerably.

This plan makes use of the nature of anxiety in humans.

I set the alarm on my handphone to 'Hat dance' to ring at 6:30 am in the morning at top volume, put it in the living room, or somewhere else far from my sleeping quarters.

Not wanting to wake up my whole family and be a potential target of complain, the moment I hear the electronic and ear piercing tune hammer onto my eardrums, I crawl (or roll depending on whether I am sleeping on the bed or floor) out of bed and head for the living room in a quick walk to shut it off.

Usually, this is not the case.

I would wake up, just as many people do, in early morning and start thinking about the time. What is the time now? How more minutes before the the alarm? And I would get a little worried because of the unknown countdown, and would eventually get up to get my handphone.

In both cases, by the time I get the handphone, I am a lot more awake than before. Either that, or the suspense of waiting it to ring would wake me up. I feel hesitant to fall asleep because I do not want to be shocked too badly when it rings. During this time, if I take a short nap again, it would be a lot easier to get out of bed because some of the getting up has already been completed. In a more sensible explanation, it is easier to get up from a short nap than from a long sleep.

Selection of ringtone is an important factor. A ringtone too mild like simple tones playing over and over again would never work. It does not create the suspense that would precede it the more it didn't ring, neither would it shock me when it plays or make me hesitant about falling into a deep sleep again should it ring and jerk me out of bed. Something too aggresive, like the thunderbolt melody I once used, shocks me far too much out of sleep when it blasts and increases my heart rate by quite a bit and suspense of waiting for it to ring is far too killing. Not a very healthy practice for long term implementation.

Another important factor is handphone distance. If I put my handphone just under the bed, I would grab for it frantically when it rings and off it within 2 seconds. And if I wake up before it rings, I would be ready to do the above anytime it rings. This does not help in making me wake up and preventing me from lazing about in bed.

In summary, anxiety preceding the noise wakes me up, not the noise itself. Noise can be blocked off the ears, but feelings are hard to. It's interesting how waking up can turn out to be such a complicated affair.