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MatthewBaker comments on The True Rejection Challenge - Less Wrong
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I cannot wake up on time for things more than 80% of the time even once my circadian rhythm is set in place. Ive tried alarm clock in the closet>two alarms everything my body always seems to bypass the issue. Does anyone have some methods i may not have tried yet?
I don't have this problem, but I'm told this article is excellent: How to Get Up Right Away When Your Alarm Goes Off
Tried it: Works!
This seems very useful, i shall try it. EDIT: I haven't been more than 3 minutes late for two weeks so far. By tricking yourself out of bed and moving faster it really makes it easier to get up.. Thank you so much Taryneast :)
If the clocks are enough to make you wake up even for a brief moment (but not enough to keep you awake), try having a supply of caffeine pills next to your bed, and take one when the first alarm rings. Then sleep for half an hour more and get up.
That's worked for me for several years, though my difficulties in getting up were nowhere as serious as yours.
Part of the problem could be that your alarm is waking you up at a bad part of your sleep cycle. The times when you wake up more smoothly could be times when your alarm happens to sound during a phase when you are less deeply asleep. There are apps (like Sleep Cycle on the iPhone) and devices that track your sleep cycle and make the alarm go off at the appropriate part of your sleep cycle.
Have you got friends or roomies who would be willing to help? Every time I ask someone to ensure I'm awake at a specific time, I wake up before my alarm AND before the friend wakes me up. Though it is only a trick I use for important occasions, it has a perfect success rate for me.
If you can't get someone to help, and you are capable of receiving phone calls, depending on time zone and time of day, I would be willing to give you the occasional wake-up call.
I use friends sometimes, but they have to remember or i can sleep through the alarm.
There is a device called a "zeos" (http://www.amazon.com/Zeo-ZEOBP01-Personal-Sleep-Coach/dp/B002IY65V4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1309340321&sr=8-1) that is basically a low-rent EEG that can do the math and wake you at the optimal part of your sleep cycle. Yeah, it's kinda expensive, but I'm trying to talk myself into buying one.
Beyond just waking you at the appropriate part of your sleep cycle you can also use it in conjunction with a food/sleep diary to track how changes in your life patterns effect your sleep.
I just finished reading 4 hour body (Tim Ferriss) where he mentioned this, and one thing he mentioned was that eating a high-protein snack (he recommended tablespoons (or was it teaspoons?)) of almond butter right before bed lead to better sleep, and less problems waking up (he attributed this to low blood sugar in the AM, which might be). (I also learned about the zeos in his book).
When i am no longer a poor college student i will try this. As for the food, ive never noticed how certain foods affect my sleep probably because ive never held all operational variables except it steady while ive tested it. I will try to take an almond butter celery snack when waking up is more imperative.
I have the same issue. My current patch is to have ten alarms set on my phone and one on my alarm clock at ten minute intervals starting from the half hour or so before I have to wake up.
Even still, it's a struggle.
Now, is it a matter of not getting a sufficient amount or sufficiently restful sleep? Or is it inability to wake on time regardless of how much sleep you get?
Regardless of how much sleep i get. Sometimes its easier to get up on 4 or 6 hours of sleep and harder on 8-10, but as you said it's a struggle.
I read somewhere, several years ago, that for most people, getting up after less than 3 hours of sleep is fairly easy, and getting up after more than 6 hours of sleep is fairly easy, but getting up after more three but less than six hours of sleep is very hard - the model was something along the lines of 'after three hours of sleep, human brains assume that there's time for a full night's worth of sleep rather than just a nap'.
I don't have any references, nor any significant amount of evidence that this is the case (though it seems to work for me), but the idea that if you get more than X amount of sleep you need to get X+Y amount of sleep in order to wake up easily seems like a potentially useful theory at least.
I'll propose an experiment:
Try falling asleep at different times, and recording your difficuly-to-get-up on some arbitrary scale. Record (approximately) how much time asleep you get along with this.
The "recommended" 8 hours may not be optimal for your physiology.
Disclaimer: Not a doctor, nor an expert in sleep, in any way... This is just from anecdotal evidence. (Girlfriend sleeps about 5-6 hours a night, and is functional. Friend can't function without sleeping 9.)
If you find an amount of sleep that is testably better than the alternatives, at least this might help.
Oddly, I find 8 hours of sleep is the worst for me. I do vastly better on 6 or 10 hours of sleep. So there may be multiple optimums, and not necessarily following an intuitive pattern.
I personally set 5 alarms :)
If that sort of thing isn't working, try opening a window to get sunlight in, or if possible have a friend call you when you want to get up.
Or have the internet call you.
Sunlight helps a bit, but my phone doesn't wake me up and 5 alarms is a bit too much for my roommates at this point in time, i will inevitably leave one or two on and they will be bothered :( Right now i just use two, 1 for still have time to shower, 1 for must wake up now.
When I was attempting to transition to polyphasic sleep, I set 9 alarms. This was not overkill. In case you don't want to buy 9 alarm clocks, I used my cell phone, iPod, and computer for alarm functions.
How was polyphasic sleep?
The most difficult thing I've ever tried, extremely fun, and overall a failure. I tried it four times, each time noting the possible failures of my attempt, and improving them the next try. By the end I was pretty sure it was impossible (for me).
How far did you get/ Are you a vegetarian or vegan/ Have you tried biphasic sleep?
"How far" seems hard to measure. I was able to (with a friend) wake up every time, but I wasn't able to stay awake 100% at night. Micro sleeps are virtually impossible to eliminate. My friend hallucinated. During the day though, we felt normal after a few weeks. This was deceptively promising. Eventually, we had to concede, and just sleep regular, if we ever wanted to attend classes or a job.
I am not any special diet.
I have not tried biphasic, because it doesn't really give you that many extra hours.
Any more questions are welcome!
What schedule did you use? Because "polyphasic" is a catchall term for sleeping in more than one interval over the course of a 24 hour period.
Uberman, everyman, and dymaxion are the most commonly spoken of, in my experience.
Thirty minute naps every six hours. That one didn't have too much data behind it, either.
That's the dymaxion. I've never tried it myself (School/work being inflexible in hours to the degree that I wouldn't be able to nap.), but of what I've read, it's one of the most difficult to acclimate to.
One of the easier ones (or at least easier than dymaxion, maybe not as easy as biphasic, but it gets more wake-hours) is the Everyman. It's a three-hour core nap with three evenly spaced 20-minute naps during the day, with some room for flexibility.
And the basic rule from that three-and-thre model (which can get you down to biphasic, or up to the uberman) is for every hour of core you add, remove one nap. And every hour of core you remove, add a nap.