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RichardKennaway comments on Group rationality diary, 12/25/12 - Less Wrong Discussion
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I like to use a sunrise alarm, that fades up a light over half an hour, so I can have daylight start whenever I want year round.
I also find that if I set my washing machine to start a load at 5am (to take advantage of cheaper electricity), I will wake up while it's running, although it isn't loud. The idea is that the fainter sensations inform the body it's time to wake itself up, instead of bludgeoning it awake with a bell. I only do the latter when it's really important to be up in time for something.
I might try using one of these instead of what I currently use (a cheap radio alarm set to static white noise); I've noticed that sunlight on my face seems to be a strong factor in consistently waking me up.
Have you ever fallen asleep in the sun? ie. does this apply to just mornings after a good sleep, or does sunlight block sleep for you?
I'm not sure if sunlight blocks sleep completely, because it's also correlated with warmth which does help with sleeping. It's probably more to do with circadian rhythm.
For two years in college, my bed and window were positioned just so, that sunlight would target my pillow at around 10-11 am, and I found I consistently woke up around then in the absence of an alarm, independent of how long I slept (within reason.) These days I still seem to have a harder time waking up if it's overcast rather than sunny. But to answer your question, I can't recall any instances when I fell asleep in the sun; I might even have a habit of closing the blinds to sleep, if it's still light out.
I tried a sunrise alarm - it didn't seem to help / work well. (My brain kept wondering whether the alarm would go off. Possible I could've done better with more habituation.)
Similar stuff has happened to me (not with sunrise alarms, though -- never tried one). The solution is setting a loud, reliable, ‘back-up’ alarm at the latest time at which you could possibly get up in time.
I've also discovered an alternate solution: try challenging yourself to wake up before the alarm goes off. Works even better if you tricked yourself into thinking the alarm was ever actually turned on.