Sun, 24 Nov, 2024

Struggling with Alarms

By Bidish Acharya

Have you ever struggled to wake up in the morning when the alarm went off? Let’s make it straight, have you ever not struggled to wake up in the morning when the alarm went off? It’s so warm under the covers, why worry yourselves getting out into that cold, right?  Nothing’s going to change if you sleep for 10 more minutes, and another 10, and yet another, is it? It’s kind of obvious that none of us feel good waking up in the first place when the alarm goes off. And the one, who does, knows the importance of those hours we lose every morning, trying to negotiate with our alarm clock. Setting an alarm is one good thing to do if we've got to wake up early in the morning. It notifies us that it’s the time in the morning to wake up; precisely; it’s that time in the morning we've chosen to wake up at. If we have an early college, or have an early routine of going to the gym, or anything else, we have to, have to set an alarm. But, no surprise, we struggle to wake up when the alarm goes off. We set the alarm time, supposing it to be the best time to be awake. But, it all changes in the morning when we face that galling tone once again. We opt for nothing but to snooze it, demanding some more time in bed. At that point of time, we tend to act like a conscious human, but literally, we’re not. When we’re half-asleep, we are not fully conscious. Let’ take it this way, before sleeping, we set the alarm clock to ring at 5 a.m. in the morning. But when it goes off, we do nothing but snooze it. We forget that it’s us who had decided to wake up at this same time. So, which decision do you think really backs our conscious mind? Sure, we want the night decision to be implemented, but the one-sided debate in the morning doesn't let us wake up early. No sooner had the alarm gone off, we’ll click that snooze button. Also, most of the times, we happen to click the snooze button while sleeping, and when we wake up in the morning, we don’t even realize when and how we did it. Let’s face it- we do! So, how do we tackle it? Is there any approach to wake up right after the alarm goes off? Well, there’s no such hard and fast rule that we can follow to wake up early. And, there’s no other trustworthy way of waking up early without setting an alarm. It’s a struggle; let’s say a struggle for life. You can follow your own way, the one you feel right, to wake up right after your alarm goes off. I, personally, set up the alarm and keep the cell phone on a table pretty away from my reach. And when the alarm goes off in the morning, I have to get up and walk some distance to shut it off. And, once I get off my bed, I try my best not to take the false step of jumping into the bed. This is something that really works for me. At times, I switch it off and again come back to sleep, but, most of the times, I wake up right away. Also, there’s another way you can follow to wake up early. Select a song, let’s say a song that irritates you the most, as your alarm tone. About a month back, I did the same, and as per my motive, I couldn’t stand that song when it rang in the morning, and I had to switch it off. I followed this rule for a couple of weeks and trust me, it worked. Well, in this case, at least you won’t click the snooze button; you surely will shut it off. And it’s for you to decide whether you want to sleep more or wake up right away. And as you all most have noticed, setting the same alarm time constantly results into something supernatural. There happens this amazing thing – you wake up 5 minutes before the alarm goes off, don’t you? Fair enough, happens to me as well. I have gone through it a lot. It sure seems peculiar. There is a kind of scientific reasoning backing it, let’s not get into that. But, this will also help you to get in time, without even the alarm going off. Also, waking up to the same beeping tone every morning doesn’t feel right, at least for me. I don’t think it’s a good way. In my case, I, choose a variety of songs (that I love) and change them every one or two weeks. Doing this, it makes me walk out of my bed and reach for the cell phone to continue that track and sing along with it. I wake up to the theme song, “You’ll Never Walk Alone” of my beloved club, Liverpool, every morning. It is a great song and brings that enthusiastic feeling within me, to start the day in a perfect way. These are some of the approaches that we can follow to wake up as early as the alarm goes off. But, it’s us who govern the time to wake up not the alarm. Even if we follow different ways, we cannot make it work unless we decide to be more disciplined and more passionate towards our set goals. Think about it – 1 hour lost in a day will result to 365 hours lost in a year. You can do a lot of creative things in these times. Sleeping longer than you need to, is going to cut no ice.