Before kids, I had an alarm next to the bed, another across the room set for 10 minutes later, and a third set for 30 sec after the second, in the kitchen next to the coffee maker. The coffee maker was set to start brewing in concert with the first alarm. Once I was in the kitchen with coffee it was possible to stay awake.

With kids, none of this technology is needed.

With kids, none of this technology is needed.

Heh. No kidding.

Rick, that is a kind of genius plan!!

My problem tends to be that in the morning while half-asleep I can justify anything for a bit more sleep. "Oh, I can get ready more quickly" "oh I don't really need a shower, 10 more minutes" "oh it doesn't matter if I'm a few minutes late, one more time" "I AM feeling kind of bad, maybe I am sick and need more sleep..."

My problem tends to be that in the morning while half-asleep I can justify anything for a bit more sleep.

I had a friend in college who would talk in her sleep to avoid waking up. And you could only tell because her lies would get surreal in a hurry, and then she'd pop awake and yell, "I'm late." Like...

"Meg, you have to get up for class."
"No, we don't have class today. It was cancelled.
"Really? Why were they cancelled?"
"Yeah, they were cancelled."
"How come?"
"Cancelled because the Zeppelin was late."
"Meg! Wake up!"
"Wha..?! I'm late!"

Damn that Zeppelin.

So we put the alarm clock on the other side of the room so we had to get out of bed to turn it off.

Yep, I've done this too. It is kind of effective, but not entirely. Bed is still pretty inviting after you've gotten out of it.

My response would've been, "You want to do it all night long?"

At which point I might have chickened out and there definitely would have been cursing. So I'm glad he didn't go that route. I am surprised he didn't pull a Han Solo in response.

My useless superpower is hitting snooze an infinite number of times and going back to sleep. Until yesterday I had one alarm set at 6:15 called "get up" with a mellow song. And then I had another at 6:30 called "no, really, get up" with an eastern european punk folk song. I would regularly hit snooze on BOTH of them for over an hour. Across the room doesn't work, either.

My problem tends to be that in the morning while half-asleep I can justify anything for a bit more sleep. "Oh, I can get ready more quickly" "oh I don't really need a shower, 10 more minutes" "oh it doesn't matter if I'm a few minutes late, one more time" "I AM feeling kind of bad, maybe I am sick and need more sleep..."

Yeah, meara is me. The lizard brain is in full control, and the lizard brain WANT SLEEP. As far as I know, the lizard brain does not make up colorful falsehoods involving zeppelins and the like, I don't think it's that smart.

Rick, that is pretty genius.

It's sunny here today. My god, I always forget that I'm at least partially solar-powered until we have a string of gray days and then the sun comes back. I'm, like, hyper.

I'm usually pretty bad at falling back asleep, but right now my brain has no idea what's going on, and my sleep is more fucked up than it's been in forever. I'm not not a morning person, dammit. That's not supposed to change with age. But mornings are getting harder and harder.

It would probably be sensible to check my bedding (I've had this futon mattress for ten years) and my medding (I see the sleep doctor tomorrow) since I think I'm now Lunesta-resistant enough to have to switch back to Ambien (I do not miss the fucked up Ambien brain--since I don't have the discipline to go to sleep after taking it, well...y'all have seen me post), but for the first time in years I'm nodding off during the day, and it's in no way helping me sleep at night. Like, I'm working, and then I find myself startling awake. In the office. That's not good.

It's only in the past 6 months I've used my snooze button. Alarm clocks used to be a technicality for me. Now I have two set.

However--if you want to really irritate yourself, check your app store. The tablet on one side of my bed announces the time, flashes a white screen, and then sets off my chosen alarm noise. I used to have the math setting turned on, but morning arithmetic turns out to sour my mood way more than predicted. The tablet on the bedside table sounds a klaxon with a really hard to hit stop button--I do need to almost get out of bed to hit it properly.

Still, there are a million different wakeup options for iPhones and Android out there. One (or three) of them might be what works for you.

Hah--I've been using my phone as alarm for years now, since I travel so much. But I was his reminded that I used to set my clock radio to NPR, but then would hit snooze a few times, and then think "ok, I'll just be in be and listen to it for a minute" an then have crazy NPR dreams as I fell back asleep.

I wish I could sleep in, or failing that, I wish I would frigging train myself to go to bed earlier.