Alarm Clock Myth - How to wake up early | Hacker News Reader

Alarm Clock Myth - How to wake up early

ashishlive.blogspot.in

26 pointsashishb4u34 comments

Another piece of alleged universal wisdom where one person mistakes their own personal experience in their own personal domain for a universal truth.

Suppose I go to bed at some time before midnight, having set my alarm for a "drop dead" time of 06:30. Suppose now I wake at 05:30. Do I proactively switch off the alarm and rise?

What about if I wake at 05:00? Or 04:30? Or 02:00?

Where is the cut-off? Where is the wisdom that solves all my problems, enabling me not to have to make any decisions?

I'm really tired of people telling me what to do and how to run my life based on their "epiphany" about their pico-universe, ignoring the immense and fantastic diversity of life outside their own experience.

> Where is the cut-off?

Average sleep-cycle is apparently 90 minutes. I'd consider getting up up to an hour before the wake-up time based on that.

> Where is the wisdom that solves all my problems, enabling me not to have to make any decisions?

You have high expectations of the Blog-o-sphere, it seems.

> I'm really tired of people telling me what to do

Clearly! Although perhaps it'd have been more appropriate to just quote:

> I'm really tired

Anyway, I'm going to experiment with what he said in the blog post. I am probably guilty of thinking that I'm going to be considerably more rested if I spend another 30 minutes in bed beyond when I naturally woke up, and that's probably not true. A disruptive thought, perhaps.

>What about if I wake at 05:00? Or 04:30? Or 02:00?

Then go back to sleep, dummy. Does he have to spell it out for you?

>Where is the wisdom that solves all my problems, enabling me not to have to make any decisions?

That's called being dead. Until then try to take advice for what it is: a recipe that you can try and adjust to taste.

So this post amounts to say:

Here's a suggestion: wake up, look at the clock. Now make a decision about whether it's time to get up, then take action based on that.

This is new? This is news? This is helpful? This is of deep interest?

None of the above - it was a waste of time.

But it's not just this one thing. I see so many people intent on sharing their personal revelations that it's now impossible to find genuine insights that are more widely applicable than that one person's experience. This is the age of crowd-sourced "wisdom", where everyone thinks their own discoveries will apply universally. Anecdote over data, experience over research.

However, I am going to learn something from it. There's a lesson that I'm taking away for my own personal growth and edification. I'll share it here with you in case you want to learn from it as well: some stuff on HN (and other sites) is a complete waste of time. Be ruthless about what you read - you only have one life to spend. Time spent cannot be regained.

Edited to remove some snark and tidy up.

I agree with you that this is not HN worthy. However, I think you're taking the wrong approach to stuff like this. Obviously the best thing to do is not read it. However, as others have pointed out these are recipes. You'll need to do your own tweaking, testing, changing, and perhaps even rewrite most of it. This is how you get started, not where you jump off.

>So I still have to wake, look at the clock, make a decision about whether it's time to get up, then take action based on that.

Yes, no magic unicorns and fairies spreading pixie dust to wake you up at just the right moment, I'm afraid.

The indecipherable to you message of the story is: don't go back to sleep if you happen to wake up shortly before the alarm clock. Just wake up.

Now, if you woke yourself up at 3:00, as you ask in your previous comment, that doesn't fall on the "shortly" period before a 6:30 way, so by all means go back to sleep. I mean, Oh, those hard decisions...

>But it's not just this one thing. I see so many people intent on sharing their personal revelations that it's now impossible to find genuine insights that are more widely applicable than that one person's experience. This is the age of crowd-sourced "wisdom", where everyone thinks their own discoveries will apply universally. Anecdote over data, experience over research.

I think that what you write above ONLY APPLIES TO YOU. Perhaps you should do some more research into the matter, instead of shoving your personal anecdotes on to us.

> The indecipherable to you message of the story is: don't go back to sleep if you happen to wake up shortly before the alarm clock. Just wake up.

Yes, I actually got that. Of course, it took reading the whole article to realize that it was telling me that, so I'm left wondering why it was posted to HN.

>> But it's not just this one thing. I see so many people intent on sharing their personal revelations that it's now impossible to find genuine insights that are more widely applicable than that one person's experience. This is the age of crowd-sourced "wisdom", where everyone thinks their own discoveries will apply universally. Anecdote over data, experience over research.

> I think that what you write above ONLY APPLIES TO YOU. Perhaps you should do some more research into the matter, instead of shoving your personal anecdotes on to us.

OK, so I'll start my research. Has this blog post taught you anything? Was this worth the time you spent reading it? I'll go ask a few more people, and if I get statistically significant results I might post about it.

If only there was a way to go to bed early instead of reading HN, I might be able to wake up before my alarm.

What if I wake up 2 hours before the alarm clock goes off? I can live with 15 or 30 minutes but any more and I most likely will go to sleep again. Where is the cut-off from too-early to perfect morning routine?

What would your best-guess be on the answer to this question?

When I was in high school I had a digital radio alarm clock. I had my alarm set at 6am. There was a time over the course of a month, where every single day, I would wake up at 5:59, and as my hand was reaching over to disable it, the alarm would go off mid-slap. It was at this point I realized how good our internal clocks are (to the second?), and I haven't used an alarm clock since. The trick is going to bed on time. Also, mental exercise is far more tiring than physical exercise. If you can't sleep you aren't working your brain hard enough.

This is spot on. For me the key is in getting up earlier than ever you would need according to daily pressures. Right now I'm getting up around 4am, and since I adapted to it (I take melatonin so that's really easy) I don't need an alarm clock anymore. Sometimes I wake up naturally before that, sometimes later. But it's healthy, my body gets a gentle start, and I'm never late (on days I oversleep so hard that I feel sorry for myself it turns out it's 6:30am or something) if duty calls. And as a programmer I love getting some good work done on side projects before I head off to work my 9-to-5.

Granted I need to hit bed around 8pm at most (since I really like to get up even earlier around 3am), and I'm still trying to puzzle out how that's gonna work with my social life. My day job kinda gets in the way of otherwise being able to do a siesta and then sleep less at night. But for February I took the plunge of sleeping at the same time everyday, and that means a full month without nightlife, to cement a good habit. Carnival season 'round here makes that easier, since there is beer and parades a-plenty as early as morning.

What about those alarms that simulate sunrise with a gradual light, and so you wake up slowly, and not in a sudden annoying noise?

I started using one of these this year, and it's working well, but not in the way I expected.

I expected that: the light would wake me up, and it would be nicer than an alarm.

In actuality: I wake up often in the early morning anyway, and normally I roll over and go to sleep. If I happen to wake up in the 20 minutes when the light is rising, I don't go back to sleep, I just get up instead.

Result: the light isn't "waking me up", but I awaken "naturally" most days because of the light anyway.

The article makes sense - the only thing I'd add is "go to sleep at a consistent time at night, and you'll wake up at a consistent time in the morning" (also, avoid caffeine, it throws your sleep schedule off like mad)

Here is my routine:

I get up every morning between 4:00 to 4:15 while my phone is set to 04:20.

This way, I walk into the office around 05:15 and start my day.

I usually leave between 18:00 to 18:30, get home within 30 minutes.

That leaves about 3+ hours to be with the family, kids + wife, before going to sleep around 22:30.

On crazy times, I wake up even earlier (naturally or setting earlier alarm clock).

I prefer getting up earlier than going to sleep later. That is, my actual deadline is the sleep time, not the wake time.

You sir, work too much!

I was once victim of it myself; but rest assured that it is possible to work less than fifteen hours a day. I've currently managed to get it down to about ten hours a day, with the occasional burst up to twelve. On a really bad week, I'll work Sunday as well, but that doesn't usually happen much any more.

You already have step one done: Getting up early. Although I'm afraid you may have overdid it a bit. Step two: living close to work seems like it is in order as well. Children == exercise (usually) and I will assume you have nicely prepared meals at home.

This leads me to believe the problem is the work itself. Do you have enough people that you trust to be competent in your absence? Have you taken time to get them up to the level that when they come to you it is usually to address an unforeseen obstacle? Do they report problems and recommendations in the same breath?

Let me tell you of the glory of getting back to a ten hour work day: Glorious! Magical. Liberating. A most worthy goal.

Within the first year(s) of a startup, you end up almost every day, with more open tasks than you have started. That is the way it is right here right now.

So, I cannot just stop thinking about chores/tasks/goals at a certain point of a day. If I will quit early, I will be "bothered" at home or when hanging with friends.

Why are you working 12 hour days?

Startup co-founder?

This advice falls under the general pattern of addressing a relatable problem and offering a solution that validates the reader's intuition without explaining how to make the behavior habitual. Stating what I want to achieve (waking up before my alarm) doesn't help me achieve it.

The author claims to have 'given a lot of thought' to other products. What products? Is pure reason the right approach for deriving solutions to behavioral problems?

"Stating what I want to achieve (waking up before my alarm) doesn't help me achieve it." Actually it may work exactly this way. There are many different psychological techniques that amount to doing just that. One of them is to make your wish the last thought before you go asleep. It doesn't work just the next day but it does work if you apply it repeatedly. Just be careful about what you wish, as it will come true and you have to be prepared.

I've been getting up at 4:30 for years. Here's the secret: go to bed earlier. Unless there's a deadline, I'm in bed by 10-10:30.

grounding breaking stuff right?

not to be a curmudgeon but doesn't that conflict with your social life? I know I'd have some problems doing that.

Also 6 hours a day doesn't seem very healthy. Would think you would aim more for 7 or 8 hours.

Contrarily, doesn't your social life conflict with your sleep schedule? One is going to suffer. It depends on what you value more. I have nearly the exact schedule as rgbrenner. I've learned to make sleep a priority. If I stay out until 1, I'm still going to wake up at 4:30 and be tired that next day. But I don't go out until 1 everyday.

Also, probably most important, is that I'm nearly 40. I'm more focused on projects than people at this point. I wake up early because I have something I want to work on. When I was younger, I was waking up late because I was staying out late chasing girls.

Well my sleep schedule doesn't require me to wake up at 4:30, I usually don't need to wake up until 7.

Where I live now, public transportation pretty much shuts down after midnight anyways though, so most times I can get home before 1 AM, which will give me a serviceable amount of sleep, at least until a day off.

Everyone is different, 6-8 hours is normal. Obviously, more sleep can be better, but many of us have trouble "sleeping in." I prefer 6 hours of sleep at night, and a couple hour afternoon nap if I can get home at a reasonable time.

My mind works well in the morning, so I'm motivated to wake up as early as the local coffee shop opens...so in Asia I wake up around 6AM (since nothing opens until 7) while in the states I can wake up much earlier (~5AM). Having something to look forward to in the morning (coding!) creates a natural alarm.

I haven't used an alarm clock in many years. I look at the time before I fall asleep and decide what time I want to wake up, and I do.

It doesn't matter how late I went to bed, nor how early I have to get up. I just have to decide before I fall asleep when I want to wake up.

My advice: sleep in a room that faces sunrise and don't use blinds.

I've noticed a world of difference between waking up naturally at 7:00 and waking up via alarm clock at 7:00.]

As a data point for you, for some people (such as myself) that would mean in Summer getting up at 04:00, in Winter, 09:00.

To wake early, go to bed early. Dead simple!

>How many times have this happened that you woke up half an hour before you were supposed to [...]

never, lol.

In our next issue: The Homelessness Myth - Just get a house!

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