Engineering a Better Alarm Clock | Hacker News Reader

Engineering a Better Alarm Clock

heuristicism.ca

29 pointssdp30 comments

Maybe he has sleep apnea: http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/SleepApnea/Slee...

This would mean no matter how much sleep, it's never enough.

By the way, there is considerable evidence that a significant number of ADHD cases in children and adults is really due to poor sleep with apnea being a major factor (http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/sleep-apnea/news/200608...).

I was diagnosed with sleep apnea and can't tell you how much a CPAP machine has helped me. I'd wake up feeling worse than when I slept, and it's hard to pay attention in that condition, which might be the ADHD connection.

Which CPAP machine do you have? I haven't been officially diagnosed, but I'm pretty sure I have sleep apnea. I'd be willing to try out a decent CPAP machine to see if it helps.

I was going to post the same thing. Being that tired in the morning is probably sleep apnea.

Do you have headaches in the morning? Wake up more tired than when you went to sleep? Sleep apnea can also cause depression, weight gain, and memory loss.

And weight gain can cause sleep apnea.

...and sleep apnea can cause weight gain (I speculate it's due to eating sugar for stimulation).

While I have never gone through this much effort to wake up in the morning--although, reasonably costed, this would be a product I would consider purchasing--I can understand this guy's pain. I think he is a little worse than I am, since it only takes me 5 minutes out of bed before I won't go back, but those 5 minutes can seem like a whole day sometimes.

I think a lot of people who have good early-morning discipline don't appreciate how truly difficult it is for someone who just cannot. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that your brain might just not be wired for learning discipline in that condition.

I think the fundamental problem with waking up has little to do with the power of the alarm clock. If the alarm clock could detect the sleep cycle pattern, it could wake you up when you're not in REM sleep so that you wouldn't wake up groggy.

When you get into a very rigid sleeping schedule, the REM cycles are more rigid as well and you'll tend to wake up less groggy since you're able to position your REM sleep cycles away from the wake up time. Waking up properly also doesn't require a clock that runs away from you.

So there's 2 ways to solve it: get a smart alarm clock that can predict/measure your sleep level, or fit yourself into a rigid sleep schedule for a long time so that your body adjusts to it.

I actually saw an alarm clock that did that (detected REM sleep), but I think it was a demo, and not a commercial product.

Maybe make use of OpenEEG and build one.

http://www.sleeptracker.com/

…or, just get a wife.

This hack only works with a spouse of opposite polarity. If you select for compatibility, then you will amplify the existing patterns of staying up late and turning off the alarm.

Now a baby, on the other hand...

No -- they'll just be pissed to keep hearing the alarm go off and you rustling the bed, unless you have to wake up at the same time.

I've tried the http://www.sleeptracker.com/, but it was the first version having the stupid button on the face, which inevitably meant tossing and turning would disable it. Other than that, it was pretty good.

The new versions seem better, but I'm not going to sink $180 to find out.

Interesting, but seriously, wouldn't it be easier to take some time to learn self-discipline, even while groggy?

Alternatively, go to bed earlier so you wke up at a decent time on your own. I wake up between 5:30 and 6 am every morning without an alarm. That's because I go to bed when I'm tired.

I'm a night owl. Even if I'm underslept and am tired during the day, I have the most energy and awake feeling at night. If I went to bed when I was tired, it would be 3-5 AM almost every night. Unfortunately I'm not yet able to sleep until noon and stay employed;)

As it is, I try to go to bed ~ midnight. It typically takes me a while to fall asleep, but it's the only way I can be up by 8-9 AM without being tired during the day.

I too was a night owl. Healthy diet, exercise, and something exciting to get me out of bed in the morning changed that.

I have a very healthy diet, I work out almost daily, and love my job, wife, and life. Still a night owl.

The obvious solution is to get a wife

I tried that, but it didn't help. If we wake up early/on time, we end up just having sex and falling back asleep. If we wake up late, she decides that since I'm going to be late for work anyway, we may as well have sex, then I fall back asleep again!

If this keeps up, the only solution is divorce :-)

One random idea for getting up in the morning I've wanted to try is an elevated bed which goes into freefall (and presumably repeats until stopped) - the idea being that freefall evokes a panic response which completely bypasses any conscious rationalizations or impulses.

I hate having to wake up on mornings but love music. This is how I solved it:

I have installed the linux-dist openwrt on my Asus WL-500g Deluxe router. This router has two USB-ports to which I have connected an USB-soundcard and a 80gig 2.5 hard-drive. On the device I have installed Music Player Daemon which makes it possible to play music by controlling it either by php, or a MPD-client.

The client I'm using is a modified version of Pmix for my android phone. It's open-source, so downloaded it and added an alarm feature. Before turning of the light I set the time and select which albums it should play.

Works like a charm!

I've always wondered why they don't build alarm clocks based on sleep cycles? We sleep best in 45min REM cycles, and waking up in the middle makes you feel groggy. When setting the alarm there should be a dial that has sleep-cycles printed on it, and you turn the dial to select how many you want. The clock will read what time the alarm would wake you up as you select each setting. Select as many cycles as you can get, while still getting up on time. Then simply tell the clock how long you take to fall asleep.

My main problem with waking up is not to get up, you'll have to do it at some point anyway. It has more to do with the alarm clock in itself, I sometimes wake up with the choc of the alarm sound. The strident noise catches me by surprise while sleeping and it produces a boost of adrenaline which I would love to avoid.

I pretty convinced that a very progressive and friendly sound as an alarm sound would work great.

Does anyone have any experience with such an alarm clock ?

I used to have the exact same problem and used something along these lines for years and liked it: http://www.meijer.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=131845&#...

Thanks I'll have a look.

For me I use my work (http://sleep.fm) to wake up to and I leave my mac mini on so i have to get up, walk across room, turn monitor on & stop the alarm.

I don't share this fellow hackers pain(more so waking up got easier after getting into a 9 to 5 routine), but I do wonder how huge of a pain point this is? How many face this same problem and if you do, how old are you? thnx if you share!

I don't have his problem, but I still think an alarm clock with weight sensors on my bed is an awesome idea. In much the same way that having lights that turn on when you enter a room is cool, having an alarm that turns off when you get up is something I can get behind.

Most awesome project i've ever seen!

I have the same problems with getting up in the morning. It's mostly lack of sleep, I think. I just can't get myself to go to sleep early enough... perhaps a sleep schedule with 2+ sleep phases would suit me better?

One of my previous roommates wouldn't wake up if there was a garbage truck inside the room. Nothing short of hitting him would do the trick. That's another idea for an alarm clock.

maybe he'd get calluses after a while, from getting hit in the same spots all the time, which is when you'd need to drag him out of bed and dowse him with ice water...

While we are in the topic. It is not too difficult to me wake up in the mornings, but why do I get sleepy after lunch? Does it have to do with my diet?

I can't say your diet isn't involved, but that's what most people experience as a part of their circadian rhythm: http://ride4ever.org/images/normalsleep.gif

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