It is so much better on my nervous system to use a smart watch that vibrates when it’s my alarm time instead of an alarm making a sudden, loud noise. You can also use the kind that Deaf people use that go under your pillow and vibrate. Major quality of life difference for me, starting every day with an adrenaline surge sucks.
Vibration has the same effect on me. Waking up in general is a not very nice experience most of the time. Weighted blanket helped a little but it’s still kind of stressful.
What about a gradual alarm?
It starts with low volume, then gradually increases volume.
There’s even smart lamps that do increasing light intensity to simulate sunrise.
Oof that’s awful! I hope you’re able to find a solution.
There’s a lot of alarm sound choices on iOS that aim to be a bit more gradual rather than something like a fire alarm. Mine sounds a bit like some distant music that gradually gets closer.
Oh I’ve tried a ton of sounds, it’s just any noise near me while I’m sleeping that scares the shit out of me. I have PTSD so unexpected sounds are something that can give me trouble when I’m awake anyway.
I have a very slow and long chill song, set to increase volume one step every 5-10 seconds. It takes a good two minutes of playing to max the volume (the song lasts like 7min). I’m almost always awake before it reaches max, and never with a jump scare.
This is why my alarm is a radio set to NPR. You still feel like you’re gonna die, but at least there’s someone telling you why.
Waking up to the news would make me suicidal
So I notoriously sleep through all my alarms. My amygdala must be broken
Perhaps counter intuitive, but setting multiple alarms does this.
If you set multiple alarms you are training yourself that it’s okay to snooze an alarm because another one will come. This then becomes habit.
If you have a single alarm, you can’t ignore it if you don’t want to fuck up your day (and if it wouldn’t, don’t set an alarm in the first place and wake up naturally)
I used to sleep through my 5 alarms, literally switching to a single alarm fixed it
I just switched to 2nd shift. Problem solved.
I’m the opposite. If I set an alarm, chances are I’ll wake up before the alarm.
Then i’ll use the phone for a while, cancel the alarm and likely fall asleep again.
Same. Sometimes I can hear the alarm in my dream and be like “damn what’s this sound? it’s really annoying” and still not wake up. If I was a caveman, I’d probably be dead by now
