Another question for my flist

[innerslytherin]

Since you guys all had amazing ideas and encouragement for me on yesterday's query, here's another one for you all.

I don't wake up well. I'm a heavy sleeper once I do sleep, especially now that I have a prescription to help me get to sleep. And I'm not a morning person at all. So I was thinking about trying one of those sleep tracking wristbands at night, that set off an alarm when you're at your lightest, but those get mixed reviews on Amazon. Then I started thinking about a dawn simulating alarm clock. I don't really want to spend $300 on it, but around $100-150 would be okay. But I can't seem to find one that people agree on there, either.

Do any of you have any experience with dawn simulating alarm clocks? Any suggestions?

Comments

[dragonladyk.livejournal.com]

You've already got solutions, but I thought you might like some information. ^^

Most people who aren't morning people are so because their homeostatis is sluggish: their internal body temperature is slow to drop and slow to rise, so both shutting down and waking up take a lot longer. Instead of their body temperature dropping when their eyes tell their brain it's dark and cueing the urge to sleep, their body temperature needs the extra push of the midnight chill to get them down (making them night owls) and then in the morning their body temperature doesn't rise with the dawn but with the later warmth of day (hence the urge to sleep in). Those with sluggish homeostasis are crabby in the mornings because we're trying to function before the startup process is complete and the normal core body temperature has been reached -- something "normal" people only experience when wakened prematurely.

Hot showers, hot coffee, and hot tea all serve to raise the internal body temperature more quickly and get us through the startup process faster. Dawn simulating clocks get the startup process started earlier than a standard alarm, so that by the time it IS time for the non-morning person to get up, the waking core body temperature has already been reached.

DragonLady

[innerslytherin]

This is fascinating. I didn't realize it was a matter of body temperature. It's possible that I'm sabotaging myself by drinking Coke in the mornings, huh? I'll have to try starting out with a cup of tea, instead of leaving that until 9 or so...

I have so far had good luck with the dawn simulator, though I know I need to get to bed earlier still.