Find it hard to get up in the AM?
Posted: Wed Jun 21, 2006 7:24 am
Do you find it hard to get up in the morning?
Then try the Puzzle Alarm Clock, which is exactly what its name says
Lisa Fitterman,
Published: Tuesday, June 20, 2006
http://www.canada.com
I have a foolproof way to ensure I'm not late for things such as early-morning flights.
What's my secret? Simple: I don't sleep, and I have the dark circles under my eyes to prove it.
Of course, my ability to wake up sans alarm is not exactly what Timothy Monk, a sleep expert and psychiatry professor at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre, meant when he told the Newhouse News Service last January that we all have a built-in alarm clock in our heads. ``If everything is running smoothly,'' he continued, ``that clock should wake us up before we'd need an alarm.''
Right, and we all eat properly and get at least eight hours of sleep a night, too not.
So what do you do when you don't have the kind of obsessive-compulsive nature that keeps you awake so you won't be late? When you're the kind of sleeper for whom regular, ringing alarm clocks might as well be bedtime lullabies? When you constantly hit the snooze button and continue snoring through loud sounds such as garbage trucks backfiring, babies crying and screaming arguments right outside your bedroom window?
What do you do when you risk missing a key job interview, being late for a romantic date or showing up at work with toilet paper plastered to the sole of your shoe, you're in that much of a (sleepy) rush?
Fear not, sleepyheads.
Consider the fine example set by my stepdaughter, Myriam. She works at Starbucks and tends to draw the 5:30 a.m. shift, which means she opens up the cafZ and makes the muffins in time for the first customers at 7 a.m. Unaccustomed to getting up so early, she doubles up, keeping one alarm clock by her bed and a second one, programmed to go off three minutes later, far enough away that she has to get up to turn it off.
``At 4:30, the first alarm rings and then, at 4:33, the other one, which is set to CBC at full volume, comes on,'' she tells me. ``That gets me up - and I try not to lie back down because otherwise, I'm dead. And getting up early is OK, once I'm conscious.''
Ah, youth.
If doubling up doesn't do it, try the Puzzle Alarm Clock ($42 US at bimbambanana.com), which is exactly what its name says: at a programmed time, the alarm rings as four pieces of puzzle spring into the air, and you, dear sleeper, must put it all together again to make the sound stop.
Or, for sheer overkill, there's the Sonic Boom Dual Alarm Clock and Bed Shaker ($59.95 US,
http://www.sonicalert.com/htm/clock.htm
which comes complete with a loud alarm, flashing lights and the pi?ce de rZsistance - namely, a thingamajig that makes the bed shake so that it feels like you're in the middle of an earthquake. Who needs coffee?
Not yet on the market, but buzzing (literally) on the horizon, is the Blowfly Alarm Clock, which won its designer, Barcelona native Ena Macana, third prize at the Taiwan International Design Competition. Considering that blowflies are usually the first to come into contact with dead animals or mammals, this clock, which launches itself from its cradle at the programmed time and buzzes around the room until it is caught, is aptly named.
And for sheer efficiency, there's the prototype for the Wake 'n' Bacon Alarm Clock. It's both a clock with the face and adorable ears of a little piggy, and an oven that works by dint of a computer-controlled halogen light bulb, along the same principle as an Easy-Bake oven. You stick a slice of frozen bacon into the oven, set your time and - voil! - you wake up to the tantalizing smell of sizzling meat.
New York University grad student Matty Sallin came up with the idea after he surveyed friends about the ideal alarm clock. ``A lot of people gave sexual answers,'' he told a Virginia newspaper. ``One person said she wanted to be woken by the smell of bacon. I opted for bacon.''
Talk about giving new meaning to ``breakfast in bed
Then try the Puzzle Alarm Clock, which is exactly what its name says
Lisa Fitterman,
Published: Tuesday, June 20, 2006
http://www.canada.com
I have a foolproof way to ensure I'm not late for things such as early-morning flights.
What's my secret? Simple: I don't sleep, and I have the dark circles under my eyes to prove it.
Of course, my ability to wake up sans alarm is not exactly what Timothy Monk, a sleep expert and psychiatry professor at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre, meant when he told the Newhouse News Service last January that we all have a built-in alarm clock in our heads. ``If everything is running smoothly,'' he continued, ``that clock should wake us up before we'd need an alarm.''
Right, and we all eat properly and get at least eight hours of sleep a night, too not.
So what do you do when you don't have the kind of obsessive-compulsive nature that keeps you awake so you won't be late? When you're the kind of sleeper for whom regular, ringing alarm clocks might as well be bedtime lullabies? When you constantly hit the snooze button and continue snoring through loud sounds such as garbage trucks backfiring, babies crying and screaming arguments right outside your bedroom window?
What do you do when you risk missing a key job interview, being late for a romantic date or showing up at work with toilet paper plastered to the sole of your shoe, you're in that much of a (sleepy) rush?
Fear not, sleepyheads.
Consider the fine example set by my stepdaughter, Myriam. She works at Starbucks and tends to draw the 5:30 a.m. shift, which means she opens up the cafZ and makes the muffins in time for the first customers at 7 a.m. Unaccustomed to getting up so early, she doubles up, keeping one alarm clock by her bed and a second one, programmed to go off three minutes later, far enough away that she has to get up to turn it off.
``At 4:30, the first alarm rings and then, at 4:33, the other one, which is set to CBC at full volume, comes on,'' she tells me. ``That gets me up - and I try not to lie back down because otherwise, I'm dead. And getting up early is OK, once I'm conscious.''
Ah, youth.
If doubling up doesn't do it, try the Puzzle Alarm Clock ($42 US at bimbambanana.com), which is exactly what its name says: at a programmed time, the alarm rings as four pieces of puzzle spring into the air, and you, dear sleeper, must put it all together again to make the sound stop.
Or, for sheer overkill, there's the Sonic Boom Dual Alarm Clock and Bed Shaker ($59.95 US,
http://www.sonicalert.com/htm/clock.htm
which comes complete with a loud alarm, flashing lights and the pi?ce de rZsistance - namely, a thingamajig that makes the bed shake so that it feels like you're in the middle of an earthquake. Who needs coffee?
Not yet on the market, but buzzing (literally) on the horizon, is the Blowfly Alarm Clock, which won its designer, Barcelona native Ena Macana, third prize at the Taiwan International Design Competition. Considering that blowflies are usually the first to come into contact with dead animals or mammals, this clock, which launches itself from its cradle at the programmed time and buzzes around the room until it is caught, is aptly named.
And for sheer efficiency, there's the prototype for the Wake 'n' Bacon Alarm Clock. It's both a clock with the face and adorable ears of a little piggy, and an oven that works by dint of a computer-controlled halogen light bulb, along the same principle as an Easy-Bake oven. You stick a slice of frozen bacon into the oven, set your time and - voil! - you wake up to the tantalizing smell of sizzling meat.
New York University grad student Matty Sallin came up with the idea after he surveyed friends about the ideal alarm clock. ``A lot of people gave sexual answers,'' he told a Virginia newspaper. ``One person said she wanted to be woken by the smell of bacon. I opted for bacon.''
Talk about giving new meaning to ``breakfast in bed
For me, the way to get up is to place the clock well away from "snooze button" reach. Once I reach the clock and turn off the alarm, I'm able to then keep going... shower, etc. We also have some little furry alarm clocks - no joke - those cats start meowing at exactly 6:30 every morning, wanting their chow. And our old girl, Misha, I once saw her LOOKING up at a wall clock - at 6 in the evening, and then meowed at me for the evening meal. 
