Americans voted alarm clocks one of its most hated inventions of the modern world. You don't need to be a doctor to know the sudden shock of an alarm can be harmful to your heart. Recent studies have shown that people who are woken up like this have higher blood pressure and heart rates than those allowed to wake on their own.
The sudden shock of the alarm tone can trigger our fight or flight response--pumping up our adrenaline levels when we don't need them to be activated. This can lead to waking up extra groggy or feeling depleted before our day even begins.
And yet, how many of us puropsely choose an obnoxious alarm tone to wake us for fear of sleeping through our alarm?
The study also showed that people who were suddenly woken during deep sleep, were negatively affected in their cognitive abilities and short term memory--equivalent to being intoxicated! They performed much worse than people who had been up for 26 hours straight.
The most ideal way to wake up is by regulating your internal clock so that you wake up naturally. You can do this simply by sleeping and waking at the same time each day. We tend to enter into our deep sleep cycles in roughly 90 minute increments. Therefore, it is always best to get up when your eyes open, even if you wake up 30 minutes or an hour before your normal rising time. Otherwise, you risk entering deep sleep when you hit the snooze button and you will end up being even more tired than if you had just gotten up.
But first, start by changing your alarm tone to something much more gentle and soft. There are apps out there that start with a soothing alarm such as the sound of the ocean which gradually becomes louder, easing you into your waking state. Some apps even have a pre alarm that detects if you are in a light sleep cycle to wake you 30 minutes or so prior to your set alarm. I have found this to be tremendously helpful in starting my morning right. I am no longer shocked or filled with adrenaline upon waking. And for those who want something even more realistic, there is something called a dawn simulator that gradually brightens your bedroom to simulate a sunrise. Ah, the wonders of technology.
The sudden shock of the alarm tone can trigger our fight or flight response--pumping up our adrenaline levels when we don't need them to be activated. This can lead to waking up extra groggy or feeling depleted before our day even begins.
And yet, how many of us puropsely choose an obnoxious alarm tone to wake us for fear of sleeping through our alarm?
The study also showed that people who were suddenly woken during deep sleep, were negatively affected in their cognitive abilities and short term memory--equivalent to being intoxicated! They performed much worse than people who had been up for 26 hours straight.
The most ideal way to wake up is by regulating your internal clock so that you wake up naturally. You can do this simply by sleeping and waking at the same time each day. We tend to enter into our deep sleep cycles in roughly 90 minute increments. Therefore, it is always best to get up when your eyes open, even if you wake up 30 minutes or an hour before your normal rising time. Otherwise, you risk entering deep sleep when you hit the snooze button and you will end up being even more tired than if you had just gotten up.
But first, start by changing your alarm tone to something much more gentle and soft. There are apps out there that start with a soothing alarm such as the sound of the ocean which gradually becomes louder, easing you into your waking state. Some apps even have a pre alarm that detects if you are in a light sleep cycle to wake you 30 minutes or so prior to your set alarm. I have found this to be tremendously helpful in starting my morning right. I am no longer shocked or filled with adrenaline upon waking. And for those who want something even more realistic, there is something called a dawn simulator that gradually brightens your bedroom to simulate a sunrise. Ah, the wonders of technology.
