Why did I wake up before my alarm clock went off? (2015) • Hacker News Board

Re: Why did I wake up before my alarm clock went off? (2015)

#21

Post by syntheticnature » Fri, Feb 28, 2020, 9:30 PM UTC

I've definitely had the experience, mentioned else-thread, of waking minutes before the alarm, and learned through experience not to roll back over if I wanted to feel awake that morning.

I'm also old enough to have had an alarm clock with an internal relay for the alarm, whose click was sufficient to wake me before the alarm proper sounded.

Re: Why did I wake up before my alarm clock went off? (2015)

#22

Post by Trowter » Fri, Feb 28, 2020, 9:33 PM UTC

This may be the case for some but for me my alarm pretty much never goes off It's set for 6am everyday and I usually turn if off around 5:55

Re: Why did I wake up before my alarm clock went off? (2015)

#23

Post by art4ur » Fri, Feb 28, 2020, 9:34 PM UTC

I often wake up two to three minutes before the alarm. It happens often. I just think my internal clock is just getting in habit.

Re: Why did I wake up before my alarm clock went off? (2015)

#24

Post by stingraycharles » Fri, Feb 28, 2020, 9:39 PM UTC

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #13

Personally, I rarely wake up before my regular alarm goes off. However, if I have to wake up earlier than I normally do for something (dr's appt, scheduled flight, etc), my body seems to wake itself up every couple of hours out of fear that I will sleep through the alarm. So I normally wake up at 8 and sleep soundly through the night, but if I've gotta be up at 7 for some reason, even if I have an alarm set, I seem t…

Very recognizable. What I found interesting is that, even though apparently my brain can time the alarm really well, but I cannot actively rely on it: if I choose not to set an alarm, I will wake up a dozen times before, like you describe. It’s easy to explain why, but still a pity.

Re: Why did I wake up before my alarm clock went off? (2015)

#25

Post by henrikschroder » Fri, Feb 28, 2020, 9:40 PM UTC

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #14

Nope. I slept in a common room with 3 brothers. If my alarm went off (half an hour before they needed to get up) I got a whopping. So I would wake up moments before the alarm, scramble from bed to my desk and slap the snooze button sometimes just as the buzzer started to sound. This guy is over-thinking it. And underestimating the human brain.

Yeah, it's not a cognition re-ordering event that's happening. You simply wake up just before the alarm because the human brain be crazy, yo.

I have, many times, with many different alarm clocks or phones, woken up a minute or so before the alarm is set to go off, and usually I unset the alarm and get out of bed. There's no prep noise, no early warning, no re-imagining how things happened. I just do it, sometimes.

Re: Why did I wake up before my alarm clock went off? (2015)

#26

Post by bwi4 » Fri, Feb 28, 2020, 9:40 PM UTC

Not a biologist, but circadian rhythms are attributed to light. Could the light level in the room be the trigger for waking before the alarm goes off?

Re: Why did I wake up before my alarm clock went off? (2015)

#27

Post by csours » Fri, Feb 28, 2020, 9:40 PM UTC

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #13

Personally, I rarely wake up before my regular alarm goes off. However, if I have to wake up earlier than I normally do for something (dr's appt, scheduled flight, etc), my body seems to wake itself up every couple of hours out of fear that I will sleep through the alarm. So I normally wake up at 8 and sleep soundly through the night, but if I've gotta be up at 7 for some reason, even if I have an alarm set, I seem t…

Monday plant startups were the worst back when I did manufacturing plant ops.

Line start time was 6 am, so I had to check everything before 5:30, so I had to be in the plant at 4:30. Naturally I woke up at 2:30 and 3:30 for good measure. Fortunately the regular day shift ops also showed up at 6:30 or 7, so there was someone around with actual brainpower.

Re: Why did I wake up before my alarm clock went off? (2015)

#28

Post by yoz-y » Fri, Feb 28, 2020, 9:41 PM UTC

This would be actually quite an easy theory to put to test. You could film yourself waking up, then you would know.

And I would bet that they are actually waking up before the alarm clock, most of the time because of the regular schedule, the other times due to confirmation bias.

Re: Why did I wake up before my alarm clock went off? (2015)

#29

Post by XCSme » Fri, Feb 28, 2020, 9:43 PM UTC

Cerium wrote: post #2

I regularly wake up about 5 to 10 minutes before the alarm goes off. I think it has a lot to do with light levels. I tend to set my alarm to go off about 7:00 in the winter and earlier in the summer, so there is some light outside to wake up to.

I also wake up sometimes 5 to 10 minutes before the alarm goes off and it's pitch black in my room, so probably by "internal clock" knows the time.

Re: Why did I wake up before my alarm clock went off? (2015)

#30

Post by xthreen » Fri, Feb 28, 2020, 9:44 PM UTC

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #14

Nope. I slept in a common room with 3 brothers. If my alarm went off (half an hour before they needed to get up) I got a whopping. So I would wake up moments before the alarm, scramble from bed to my desk and slap the snooze button sometimes just as the buzzer started to sound. This guy is over-thinking it. And underestimating the human brain.

Though I don't have the common room experience that you had, I too regularly wake before my alarm goes off with more than enough time to turn it off.

The answer isn't that I have a clock in my brain, but rather that waking phases occur regularly during sleep. I start to wake up, think "what time is it?" and check my phone. If it's within 30 minutes of my alarm, I just turn my alarm off and get up.

No magic required.