"It is time for you to wake up" says Paul in Romans 13:11.
I do not remember a time what it was
hard for me to get up in the morning. If I have no reason to get up early, I
will usually awaken around 5 or 6, especially if we are in the part of the year
when the sun rises early. I like being up before others in the house. I like
the quiet. I usually spend some time in personal reflection and prayer.
I guess roosters have internal
clocks that tell them to crow as the sun rises. As I understand it, some humans
might like to have an internal clock that makes them rise. They find it hard to
arise in the morning. They can hit the five minute snooze button several times.
On Sunday morning, I arise around 4 AM. I do need an alarm for that. The alarm
is gentle. Many times, I am awake a few minutes before it gently awakens me.
Such an alarm would not work for the person who hits the snooze button several
times.
If you hit snooze, you may lose (productivity, that is).
When you doze off after your alarm
wakes you in the morning, you are actually setting yourself up to feel less
alert and productive later in the day.[1]
Here is the way Robert S.
Rosenberg, medical director of the Sleep Disorders Centers of Prescott Valley
and Flagstaff, Arizona puts it.
"When you hit the
snooze button repeatedly, you're doing two negative things to yourself.
"First, you're
fragmenting what little extra sleep you're getting so it is of poor quality.
Second, you're starting to put yourself through a new sleep cycle that you
aren't giving yourself enough time to finish. This can result in persistent
grogginess throughout the day."
Scientists have identified the culprit behind
this stupor that is brought on by a too-brief slumber: sleep inertia. The
National Sleep Foundation defines this state as "the feeling of grogginess
and disorientation that can come from awakening from a deep sleep."
It slows down your decision-making abilities,
impairs your memory and hurts your general performance once you do get out of
bed. Even worse, coffee and a cold shower cannot combat it: It can take up to
an hour and a half to shake off sleep-inertia grogginess.
According to Rosenberg, that is because the
snooze button messes with your brain hormones. "You're throwing off your
circadian cycle," he says. Disrupting the circadian cycle can impair your
ability to feel awake during the day and sleepy at night.
So, is banishing the snooze button
enough to make you feel your best during the day? Nope, says Rosenberg. The
urge to sleep a bit longer is really a symptom of a larger problem.
Some inventors have help for you if
you find it hard to get up in the morning.[2]
+ The Puzzle Alarm Clock: You might remember that old game
"Perfection" where you had to put various shapes in their
corresponding slots on a grid before a timer went off and a spring shot all the
pieces into the air? Okay, imagine that as an alarm clock where three different
puzzle shapes shoot out of the clock, and it blares until you get up and put
them in the right slot. There's nothing that says "wake up" like
having to use one's cognitive and motor skills instantly and urgently first
thing in the morning!
+ The Laser Target Alarm Clock: This one adds sharpshooting
skills to your morning routine. When the alarm clicks on, you have to aim a
laser beam directly at its center to turn it off. Perfect for Star Wars fans,
it's the morning equivalent of Han Solo blasting Greedo in the Mos Eisley
Cantina!
+ The Flying Alarm Clock: If you like Harry Potter, you will like this. It puts you in the middle of a Quidditch match every morning. The clock itself
actually launches out of its base like a Snitch and forces you to catch it in
midair and return it to the base in order to shut off the alarm. No word on how
many points one earns for this feat.
+ The Wake and Shake Alarm Clock: This one features a pad
that goes under your pillow. When it goes off, it shrieks with a sound that's
literally only 5 decibels short of a jackhammer, vibrates under your head, and
fires off a flashing strobe light. Actually, "Wake and Shake" seems a
little understated in this case.
+ Clocky: This is for you snoozers. If you hit the snooze
button on this innocent looking clock, it uses its attached wheels to launch
itself off the nightstand and rolls around the room looking for a place to
hide, whereupon it will blare its alarm again and make you get up to find it.
After all, who doesn't like an intense game of hide-and-seek before one's
morning coffee?
If one of
these alarms sounds like something you need, you are probably not a morning
person.
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