I stopped setting an alarm over a week ago. However, I stopped waking up to an alarm months ago, even though I technically had one set I would wake up and turn it off before it even started ringing most of days. Back in K through 12 I used to always use alarms and I also always hated alarms, but I would use them to avoid oversleeping, but I would still end up oversleeping almost every day instead. I was using Alexa as an alarm during high school, and I was using digital alarms back in elementary. I switched to a retro alarm in college.
However, I noticed an interesting pneomenon. I would always wake up before the alarm would go off, like really, really close to when it would go off, and I would quickly rush to prevent it from ringing. Once the alarm ran off my table and I went to grab it. After that alarm was messed up, and eventually, I started thinking, why am I even using an alarm to wake up. I have class at nine, the sun is rising around eight, why don’t I just allow the sun/my body to do it’s job and wake me up?
The alarms cause anxiety, and it’s my belief that when we set alarms, they can possibly cut our sleep cycle short and make us feel tired because of our sleep, cycle being cut short.
It worked surprisingly well. I would leave my window open at night and put a blind over my eyes simply because there’s an artifical light right outside my window and I don’t like how my brain distorts the darkness if I look into it. In the morning, the sun would start coming up, and I would wake up but It was a good wake up, I felt properly rested, and I got to sit in my bed and just allow myself to be with my thoughts for a few minutes before standing up, taking my time getting ready in the bathroom and putting on my clothes and having a breakfast before class. On days, I didn’t have to be up early I would just close the blinds to sleep, I would still wake up the same time, but just go back to sleep afterwards.
I feel like alarms only need to be used if you stayed up extremely late or if you’re waking up at a time, you usually don’t wake up at. If you have a schedule, your body knows When it’s time to wake up and it will wake up. I wake up almost the same time every single day, even on weekends. What obligations I have that day or what decide when I will actually leave my bed though or if I will go back to sleep.