Why can't I wake up?
Asked by
rory (
1407
)
March 3rd, 2013
Okay so I’m an 18 year old girl and for the past year, it’s been almost impossible to get myself out of bed in the mornings. It’s not that I don’t want to get up—I often oversleep and miss things I’m really looking forward to.
I have had tried a whole litany of alarm clocks, each more absurd than the last. One of them had wheels on the bottom and would literally jump off of the bedside table while ringing, and roll around the room. To turn it off, you had to get up and grab it. It often involved a chase. But after a few weeks of that working, my unconscious brain learned to guess when the alarm clock was about to jump off my bedside table, and I could literally catch it and go back to sleep.
My next alarm clock was called the Sonic Boom, and it had a vibrating element that you put under your mattress or your pillow. It literally shook you out of bed. It was also the loudest alarm clock on the market. It was intended for the deaf or hearing impaired. I have perfect hearing and that thing got LOUD. It woke up everyone in the house. But after a week or two that stopped working for me as well.
And then I came to my last hope—the cell phone alarm clock. There was an app for that. It was called “I Can’t Wake Up”, and featured a series of tasks it would make you perform before you could make the thing shut up. It would continued to ring even if the phone was turned off. It made me do math, shake the phone for 30 seconds, solve puzzles, and even find barcodes around my room to scan. It was perfect! Finally, something worked. But lo and behold, a few days back that stopped working too.
I’m at my wit’s end. I get on average six or seven hours of sleep a night. This is starting to seriously screw with my life. Either I sleep through my alarm, or I disable it, however complicated it might be to do so, while I’m asleep.
Help, please!!!
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14 Answers
I feel your pain. I am a grad student with more work than I know what to do with, and it’s really hard to return to consciousness once I have found an escape from the books… I have perfected the art of turning my alarm clock off while dead asleep.
Do you have any medical conditions that might be affecting your sleep? Low thyroid is one of many things that might be causing this. Have you had a general physical in a while? It might be worth discussing with your doctor.
Welcome to Fluther, by the way.
@bookish1 I have had a physical fairly recently, and I don’t have any medical conditions. I should discuss it with my doctor, though, you’re right. I mean I’m fairly healthy though. It’s strange.
Do you have a set bedtime and a bedtime ritual? Do you watch T.V. in bed, read, play games and such or do you get into bed and go to sleep?
Easy. You’re not getting enough sleep. Go to bed 3 hours earlier and you’ll wake up fine.
Go to bed earlier. 6 to 7 isn’t enough. Try for 9 or 10.
I think @Rarebear has good advice. For teenagers, the suggested amount of sleeping time (in bed, snoozing, uninterrupted) is 9+¼ hours. I don’t even get that much sleep on the weekdays either, but maybe you should try to aim for adding some extra time to your sleep. Getting too much sleep may also make you lazier, too, however.
Also, I you should make sure that you have a good mattress and are sleeping in a comfortable position for the body.
Sounds to me you are suffering sleep deprivation. The hours you are having are not working out for you. When well rested we should hop out of bed. Are you on any medications? Those can also cause the no wake up situation.
I would also suggest you try sleeping longer hours. I for one need 9–10h each night or don’t feel rested (no matter what other people or books says is optimum).
Another problem might be sleep apnea. If sleeping more doesn’t live you rested explore this area or consult your doctor.
I usually need 8 hours a night of sleep. Six hours is my bare minimum for a few nights in a row to stay sharp. Have you looked into one of those light alarms that get’s your body in synch with daylight?
@Shippy, I’m on antidepressants and a 12 hour ADHD medication, but the ADHD meds wear off at around 7 pm.
You might not be achieving a deep sleep cycle and not getting rested on top of possibly needing to sleep for more hours.
One thing that really helped me was an hour long soundtrack on repeat of storms that also contained brain waves that mimiced the one’s found in deep sleep. I think it was a mixture of delta and something else.
I wake up really well rested when I bother with it. Though I don’t use it as much I used to. I bought the soundtrack but there are many found on youtube.
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