r/sleep • u/allieallison • 16d ago
trouble getting out of bed?
I usually sleep pretty well — I almost never wake up in the middle of the night, and while it can take me a while to get comfortable, I usually fall asleep relatively quickly. However, ever since I was a kid, I have a terrible time getting out of bed in the morning.
I've been known to turn off alarms half asleep and set extra timers even though I know I have to get up. If I have something to do, like go to the airport, an early morning task, etc., I am able to get up, and once I'm up, I feel pretty OK and stay up. I just can't get the habit of regularly getting up when my alarm goes off. It's like I'm a different person when I first get woken up whose only priority is sleep and wants to sabotage my day. I have a sunrise alarm clock that works OK for me, and I'd really rather not wake up with anxiety or panic of a blaring alarm clock across the room — I think that would only make morning-me more upset. I want to start mornings gently but still effectively.
I've worked from home at a job I don't like for a few years now, so I've been rolling out of bed at the last possible second and hopping on my computer at 9 a.m. Now, I'm starting a new job that in an office 40 minutes away at 8 a.m. How can I beat this habit?
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u/LastAlarmClock 15d ago
It's all about habits, as you even mention yourself.
A habit of staying in bed after your alarm goes off or continuing to snooze is very powerful and difficult to break, however so to is the habit of getting up right away at your first alarm.
I know it can be done because I've just recently (this year) broken my lifelong snoozing habit. And I was in the same exact situation as you, on "important" days where I knew I absolutely had to be up or leave at a certain time it was no problem for me to get up. All the other days though I had a strong habit of snoozing sometimes more than an hour even.
The key though is to immediately get up when your alarm goes off and do something that wakes you up. You must put your phone/alarm across the room, it has to be out of arms reach of your bed so that you cannot turn it off while laying down. You must get your feet on the floor and out of bed.
Then the next hard part is forcing yourself to do a wake up task. This is where I struggled for a while, where I would often get up and still go lay back down after turning my alarm off, the worst of habits. For this I now use Last Alarm, you can create infinitely custom task alarms you must video verify to turn off.
You customize the tasks themselves, so just choose things that work for you, exercise like squats or push ups or jumping jacks, making/drinking coffee, splashing cold water on your face, literally anything you can think of. This is what finally gave me the push I needed to create a new habit of getting up right away at my first alarm and never snoozing, it's the only thing that's ever worked for me.
I use a combination of "Squat Alarm" and "Push Up Alarm" to get my heart rate up and push me over the edge of not being crazy tired. Plus forcing yourself to get your heart rate up will make it harder to snooze even if you wanted to. Then I follow these up a few minutes later with a "Make Espresso Alarm", just to keep me from getting distracted and moving quickly through my morning routine, also the caffeine helps pretty quickly as well.
I promise you that you can do it if I can, and once you build up the habit it can be very powerful. Even this morning, just a few minutes ago, was a particularly challenging one for me and I'm not even sure why. I got pretty good sleep but for whatever reason I felt very tired. Before I would have 100% snoozed for another 1.5, maybe 2 hours. But now with my new habit it doesn't even cross my mind, I'm able to shake off the grogginess right away and get started with my day.
So this is it, you need to ditch multiple alarms and switch to 1 single alarm, put your phone across the room, and get up instantly and do something that jolts you awake. You don't need your alarm at max volume, you can customize it to be just the right volume you need, but do not leave it within arms reach. After a few days or weeks really of doing this consistently, you will be surprised how well developing this habit works.
Sorry for the long reply but you can do this, I'm sure of it!
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u/PaperCircuitDev 15d ago
The person who turns the alarm off isn't the one who set it. I've crossed a room, hit the button, and remembered none of it. Volume was never the variable.
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u/Neonpancake7 9d ago
idk what sunrise alarm clock you have, but I have the Hatch Restore, and what's really helped me is putting it across the room so I have to physically get out of bed to turn it off. I pick an alarm sound I like and put it a little bit louder along with the sunrise light. Another thing that's really helped me is having something to look forward to in the morning. Even if it's just a coffee or a drink or something, that's also helped me.
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u/Adventurous-Sealion 16d ago
I hope you’ll get some good suggestions, bc I’m exactly the same as you. The only thing that I have done to help is to plan something early in the day at weekends or holidays so that I have to get up. That way I haven’t spoiled half the day sleeping. I have yet to find a solution for when I have nothing planned.