Do you have a physical reaction to the alarm clock?

[Guest comicalstar]

Whenever my alarm clock goes off, even when it is just music, my heart races and I get a serious adrenaline rush. I feel scared like I am getting threatened. Does anyone else have this? What can I do to prevent it?

[Rachel]

Yes, I get the adrenaline rush. Waking with music that gradually gets louder works a little better for me. For the most part I don't use an alarm and since my husband is the earlier riser, I have him wake me up if I have to go somewhere.

[Pawz4me]

I get the adrenaline reaction/startle response sometimes.  Mostly because I usually wake up on my own before the clock goes off.  So on the relatively few days I'm still asleep when it goes off, it's a shock.

[Hunter's Moon]

If I am awake when it goes off, yes. I always rush to grab my phone when I wake up to shut off the alarm.

 

If I am asleep though, the sound enters my dream if I am dreaming.

 

DH shoots up in bed lol

[Peaceful Isle]

My body starts to shake internally if it wakes me up out of a deep sleep. Anyone else shake internally? Maybe I'm just weird ;p

[Mandylubug]

Yep, shakes, heart racing, cold sweat, confusion.

[SKL]

Not sure.  But I do smack the crap out of it before it can wake the whole house up.  LOL.  And then I go back to sleep (until it rings again 9 minutes later!).  Ugh!

 

Waking up is my worst time of the day.  That is when all kinds of negative thoughts rush into my head and I want to quit my job and run away to Tibet for a couple of decades.  :P

[Mom22ns]

Yep, shakes, heart racing, cold sweat, confusion.

 

This.

 

Music was better, but still did it. I learned to wake up without an alarm when I was a teenager to avoid the reaction. I set an alarm, but almost always wake before it goes off and turn it off. I use an alarm on my phone that starts with the phone just vibrating and that has been the least startling for me.

[Rubix]

Yup, me here too, especially if it is my DH's alarm and I am not expecting it, or if I am stressed out about waking up (if I am worried about oversleeping, or have a stressful something or other in the morning!). 

 

I still haven't found the cure :)

[Donna]

Yes, I have that same reaction....heart racing, adrenaline rush, shaking all over. I think that's why my body almost always wakes me before my alarm is set to go off. I hate waking to the alarm clock even with music.

[FO4UR]

I have a hard time sleeping if I have an alarm set b/c of the reaction to the noise.  Music that gradually gets louder is better, but my best alarm is a 12mo baby.

[Plink]

Yes! Alarms and even quiet music startle me into a panic. I finally found out that chimes don't cause the same reaction when DH used his blackberry to wake us on vacation years ago.

 

We now keep that ancient blackberry beside our bed and it is the only alarmclock that we use.

[Χά�ων]

I wake up. That is all.

[jmarchman]

I have this reaction. I have switched to a sunrise alarm clock. It uses light to wake you up slowly over 30 minutes, and then there is a chime when it is time to get up. So if you want to wake up at 6, the light starts warming at 5:30. It is so dim when it starts that it is not at all jolting, and the gradual lightening is really like a sunrise. I no longer have headaches when I wake up.

[Berta]

OMG, I'm not strange! Wow, I have always thought I was the only person that has had this experience. I cannot have an alarm go off without it scaring me half to death. They startle me and my heart races. I have learned over the years to wake myself up when I need to get up without an alarm. I haven't used one in over 20 yrs. It helps to get yourself on a routine of going to bed around the same time each night, and then you will wake up naturally at the same time in the AM. This is what I try to do.

[Stratford]

Nausea.  It's a leftover reaction from high school.  

[regentrude]

Yes, but only when it catches me in deep sleep. If I went to bed early enough, I sleep lightly towards morning and then it just wakes me up. But if I went to bed late and did not get enough sleep, I have the startling response and heart racing. So for me, clearly, the solution is to make sure I got enough sleep to be close to waking anyway.

[swellmomma]

My physical reaction, is to tell it out loud to STFU, slam down on the snooze button and lay back down, repeat every 9 minutes for at least 3-4 cycles, when it goes off again, look at time, register how late it really is, swear a little more, jump out of bed, run around like a chicken with it's head cut off promising myself tomorrow I will not do this and dash out the door to work.  Tomorrow I will for sure do it all again though.

 

I used to get that heart racing bit when I first switched to the buzzer rather than music, but the music would enter my dreams and I would sleep through it.  Now though I am so used to it going off 7 days a week, that lately I often wake up about 30 minutes before it goes off in a panic that I missed it, beg for it to let me sleep longer when I see it is too early to get up and then start the above process when it really goes off.

[MomtoCandJ]

Besides the urge to break whatever is making the noise, no.

[foxbridgeacademy]

 

 

Music was better, but still did it. I learned to wake up without an alarm when I was a teenager to avoid the reaction. I set an alarm, but almost always wake before it goes off and turn it off. I use an alarm on my phone that starts with the phone just vibrating and that has been the least startling for me.

Me too, I almost always wake up before the alarm goes off.  I have an internal "clock" so I usually know what time it is within 10 minutes either way.  Occasionally when I'm really tired and don't wake up before the alarm is something out of a comedy..... Cussing, horizontal to vertical in 1 second...... lots of confusion and saying What? about 1/2 a dozen times.  

[Mommy22alyns]

Yes, I have a similar reaction, just pure anxiety.  And I also have trouble sleeping when I know it's going to go off, because what if I fall asleep and miss it?  I have to have Rebecca use her alarm and then come wake me up.