My estradiol alarm. Starting the day has never felt so good.
Apologies in advance, for I am kind of dumb, but what does this mean?
Estradiol is a pill I take twice daily. It is hormone therapy to make me more feminine (I’m a transgender woman). The side effect is it makes me really happy about myself and life. Chronic depression is a thing of the past.
Don’t have kids
Removed by mod
Do you mean regularly or exceptionally?
If I need to get up early as an exception I just go to bed earlier and automatically tend to wake up before my early alarm.
For some reason if i go to sleep at 0000 i wake naturally quite early. But if i go later or earlier, i sleep way too much. I went to bed at 0000 for about a year as I had things to wake up for and at some point i started to wake in time or earlier even without alarm. It still seems to work even after sleeping way too late for many months.
While i had work, i also woke up about hour before i had to leave just so i can “nap” for hour. I would wake up, brush my teeth and put my clothes on so i can just leave and then set alarm for about 1h. I dont know if it was good idea or not, but it felt like it worked.
So going to bed at same time each or at least most nights and getting enough sleep might help. And definitely dont do anything extra in bed while trying to sleep like using phone, it will surely lower the quality of sleep.
The only thing I’ve tried that actually works: apps like Sleep Cycle.
The app tracks your sleep, but that’s secondary for you. What you want out of it is the alarm part. You give it an interval of time when you want to wake up, and it’ll do it based on which sleep stage you’re in.
The idea is simple - you have different stages of sleep. Sometimes you’re in deep sleep, sometimes in REM (rapid eye movement), sometimes in light sleep - there may be others, idm. You want to wake up from light sleep, that’s when you feel the most fresh. Waking up from deep sleep you’re all groggy and still half asleep. So the app determines when you’re in the lightest sleep, and it plays an alarm gradually, so that you’re not just scared awake.
You can read more here: https://www.sleepcycle.com/features/smart-alarm-clock/
The thing is, this feature is actually not why I got the app. I wanted to track my sleep, I didn’t really care about how I woke up. But I honestly just found it easier to wake up with this, so now I recommend it.
That sounds awesome, I wish I could use that. Unfortunately my fiancée and I have very different sleeping habits and I imagine one of us is going to be waking up at the wrong point in the sleep cycle. Sounds like a great idea though
If you hold the phone on your side of the bed, it should theoretically record your sleep pattern, not hers. So it should play the alarm when you’re in light sleep, not her. And since the alarm starts off with low volume, there’s a high chance you will be the first to hear it - she might not even notice it before you’re already up. Unless you’re a heavy sleeper and she isn’t, in which case - yeah, it might not work.
Make a clone of yourself to wake up early for you
Actually go to bed very, very early. I don’t mean “23:00 instead of midnight” early, but at like 19:00. My body is used to going to bed at 22:00-23:00 and then 2 hours of videos and livestreams. Instead, it gets 3 hours till 22:00, at the end it slips into disbelief that it should sleep already, but finally slips into it at 22:00-23:00. And so, 8 hours of sleep at 6:00-8:00. And then either getting up, or resting till 9:00.
I get seasonal affective disorder in the winter. Thirty minutes of the light therapy lamp first thing in the morning works wonders if you use it properly and consistently.
No drinking definitely helps me.
Ignorance is what helps you.
Drugs
My “strategy” consists of going to bed at a fixed time and a modern electronic alarm clock that is 100% reliable.
Don’t forget that whatever method you adopt repetition and time are the most help. Like exercise or quitting smoking, eventually your body will get the message that now it’s time to go to sleep, and now it’s time to wake up. But it takes practice to make a habit. I heard once a habit takes on average 36 consecutive attempts, so expect at least a month or more before you don’t feel like you’re trying anymore and it just happens on it’s own.
There’s always going to bed earlier.
Doesn’t work for everyone.
Some people always go to bed early and wake up early. They complain if they sleep on because it is too far from their natural sleep cycle.
Some people go to bed late and wake up late and getting up early sucks even if they get the same number of hours of sleep.
Some people can adjust. Maybe even the majority of people can adjust. Not everyone is able to adjust.
Be born different, my friend. Never regret how you were built, however, as it is prized and unique.
