January 23, 2004 - My Internal Alarm

I've had incidents even stranger than that. For example, just this past week, when I decided, after awakening at 8:15, that I would give myself another hour. I went back to sleep.

Awhile later, I heard a single beep inside my head. I woke up, trying to figure out the source of the sound. Nothing in my apartment made a sound quite like that. I looked at the clock. It was 9:15.

A similar experience happened in a State College book store. I'd gone in during the summer to get cool. This particular store had a couch upstairs. I didn't want to be late for my martial arts class, but I was tired. So I looked at my watch, decided how long I could sleep, and closed my eyes.

A bit later, I woke to a single, internal beep. I looked at my watch and it was exactly the time I had decided to awaken.

Although I'd like to believe I'm something special, I believe that anyone can do this. Here are some ways to practice.

Some lazy weekend afternoon when you have no commitments and nothing to do, and you're feeling a bit tired and decide to lay down for a nap, look at a clock and decide how long you're going to sleep.

Then lie down, close your eyes and go to sleep. See if you wake up when you wanted to.

For me, it seems that looking at a clock is essential, perhaps because I'm a very visual person and it helps me visualize the amount of time I have to sleep. When I figure out how long I have to sleep before going to bed at night, I frequently wake up several minutes before the alarm.

This can be depressing if you stay up late and get up early, but looking at a clock still seems to be an essential component to setting my internal alarm.

The most interesting thing about my internal alarm is that I also have "snooze," which is to say that on the mornings when I've woken up extremely early, I'd go back to sleep. But instead of waking up when the alarm clock goes off, I'd wake 10 minutes later, look at the clock and say, "Aargh!"

You can also try out your internal alarm for waking up in the morning on the weekend. Or you can see if you can set it to get you up before your actual alarm.

I wouldn't, however, rely on your internal alarm to get you up for important appointments or for work. Even my internal alarm can be occasionally unreliable. There have been times when I meant to go back to sleep for just an hour, only to wake up two hours later. Those tend to be days when I'm absolutely exhausted and probably need the sleep.

Waking to an internal alarm is a much gentler wake to awake. You don't feel as if your dreams are being ripped out of your head by an unpleasant noise. Instead, you have a few quiet moments to recall your dreams, which can be useful for spiritual healing.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to hit my internal snooze.

Moral:
An internal alarm that actually beeps is pretty darn cool.