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I have an alarm clock set for 6:45am at my bedside. I’ve always used an alarm clock to wake me, except for those thankfully brief weeks when I could rely on one or more infants to wake me.
My alarm clock is a little flakey in that some mornings it refuses to work. I don’t want to work some mornings either, but I drag my butt out of bed anyway. About once a week, I’ll shake off the sleep long enough to check the clock, and see that it’s already after 7am. That kills my morning and forces me to rush prepare for the day. Even though I never roll out of bed until after 7am anyway, I need that solid 20 minutes of lying in bed to convince myself that (1) it’s time to wake up, and (2) the kids aren’t going to choose today to sleep in for the first time ever.
I swear I check my alarm every night before falling asleep. The clock’s is set for pm. The alarm is set for am. The radio is tuned to a station. The volume is set to an appropriate level. The alarm is set. Yet, too often it doesn’t sound.
Sometimes the problem is clear. I know the alarm was set when I fell asleep, but it’s off when I wake up. Obviously, gnomes are sneaking into our bedroom at night and turning off my alarm while I doze an arm’s length away.
Other times, the kids are the problem. I usually keep the kids out of our bedroom, but sometimes I have to work in there, such as when folding laundry, or when watching a sporting event that’s too pivotal to watch on the living room TV with its buttons at optimal toddler-pushing height. I can’t leave them unsupervised in the house, so I bring them in the bedroom with me while I watch the game on a set elevated far off the floor. My alarm clock is one of their favorite things to play with, right up with my sock drawer and Ellie’s underwear drawer. Since I’m too engrossed in the importance of my work, I usually don’t notice what they do to my alarm clock. They can change the clock time, alarm time, volume, tuning, or do all of the above and unplug it. Usually I notice their changes right away, or at least before falling asleep. Then there are the times I wake up and see the clock still flashing 12:00 at me.
I’m sensitive to unusual morning stimuli because of the possibility that I missed my alarm. If I notice anything odd, I wake up. If it’s too bright out, I’m up. If I hear faint or odd music, I’m up. If I feel like I’ve slept for more than seven hours, I’m up.
Early this morning, my eyes popped open when I heard odd music. My initial fear was that I’d been listening to a faint station for several minutes after the kids retuned the radio yesterday, but I quickly realized it wasn’t time to wake. The sun had barely cracked the horizon, and I was ridiculously under-refreshed instead of my standard dangerously under-refreshed.
I gathered my bearings enough to realize the sound was coming through the baby monitor. After collecting a couple more bearings, I recognized the music as coming from a toy train. I must’ve left it in their room last night, and Abbie, who snuggles with everything when sleeping, apparently rolled over on it in her sleep.
It woke both of us up, and she was not pleased. She knew it wasn’t time to wake yet. I didn’t want to risk waking anyone even more, so I waited for the song to finish. It did, and she eventually grumbled back to sleep. I never thought to check the alarm in her room before going to bed.
My alarm clock is a little flakey in that some mornings it refuses to work. I don’t want to work some mornings either, but I drag my butt out of bed anyway. About once a week, I’ll shake off the sleep long enough to check the clock, and see that it’s already after 7am. That kills my morning and forces me to rush prepare for the day. Even though I never roll out of bed until after 7am anyway, I need that solid 20 minutes of lying in bed to convince myself that (1) it’s time to wake up, and (2) the kids aren’t going to choose today to sleep in for the first time ever.
I swear I check my alarm every night before falling asleep. The clock’s is set for pm. The alarm is set for am. The radio is tuned to a station. The volume is set to an appropriate level. The alarm is set. Yet, too often it doesn’t sound.
Sometimes the problem is clear. I know the alarm was set when I fell asleep, but it’s off when I wake up. Obviously, gnomes are sneaking into our bedroom at night and turning off my alarm while I doze an arm’s length away.
Other times, the kids are the problem. I usually keep the kids out of our bedroom, but sometimes I have to work in there, such as when folding laundry, or when watching a sporting event that’s too pivotal to watch on the living room TV with its buttons at optimal toddler-pushing height. I can’t leave them unsupervised in the house, so I bring them in the bedroom with me while I watch the game on a set elevated far off the floor. My alarm clock is one of their favorite things to play with, right up with my sock drawer and Ellie’s underwear drawer. Since I’m too engrossed in the importance of my work, I usually don’t notice what they do to my alarm clock. They can change the clock time, alarm time, volume, tuning, or do all of the above and unplug it. Usually I notice their changes right away, or at least before falling asleep. Then there are the times I wake up and see the clock still flashing 12:00 at me.
I’m sensitive to unusual morning stimuli because of the possibility that I missed my alarm. If I notice anything odd, I wake up. If it’s too bright out, I’m up. If I hear faint or odd music, I’m up. If I feel like I’ve slept for more than seven hours, I’m up.
Early this morning, my eyes popped open when I heard odd music. My initial fear was that I’d been listening to a faint station for several minutes after the kids retuned the radio yesterday, but I quickly realized it wasn’t time to wake. The sun had barely cracked the horizon, and I was ridiculously under-refreshed instead of my standard dangerously under-refreshed.
I gathered my bearings enough to realize the sound was coming through the baby monitor. After collecting a couple more bearings, I recognized the music as coming from a toy train. I must’ve left it in their room last night, and Abbie, who snuggles with everything when sleeping, apparently rolled over on it in her sleep.
It woke both of us up, and she was not pleased. She knew it wasn’t time to wake yet. I didn’t want to risk waking anyone even more, so I waited for the song to finish. It did, and she eventually grumbled back to sleep. I never thought to check the alarm in her room before going to bed.
posted by Matt at
11:53 PM
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