I passionately despise alarm clocks. The jolt from waking up to the sound of an alarm used to begin my day with an anxiety that normally took a morning run to wear off. Back then I didn’t have a choice. I worked in an office that required me to be there by a certain time and that meant waking up while it was still dark.
It wasn’t until I started working with flexible hours that I had the option to try something else. I ditched my alarm clock and opened my window blinds at night to allow the sun to wake me up naturally in the morning. This ended up being one of the most important decisions I’ve made in my ever-going battle against anxiety. I’m not the only one that’s seen dramatic results from switching away from an alarm clock. In fact, people are starting to catch on and there’s a whole line of new alarm clocks built to replicate the effect. It makes sense if you think about it.
Humans have been waking up to the sun for thousands of years. Alarm clocks only became necessary with the invention of the light bulb. For thousands of years, waking up to a loud sound would be a sign that something went terribly wrong. It makes sense why a sudden loud alarm would cause us anxiety now.
Alarms are also unnatural in that you’re being jolted out of deep sleep into suddenly being awake. It’s a much different form of awakening whenever you use the sunlight. It’s a gradual process in which you transition from sleep to awake. This results in an energetic “ready to go” feeling. I usually wake up fresh and full of ideas now, whereas before I woke up tired and anxious. For some people, one potential negative of waking up with the sun is that your wake up time will change throughout the year. I wake up around 6:30 in the summer and 8:00 in the winter. However, I view this too as something that’s a natural process. Plus, I appreciate those early-morning, sun-filled summer hours and use them to get my outdoor tasks completed before it gets hot outside.
I encourage you to try this out and let me know how it works for you! I know that many people out there have work schedules that require them to wake up when the sun is still down. If you’re one of those people, I definitely recommend trying out one of the wake-up lights I mentioned above. I hope it helps you out as much as it has me and please let me know in the comments if you have any questions!
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3 thoughts on “Preventing Anxiety by Waking up with Light Instead of Alarms”
I feel the same anxiety with alarm clocks that you do. I even had to have my boyfriend change his phone alarm to something less…alarming because it would jolt me awake more anxious than my own would.
Thanks for sharing the post! I think I’m gonna have to check out one of these light alarms. I’ve had a problem with waking up to my alarm and then being too tired to function all morning, and I wonder if it might be because I’ve been awakened suddenly from deep sleep and my brain is still kind of in that sleepy place for awhile. I’ll let you know if a light alarm helps with that too!
I’m thrilled to hear you’re going to try it and can’t wait to see how well it works for you!