We Tested Different Alarm Methods for a Week So You Don’t Have To

What’s the most effective way for anti-morning heavy sleepers to wake up? 😴

Let’s be real: one of the hardest things about getting up in the morning is fighting the urge to throw your phone across the room when that awful ringtone blares.

Especially if you’re a very heavy sleeper or not a morning person (like me).

But, not to worry, I’ve done the hard work and tested out a range of different alarm methods to figure out which one is the best to get you out of bed and feeling somewhat awake as quickly as possible.

The method to my madness.

There are some ground rules to this so I can enhance my sleep quality and ensure I can wake up early.

1. No devices max 30 mins before bed.
2. Read at least 10 pages of a book before going to sleep.
3. Drink water as soon as you wake up.
4. Sleep with curtains closed.

The overall goal is to try and wake up between 6am and 6:15am so I can get to work a little earlier and feel a bit less groggy in the morning. But for you this might mean getting up between 6am and 8am to get to class or to start studying for the day.

Monday

Method: Five alarms with snooze turned off with one minute intervals between them.

Positives

• The consistent alarms were kind of effective in preventing me from falling back into a deep sleep and I did feel quite alert by the time I actually woke up.

Negatives

• It’s very jarring for your body to wake up really early, fall back asleep and then wake up a minute later. Overall, this method felt pretty ineffective and it took me a while to get up.

How awake I felt after I got out of bed:

• At first, very groggy and tired (I didn’t sleep well knowing I had five alarms waiting for me the next morning) but my head felt a lot more clear by 7am.

How effective it was: 3/10

Tuesday

Image: FreakyAlarm

Method: Using an app called FreakyAlarm that makes you do maths equations to turn the alarm off.

Positives

• It worked straight away and it was a little jarring but less annoying than an iPhone alarm.
• The app is very customisable, you can change the intensity of the alarm and the difficulty of the questions you must complete.
• The noise combined with the intensity of having to quickly solve equations was so intense but effective.

Negatives

• You have to do maths at 6am. I make content for a living, maths is not my strong suit.
• It’s extremely loud (like so loud it feels like waking up with a panic attack) and it could be hard to use unless you live alone.
• You have to keep your phone on and unlocked all night for it to work which drains the battery when used over time.
• I spent $2.99 downloading this app to my phone. (Can I claim that on tax?)

How awake I felt after I got out of bed:

• I felt very awake and alert although because my phone was already on and unlocked, I felt very inclined to use social media first thing in the morning.

How effective it was overall: 7/10

Wednesday

Image: IronWake

Method: Use the app IronWake where you must do a set amount of reps (squats, push ups, jumping jacks or sit-ups).

Positives

• App is easy to navigate.
• There’s a calendar in app that tracks your habits.
• Gets your body moving, good for if you want to feel energised as soon you wake up.

Negatives

• You have to leave the app open and your phone unlocked all night.
• Some exercises you have to pay for, you can only access squats with the free version.

How awake I felt after I got out of bed:

• Very frazzled but moving straight away did wake me up a bit.

How effective it was overall: 5/10

Thursday

Method: Put phone on the other side of the room, forcing me to actually get out of bed to turn it off.

Positives

• It got me out of bed but I had slept late the night before and I ended up switching off the alarm and getting back into bed.
• I did snooze with my lamp on though which did prevent me from falling into as deep of a sleep.

Negatives

• I was a lot more tempted to put my phone down and just go back to bed.
• It’s a pretty efficient method but works best when you get enough sleep the night before.
• I would recommend placing your phone in a drawer or in another room so there’s more effort than just tapping the screen.

How awake I felt after I got out of bed:

• Pretty groggy, putting my phone on the other side of the room was a decent motivator but it didn’t jolt me awake straight away.

How effective it was overall: 8/10

Friday

Method: Once alarm rings at 6am, immediately count 5 4 3 2 1, put legs on the floor and splash water on my face.

Positives

• Gets you thinking as soon as you wake up and it can be an effective method for getting out of your head and just doing whatever that difficult task is.
• Splashing water on my face had me feeling alert and awake by 6:10am.

Negatives

• Like most alarm methods, it’s dependent on the quality of sleep you get the night before.

How awake I felt after I got out of bed:

• Splashing water on my face was a good way to make me feel instantly refreshed and a lot less stressed out compared to answering a maths question at 6am.

How effective it was overall: 6/10

TLDR: What’s the best method to wake up early?

Based on my limited experiment, I would say the best way to get yourself up early is to try to get as much sleep as possible with an early bed time.

I would recommend combining the Thursday and Friday methods to create a morning routine that gets you out of bed and makes you feel alert as soon as possible.

Unless you prefer spiking your cortisol first thing in the morning, then I would try something like FreakyAlarm.

Anyways, I’m off to have a nap now to catch up on my sleep. Don’t tell my boss 🤫