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Notes on actually waking up.
Practical writing about alarms, snooze habits, and mornings that start away from bed.
What time to go to bed for a 5am alarm, without a calculator
Count back from the alarm by your sleep need, add the time you take to fall asleep, and skip the 90-minute cycle rule. Bedtimes for alarms from 4:30 to 6:00.
Read the postOctober 23, 2026Why you fall back asleep after the alarm, and how to stop it
You stopped the alarm, stood up, and woke an hour later in bed. The failure is in the first minutes after dismissal. Here is what to put in them.
Read the postOctober 16, 2026Why waking up at the same time every day matters more than bedtime
Social jetlag is the gap between weekday and weekend sleep timing, measured in a 2006 study of 501 people. A fixed wake time closes it. A fixed bedtime cannot.
Read the postOctober 9, 2026Best alarm sound to wake up to? Melodic beats harsh, in one study
A 2020 RMIT study linked melodic alarm sounds to less grogginess than harsh beeping. How to pick a sound tonight, and why the sound cannot get you out of bed.
Read the postOctober 2, 2026How many alarms should you set? One, and here is why
One alarm at the time you have to be up beats five set ten minutes apart. What a stack of alarms costs, and the two cases where a second one is worth keeping.
Read the postSeptember 25, 2026Where to put your barcode alarm target, ranked by how well it works
Six places to put a barcode or QR code alarm target, ranked by distance, whether the object stays put, and what you do after the scan. Plus what not to use.
Read the postSeptember 18, 2026The phone across the room trick, and the three ways it fails
Putting your alarm across the room makes you stand up. Test the placement, keep the phone there, and plan what happens after you tap Stop.
Read the postSeptember 11, 2026Why your iPhone alarm did not go off, and how to check each cause
Six reasons an iPhone alarm stays silent, from Attention Aware to a dead battery, with the setting to check for each and the one cause no setting fixes.
Read the postSeptember 2, 2026Is snoozing actually bad for you? Less than you were told
In the one lab study that measured it, half an hour of snoozing cost six minutes of sleep and little else. The tap habit is the real cost, and it has a fix.
Read the postAugust 31, 2026Why do I sleep through my alarm? It is not discipline
You dismiss alarms while still asleep, and sleep inertia is why. Here is what fixes it and why moving the phone across the room only half works.
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