Wake the F*** UP
Where did I go wrong?
I’ve always been a stickler for punctuality, and my wake-up routine was no exception. Even as a teenager, I wasn’t a victim of the ‘teen sleep loss epidemic’ — I went to bed before 10:30, finished my homework early, and avoided phone use before bed. I was the poster child for good sleep hygiene.
Throughout high school, I woke up at 5:45 a.m. without fail, using the same alarm clock I’d had since kindergarten. I thought it might be too “William and Mary” of me to bring my Disney-princess-branded, castle-shaped alarm clock with me to college, so she stayed behind. I did just fine — until halfway through freshman year, when mono hit. Exhaustion from the college rite of passage changed my routine, forcing me to spend the majority of my free time conked out in my room, the library, and the chairs in ISC. Gradually, I started hitting the snooze button every morning, hoping for a few more minutes of sleep to combat the constant fatigue.
That habit stuck, and while I’d occasionally go a few days without snoozing, it was never for long. Something had gone wrong — why wasn’t I functioning like I had at age ten?
Why do I keep doing something that I know is bad for me? (a deeply human question)
I continue hitting snooze because I’m tired in the mornings. Despite making an effort to go to bed early and avoid screens before sleep, I think I might suffer from “social jetlag,” where my body’s natural sleep-wake cycle doesn’t align with external demands (like my 9 a.m. class). I’m an evening chronotype, and ideally, I’d go to bed around midnight and wake up at 9 a.m. But college life keeps me on a schedule.
In addition to this, I’ve developed “revenge bedtime procrastination,” where I delay going to bed to reclaim some personal time, despite knowing it’s bad for my sleep. My high-stress life as a second-semester senior isn’t helping — while I know bedtime procrastination impacts my sleep, I’m unwilling to give up my late-night me-time as I squeeze the last drops out of my senior year.
I’ve convinced myself that those extra eight minutes of snooze make a difference. Sometimes they do, and this intermittent reinforcement strengthens the habit. The unpredictability of whether those extra minutes will help keeps me coming back for more.
Baseline: A week like any other
To analyze my snoozing habits, I needed a baseline. I observed myself without intervening to see how often I hit snooze, how tired I felt, and how my sleep quality fared. I tracked my behavior with a modified sleep quality scale and a tiredness scale, rating my exhaustion from one to 10 upon waking.
I’m not proud of my baseline results, but I will be honest. I averaged more than one snooze per day, and I hit snooze three times on two different occasions. My average tiredness score was over seven, and my highest quality sleep was a 6.5. Help!
Results
Average number of snoozes: 1.714
Average tiredness: 7.286
Week One: My best friend Alarmy
For my first intervention, I tried Alarmy, an app that eliminates the snooze button and requires completion of a task (like solving a math problem or scanning a barcode) to turn off the alarm. I chose the memory game, which I enjoyed as an avid New York Times puzzler. I also set up a reward system: if I snoozed less than twice, I’d get 10 minutes of free time in the morning.
The results were promising. The memory game energized me, and I didn’t feel the need to fall back asleep. My snoozing dropped dramatically, and I found that I didn’t even need the free time reward to motivate me. My sleep quality improved, and my tiredness score decreased. I even went two snow days without much snoozing — just once on each day! Alarmy had truly transformed my mornings.
Results
Average number of snoozes: .429
Average tiredness: 5.643
Week Two: The Hell on Earth that is SleepScore
In week two, I tried SleepScore, an app that promises to wake you up during your lightest sleep phase. It uses sonar and radio frequency to track your sleep, supposedly with better accuracy than other methods. I paired it with an increased free time reward and hoped for the best — I didn’t have much faith that it would do a better job at tracking my sleep than my Apple Watch, but I was willing to try it.
The setup was complicated and frustrating. I had to rearrange my room to meet the app’s requirements, and on day four, it failed to track my sleep altogether. Eventually, I stopped caring about the app’s accuracy and the constant reconfiguration, as my sleep quality continued to worsen. I ended up scrolling on my phone during my free time instead of using it productively. My tiredness score was the highest of the four-week study, and the app’s performance left much to be desired. Note: this is a very mild summary of my feelings about SleepScore...
Results
Average number of snoozes: .286
Average tiredness: 7.571
Week Three: Is Apple Sleep in the room with us?
After my SleepScore experience, I turned to Apple’s built-in Sleep app. It allowed me to set a sleep schedule, wind down, and limit distractions on my phone. I hoped this would combat my bedtime procrastination, thus further reducing my snooze habit. I also increased the reward for snoozing less than once, allowing 20 minutes of free time.
Although the app promised simplicity, I struggled with it. The alarm didn’t always go off, and I couldn’t reliably get the app to work with my Apple Watch. Instead of procrastinating on my phone since all of my ‘fun’ apps were locked, I ended up staying up late on my computer, at least engaging in hobbies, but still struggling against my snoozing habit. Overall, Apple Sleep was a weak end to this little self-experiment.
Results
Average number of snoozes: .143
Average tiredness: 5.429
Final Thoughts
Was the intervention successful? Yes. And no. But mostly yes. I went from an average of 1.7 snoozes per day at baseline to just 0.14 snoozes with Alarmy — clear progress! Alarmy was by far the most effective solution, helping me wake up with energy and eliminating my ability to snooze. SleepScore, however, was a disaster, and Apple Sleep didn’t fully meet my needs.
Some new research suggests that brief snoozing may help people with later chronotypes and drowsiness (i.e., me), but I don’t like the way snoozing makes me feel physically. I don’t like the way it makes me feel about myself, and, quite frankly, it wastes so much valuable time. Despite these studies indicating it might help others, I’m choosing to ignore that data in favor of what works for me.
If I had to do it all over again, I would consider trying different apps or different Alarmy tasks each week. I would also consider introducing a different reward, as my extra free time did not consistently accomplish the desired outcome. But for now, my conclusion is simple: Alarmy + Emelia = success.
