Don't set your alarm like this! It can cause more harm than you think...

"Ding-ling, ding-ding~~~" How many alarm clocks do you need to press to get up smoothly every morning? After being awakened by the alarm clock, you feel dizzy, your heart beats fast, and you feel unwell.

When setting an alarm, it is best not to use strong music to wake yourself up. Strong music can force people out of their sleep through rapid and even uncomfortable sounds, and for some sensitive people, this can wake them up with a fright.

Other studies have found that if you are awakened by an alarm clock during deep sleep, your short-term memory, cognition and other aspects will be relatively poor within 2 hours after waking up, and your motor skills will also be affected .

So what are the effects of being woken up by an alarm clock all the time? Why is being woken up by an alarm clock so annoying?

Why is waking up to an alarm so painful?

When we enter the sleep process, we do not sleep all the way until dawn as soon as we close our eyes, but we go through several sleep cycles. In each sleep cycle, we go through three stages: light sleep, deep sleep, and rapid eye movement.

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The light sleep stage is also the stage where we are most likely to wake up, and it is also the so-called half-dream and half-wake stage. This stage usually only lasts for a few minutes, our muscles will gradually relax, and our breathing and heart rate will slow down slightly. If we are not disturbed, we can smoothly enter the next stage.

But many times, we will be disturbed by some small squeaks or even the movement of people turning over next to us.

In the deep sleep stage, we sleep very deeply, our heart rate and breathing rate are at the lowest level, and our body is completely relaxed. In this sleep stage, it is difficult to wake us up.

Finally, we will enter the rapid eye movement period , when our breathing and heart rate will speed up. If someone stares at you at this time, they will find that your eyeballs are moving back and forth under the closed eyelids. At this time, the activity of our brain neurons is actually similar to when we are awake, but the body is completely relaxed. Our colorful dreams actually happen in this process .

Natural awakening often occurs after the REM period, when our brain is almost awake and we only need the body to catch up, so we can quickly switch from sleep to wakefulness. In addition, since we go through several sleep cycles in one night, we sometimes wake up in the light sleep stage, when our brain and body are not in a completely dormant state, and we will not feel uncomfortable after waking up.

But it’s different when we’re woken up by an alarm clock . It ’s completely random as to what stage of sleep we’re in when it rings . If we happen to be in deep sleep or having a beautiful dream, we’ll feel uncomfortable when we wake up.

Studies have found that if you are awakened by an alarm clock during deep sleep , your short-term memory, cognition and other aspects will be relatively poor within 2 hours after waking up, and your motor skills will also be affected.

In addition, it will cause the brain to accumulate more drowsy adenosine, making us groggy like the walking dead after waking up. In severe cases, we may even experience confused awakening. The so-called morning grumpiness is a typical example of this. After waking up, we don't know the place or time, and our temper is much worse than usual.

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Furthermore, no matter what stage we wake up in, our brain and body actually need a little time to wake up, which is called sleep inertia .

If we have good sleep quality, we will enter a state of full wakefulness after a few minutes, but if we do not sleep well , it may take several hours to eliminate this state .

This is why many people must have a cup of coffee when they wake up. Caffeine intake can speed up our awakening. If the alarm clock wakes us up at the wrong sleep stage, it will aggravate sleep inertia.

How can we change this situation?

Researchers have found that different alarm sounds can significantly affect people's sleep inertia after waking up. Compared with standard alarm sounds like the iPhone's default alarm audio "Radar", soft music, nature sounds, white noise, melodious music or your personal favorite music are more suitable as your alarm audio.

Of course, when choosing an alarm clock, you can follow a principle: whether it has a melodious prelude and a gradually exciting aftertone . Such changes are mainly through the gradual increase of the sound and the slow circling of the melody, which gradually awakens the body. However, "Radar" is different. It directly pulls you out of your sleep through rapid and even uncomfortable sounds. For some sensitive people, it is actually a shock to wake you up.

According to research, when we are awakened by a loud alarm, our blood pressure will rise sharply, our heart rate will jump, and our body will instantly enter a tense state , which is similar to when we are suddenly slapped from behind. Although our blood pressure and heart rate will slowly recover after we wake up, it is really uncomfortable to have such an experience every morning. For people who are easily frightened or have related problems, there are also certain health risks .

Therefore, if you must use an audible alarm to wake yourself up, you might as well choose a softer and more soothing one.

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In addition to sound alarms, we can also choose other methods to wake ourselves up, such as sunlight and vibration, which are more in line with our body's natural rhythm.

Our bodies are very sensitive to light and darkness. We naturally feel awake in bright environments and sleepy in dark environments. Therefore, we can leave a gap in the curtains before going to bed , and when the sun shines in naturally every day, we will naturally get ready to get up. If your room is not exposed to sunlight, you can also use the method of timing the lights to let your body enter the gradual awakening process.

Vibrating alarm clocks are also effective, and gentle vibrations can help us wake up gradually. You can put a vibrating alarm clock under your pillow, or wear a vibrating bracelet to wake up comfortably with gentle vibrations.

By the way, if conditions permit, it is also a good idea to let your family wake you up gently. Note that it should be done gently, not by pulling off your blanket suddenly, so that you wake up in fear and shame.

Planning and production

Author: Hydra popular science author

Review丨Tang Yicheng, Deputy Director of Beijing Zhongke Popular Psychological Health Promotion Center

Editor: Wang Mengru