The alarms I tried, the apps that made me get up, and the tricks my half-asleep brain learned to ignore.
I spent years changing alarm sounds when the real problem was the hand that found Snooze before I was awake. These are my notes on loud alarms, math alarms, and the apps that make getting out of bed harder to dodge.
Alarm apps
Low tones, bed shakers, missions and placement: what an alarm clock for heavy sleepers needs, the studies behind it, and the products I tried myself.
Read more: An alarm clock for heavy sleepers, from someone who slept through three of them
Alarm apps
Alarmy's missions got me out of bed, but the ads and subscription grated. Here is the Alarmy alternative I use and the plainer alarms worth testing tonight.
Read more: An Alarmy alternative, and what Alarmy still gets right
Alarm apps
I compared Alarmy, Sleep Cycle, Sleep as Android, Wayk and the stock clock by one test: which alarm clock app actually gets you standing up on a bad morning.
Read more: Which alarm clock app actually gets you out of bed
Alarm apps
A loud alarm worked on me for nine days. Here is what the research says wakes a sleeper: pitch, a sound that changes, and when in the cycle it rings.
Read more: Why a loud alarm stopped waking me, and what wakes a sleeper instead
Alarm apps
A math alarm clock makes you solve a sum before it stops. Here is why that wakes a groggy brain, what the research says, and how hard the problem should be.
Read more: Why a math alarm clock works on a brain that is still half asleep