The Arms of Morpheus

Are alarm clocks counter productive? I have always had sleep
issues ranging from insomnia to sleep apnea. Some of these have
been resolved by my C-PAP, but some of them seem rather weird.
One of these is my alarm clock or rather alarm clocks.
No matter what alarm I use, it eventually starts to make me
drowsy. For the longest time I would watch the CBS Early Show
college. Well, actually, I would watch Kathleen Sullivan and
then Paula Zahn, but they were on the Early Show. The theme
song was "Oh What a Beautiful Morning" from "Oklahoma." Now, I
can't watch a production without getting sleepy.

But it happened with my beeping alarm clock which I used
throughout law school. The beeping noise would start to make me
feel drowsy. It even makes me think of an old Jimmy Olsen comic
story wherein he is forced to sleep on a spaceplane flight.
Now, the thing is, the beeping noise makes me drowsy, but also
keeps me awake. In fact, I apparently have some sort of
internal clock, because I typically wake up a minute or two
before the alarm goes off.

Recently, circumstances forced me to switch to my cell phone's
alarm clock, and it worked well enough that I haven't made any
effort to replace it, but, here's a kicker, after a couple
weeks, sure enough, it's making me drowsy.

I'm going to start varying the ring on this phone and seeing
what happens, but I have investigated this phenomenon. Some
psychologists seem to think we should not use alarm clocks, but
rather allow our body to dictate terms and wake up. I usually
wake up before the alarm anyway, but what about people who
don't? For some people the kids or the dog would get them up,
but otherwise you are stuck with the alarm clock or going to sleep
two hours early.

In law school I used to take naps on weekends to pay back the
sleep debt I built up during the week. These days I workout six
days a week, with a rest day in the middle of the week, so I do
a lot of actual physical exertion, which doesn't actually make
me feel more energetic, and I have less time to nap. I am
taking little catnaps when I can, however. And for those, I
don't use an alarm.