I have noticed that I tend to wake up a few minutes before my alarm clock goes off. I think that even when I change the time that the alarm clock should go off (for example, if I set it earlier so that I can go fishing) I still somehow wake up right before it goes off. I do not (yet) have any experimental evidence for this, it's just my perception.

So I've decided to conduct an experiment. I'm not going to use my alarm clock for a while. I'm not even going to set it - so if I oversleep, I wont have a safety net. I'll record the time when I go to bed and when I wake up, and learn the pattern, then see if "wishing" to wake up earlier actually results in waking up earlier.

Have you heard of anything like this being done - I'm sure that it has. I mentioned to a coworker that I wouldn't use an alarm clock and she said she's been doing that for years. How many of you don't use a clock? Would I be correct in guessing that this has something to do with circadian rhythms (as opposed to magical powers)?

I do the same thing. I call it "getting old".

Gone [and much missed] are the days I needed an alarm clock...

__________________
If you're careful enough, nothing bad or good will ever happen to you.

SERIOUSLY? This is because I'm old?

Yes,

My cat wakes me at about 6:00 am everyday.

Perhaps a better experiment would be to set your alarm for 30 minutes later than you need to be awake. This has the small benefit that you won't oversleep by hours and has the scientific benefit that you can eliminate pre-alarm signals that may occur in some clocks (e.g., in some older clocks, there is an audible 'click' a minute or so before the alarm goes off).

So, if you wake up when you need to, then it's not a matter of the alarm clock. However, if you find yourself waking up 29 minutes late, a minute before the alarm goes off, then perhaps there's a pre-alarm signal from the clock. Just make sure if you wake up on time, you turn off the alarm clock so that it doesn't go off after you leave...

I use an alarm clock. I tend to go out of bed an hour after it started playing music. I do often wake up before my alarm though, but then again I usually have woken up multiple times already due to sunlight entering the room.

__________________
To the regular visitor of internet bulletin boards it is clear that it's an excellent idea your parents get to choose your real name.

I used to use an alarm clock. But repairing the holes in the wall got to be tedious, so now I toss something less dense, a pillow for example.

__________________
A person's name, or a mark representing it, as signed personally or by deputy, as in subscribing a letter or other document.

I stay asleep.

__________________
"If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction."
Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
Illuminati's Razor-The most complicatedly evil answer is usually the most correct answer. - Fazor
"Every book is a children's book if the kid can read." - Mitch Hedberg
"Distance doesn’t matter much in space, where if you just start a thing off with the right kind of shove, sooner or later it will get where you want it to go." -Frederik Pohl, Mining the Oort

tofu,

Try this experiment, verbally tell yourself out loud that you want to wake up at a specific time. Not the time you usually get up, but some other time. Ex. If you get up a 6 am, then verbally tell yourself out loud to wake up at 4 am.

I've done this several times when I need to wake up on the weekends for some special reason. It works for me and I'm only 34.

I used to so hate being woken by the alarm that i would regularly wake a few minutes before it went off just to avoid the jarring.

Clock-radios are a different matter; waking to music not so traumatic. In the winter, the alarm wakes me; in summer, the light usually does first.

__________________
PW -- Plant Whisperer

It's called "sleep-posting." Usually harmless, but if it gets to be a problem, there is medication for it

__________________
PW -- Plant Whisperer

I need an alarm clock because I wake up every couple hours, but never at the same time.

Sometimes I get into a really epic dream, and if the alarm doesn't shake me... my wife can.

Typically, I don't need it. I wake up about 10 minutes to 1 minute before it goes off, but I MUST get up when it does (I work where I live), so I just use it as a back-up.

When I lived by myself, I had to put it on the other side of the room so I couldn't ignore it or shut it off and go back to sleep easily.

As an added question... and this has happened to me...

Have you ever had the alarm go off, and thought you got up and got ready to start your day only to wake up later again and realize you were just dreaming that you got up?

I hate that. You lay there thinking about getting up and fall back asleep and dream that you are up.

One of Watterson's 'Calvin and Hobbes' comics was about that. Calvin's last line was 'My dreams are getting way too literal,' or similar.

I do that. If I get more than 8 hours of sleep, I'll beat the 7:01 buzzer. I usually average around seven and it gets me, but make it an early night, and 6:54 like clockwork...

I've not used an alarm clock in .. a long time. I wake when I want to (or the dogs wake me, whichever is earlier).

Of course, on those occasions when I'm ill, all bets are off. I've been known to sleep 36 hours straight (as opposed to my more normal 4 - 5 hours a night)

I didn't use one before the onset of my illness. Now, I'm never sure what time I will get to sleep or even if I will get to sleep. Once I do get to sleep, it's six or seven hours before I will wake. I have to have an alarm to get me up or I will be late for work.

__________________
Some try to tell me, thoughts they cannot defend,... - Moody Blues.

When I have a reason to wake up early, I have to use an alarm clock. However, most days, that doesn't apply. And I don't bother with one at ren faire, even though I have to get up early (by my standards) for that, because the sunlight coming into the tent wakes me up just fine.

A lot of days, of course, I don't need an alarm clock because I have a cat.

__________________
Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

ok. I'm going to wake up at 5:00 - six hours and twenty minutes from now.

(and I'm going to dream about Uma Thurman)

In my dreams my name is Max and she says
I can still hear it:But the memory of Lee Meredith will never die...

(smart as a whip)

__________________
A person's name, or a mark representing it, as signed personally or by deputy, as in subscribing a letter or other document.

I used to use an alarm clock before when I worked on a shifting schedules. But now I don't used it anymore because I have problems in sleeping, and alarm clock will be useless because I tend to wake up every hour.

__________________
Jean
-----
"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing." - Albert Einsteiin