Alarm clocks are… alarming

Ever read a book where the protagonist wakes up with a start when the alarm goes off? Or ever read when the alarm doesn’t go off and because it didn’t, all hell breaks loose?

In a story, alarm clocks signals a start of something, the change in a scene, or just a reference that time has moved on.

In fiction writing, I’ve used alarm clocks and the incessant beeps once or twice.

But I’m here to talk about reality.

I’ve often wondered about the benefits of alarm clocks and why people use it.

To be truthful, I’ve never used an alarm in my life. (Not really never, but almost doesn’t really count, right?).

It may be a hereditary thing, or just the way I was brought up. My parents never – or almost – never used alarms in their lives before. And no, they didn’t always miss their appointments; we (the kids) were never late to school.

I wake up every day (on week days) between 5:10 and 5:30 am without the assistance of a watch. I may wake a few minutes before that, or a few minutes late, but that twenty minute window is when I wake up 90% of the time – weekends are different, of course.

I don’t mean we have something extra; it’s just the way people are. You know when you’re used to waking up at a specific time every day? Suppose you turn off that alarm, even if you wake up late, you won’t miss that timeframe by much. You’ll moan and groan and try to cover your head and go back to sleep, but no matter how much you wish for it, sleep will never come.

In the beginning of this year, my oldest, 11 years old, decided that he wanted to start waking up on his own. Because he still doesn’t have control of his “inner alarm”, he decided he needed to turn on his physical, very loud alarm.

And every morning, at 5:00 his alarm would go off. I’d wake up with a start, disoriented, break out a cold sweat,  and stumble blindly (pun intended), heart pounding in the froze of a pre-attack and search his room for the ringing device among the piles of clothes, candy wrappers and weird gadgets. And my son would go on, peacefully sleeping, unaware of the end of the world.

Now he’s twelve, and he thinks he’s old enough to wake up on his own. This time around, he came up with a plan. He read about this clock that jumps off the nightstand and runs away when the alarms rings, banging into furniture and bouncing in opposite directions. To turn it off, you have to catch the thing first.

Hmmm, I don’t think so.

Have you ever heard about “Clocky” before? Out of curiosity, I did a search on it and found it sells on Amazon – and comes with free shipping. I wouldn’t get one even if I was paid to take it!

How do you feel about alarm clocks? Do you depend on them or is your inner alarm reliable?