With the changing of the seasons, changing levels of exercise (now that I’m biking to work again almost daily) and a lapse into eating garbage and drinking too much beer & wine (the sunshine turns me into a serious boozehound), sleep, once again, eludes me.
I can’t quite remember the last time I fell asleep easily and slept through the night without waking up tossing and turning, or just waking up way too early and not getting back to sleep.
Thankfully, getting back into a routine that works for me and my lousy brain has helped some.
Except now I’m being sabotaged by my alarm clock.
My alarm clock is old. And I am surprised that it didn’t give up long before now. It’s a Sony Dream Machine that was gifted to me for my 9th birthday (no, I did not forget a “1” – the thing really is just about 20 years old). It’s dingy and ugly and the radio receiver has never picked up a clear station. But it’s been a reliable alarm for the past many, many moons, so why fix what ain’t broke?
Because eventually it breaks. At 5:06am.
I have no idea why, but suddenly the speaker started buzzing. We thought it might be because of a cell phone, but no, the phones were both in the kitchen. And it wasn’t the typical cell-phone speaker interference noise. That’s more of a “chip-chip-chirp” while this was a “BzzzzzzZZZZZZzzzrrrrrRRRrrrrrzzzzzrrzzzZZZZ” only to be stopped by unplugging it.
It does not help that removing anything from the bedroom plugs first requires moving one of two full, heavy nightstands.
I was not amused.
So tonight we try again to sleep all the way through the night.
Anyone out there have recommendations for a good alarm clock.
I’ve got a 7-day alarm clock, which was useful back when I was working, because I could set it to go off later on the weekends, or at different times in the week depending on my schedule. It’s nice because you then don’t accidentally get woken up at 6:30 am on a Saturday morning when you were looking forward to sleeping in until Sunday 🙂
The only alarm clock I use is my cell phone 🙂
my only tip is to NOT get one with green-lit numbers. my old alarm clock (got when i was 13) had lovely red numbers which cast a sultry glow. my new green-lit clock radio glows like a motherfucker. it practically lights up my whole bedroom. i have to turn it away from the bed or the brightness will actually wake me up. i’ve considered painting the plastic over the digits with a brown nail polish just to try to dim down the glare.
go with red if you can. blue might even be better. green is the devil.
I agree with Heather; I block the green lit #s on my clock radio! Though, it does a good job of waking me up at the right time.
I’ve had my red-digit GE clock radio for about 10 years and it still works like new; something similar should run you under $20. Good luck!
You have a perfectly good alarm built right in to your iPhone. I have several alarms configured and it works great.
Firstly, I second the iPhone idea… works great, and can be programmed for days of the week.
But, I also LOVE my Sony alarm — it has an awesome sound system, is about 15 years old, and still works amazingly well with two different alarm times on it.
Hope you get some sleep! Looking forward to seeing you guys at my house party in a little over a week!
Can’t help you. I’m still using the alarm clock I got for Xmas in 1978. And I’m 38. You do the math. I actually went to the trouble of soldering parts of mine back together recently because I didn’t want to deep six it.
The digits are red. I concur with Heather. Red digits, good.
I have the EXACT same alarm clock. I got it when I was 8. I wonder if there was a sale back in the 80’s? 🙂
I get that sound too but only when I have my cell phone near it. You sure you don’t have some kind of electronic device nearby that’s setting it off?
(I’m a creature of habit and I can’t part with that alarm clock)
@Christina they had digital clocks back then?? not the flippy number ones? 🙂
I replaced my 20 year old Dream Machine with a new Dream Machine after trying a bunch and hating them.
http://shrinkster.com/16f7
I ended up calling around and found ONE at the Sony Style store on W Broadway, and they said they sell out quick when then get them. It has a “weekday” and “weekend” mode, 2 alarms, 3 “ringtones” (AM/FM Radio, buzzer and “melody” (8-bit tunes… like waking up to Nintendo)
The best part about it, and if you’ve already had a Dream Machine for the last 20 years, you know that when you hit the snooze bar, that it doesn’t “count” that 10 mins against the alarm time, so on a lazy sunday you can lay in bed and hit the snooze bar for houuurs. The Snooze is also in increments… press once for 10 mins, twice for 20, etc. I think it goes up to 60 minutes but even I’m not THAT lazy 🙂
The only drawback is as noted above: the green LCD can be a bit bright, even on the “low” brightness setting.