If you have had even a passing conversation with me in the past two weeks you probably know about my new “Holy Shit That’s Early” wake up time at 4:15 a.m. I’ll tell anyone who will listen how I’m not a morning person. I’ll detail my sleep schedule. And most importantly, my struggle to make sure that I’m up and at ’em when that alarm goes off.
Because I am reliant on the subway system, and because the trains don’t run as often that early in the morning, there is only one train I can take to get to work on time. This means no pressing of the snooze 3 to 5 times. It means hoping that my alarm doesn’t work its way in to my dream, causing me to sleep until it has finally given up on getting me up. Basically, for possibly the first time in my life, I have no choice but to get up when I’m supposed to. Because I haven’t quite yet managed to get my bedtime sorted out, that “when I’m supposed to” time is probably about 4 hours after I went to sleep, adding to the challenge.
I searched our friend the Internet to find ways to help me get up earlier (besides going to bed at 8, which, let’s get real). I found all the standard chestnuts of wisdom. Dark bedroom! Regular bedtime! No noise! Cool room! None of this will ever happen because you live in New York and it’s July! But then I came across an alarm called Alarm Clock Plus for my Android phone that gives you the option of doing math problems before you can snooze or dismiss the alarm. You can set how many math problems you want to do, and the difficulty of the problems. I have to do two problems before I can turn off the alarm and I set it at “easy difficulty.” There is an option for very easy, but I found that even in 90% sleep I can still manage to add 8 and 9. But throw in two digit numbers and, well, let’s just say that pretty much every morning I get at least one of my math problems wrong. If the ones column adds up to more than 10, my 4 a.m. brain just can’t do it. The math alarm has no mercy though. It’s the scariest math teacher you ever had. It’s all, “Fuck you! Do them until you get it right! I’ll keep on beeping until you stop being so dumb! Do your damn math!”
Basically, this alarm could only be better for me if it started injecting coffee into my mouth 10 minutes before I need to wake up. Or invented some way where I didn’t have to get up so early. Doing those math problems is just the kick start my brain needs to get out of sleep mode. I have yet to mindlessly turn off the alarm and wake up in a panic 30 minutes later. I have only snoozed once in two weeks (and only one time at that). I still feel a crushing sadness every time my alarm goes off and I forget that I have to do the math which leads to a moment of confusion, but that’s really a personal problem. But I’m making my train, and that’s all I ask for from my alarm clock.
7 replies on “4 a.m. Is Too Early For Math”
i have a masters in mathematics, and a 4:30 a.m. wake up time, and this app STILL sounds like horrific torture to me. i’m okay waking up, but i have to admit, i don’t have a clue where the next hour disappears. you probably already have one, but just in case: make sure you have a coffee maker with a timer and ALWAYS make sure to set it up before you go to sleep, or your morning will be hellish.
I have to be in my office chair at 530am no exceptions. My alarm is set to 459am and I am out the door at 515. My hair is washed and dried the day before so I shower cap it and my outfit is also picked out the night before. There is no news watching, breakfast eating or coffee drinking in this process and luckily I can do all that at my desk when I get to work.This process is all the more complicated when someone sleeps in the same room as you and you don’t want to wake them. I follow the early bed time rule because I don’t do well without sleep. I have eye masks and earplugs because we have a TV in the bedroom and he has no interest at going to bed as early as I do. I decided to do a coffee detox for a few days this week and it has not been easy. There was nausea and headaches. Today was the first day I felt normal.
I have a Clocky (the alarm clock that sounds like R2D2 on meth and runs away if you don’t have the reflexes to catch it) but nothing compares to the few weeks where I had a coffee pot with a timer in my bedroom. Absolutely the best way to wake up.
My inability to get up early easily is pretty new. I’m the queen of the snooze button these days. Perhaps math problems would help me.
Woman you need to get yourself a light box. I got mine for seasonal affective disorder but I use it year-round because it makes getting up early super easy, something I’ve always struggled with. You grab your morning cereal and coffee while pointing the lamp at you, and your body syncs to the light cycles. BRILLIANT.
This is brilliant–the alarm, and your article, which was very funny–and I need haz.
I’m another one of those people who won’t STFU about getting up early. Why don’t more jobs start at noon?
You need to work in the arts. No-one is in their office before 10am, and that’s the early people.