How To Wake Up Without an Alarm Clock

Does the scream of the morning alarm set the tone for your entire day? If you find you are grumpy or cranky every morning in response to the dreaded alarm, consider ditching this noisy instrument. It's possible to wake up without an alarm clock; just follow these steps.

1. Stick to a regular bedtime. Train your body to sleep at the same time every day. Allow for at least eight hours a night. If it takes you a while to settle before bed, create and maintain an evening routine with enough time to settle and get enough sleep.
2. Simplify your bedroom. The bed and bedroom should be a place for sleep and relaxation. If you take your laptop or work to bed, or watch TV in bed, you are probably confusing your body. By making the bedroom a place strictly for sleep and other horizontal activities, your sleep routine will improve.
3. Drink water before bed. If you aren't the type to get up several times during the night, this will work for you. Before alarm clocks, hunters who needed to rise with the sun would drink before bed so that a full bladder would wake them up.
4. Get up at the same time every day, including weekends and holidays. In order to get your body used to waking up without the alarm, you need a routine. Sleeping in on a Sunday morning confuses your body by disrupting the routine.
5. Open the curtains to let morning light in. Natural light helps you wake up. If your bedroom is dark enough at night to sleep with the curtains or blinds open, do so. Then when the sun comes up in the morning, your room will gradually lighten with the morning sun, which will wake you up.
6. Get out of bed when you wake up. Lazing in bed after you wake up may be a luxury you enjoy, but it's confusing your internal clock. When you wake up, get up so that your body knows that it awoke at the correct time.
7. Practice with a backup for the first two weeks. Trying to start a no alarm routine is not without risk... You don’t want to oversleep and be late to work just because you’ve given up the alarm. Until you have established a routine, have a backup. Set the alarm in another room for fifteen minutes after you want to wake up. Use the backup until you can be comfortable waking up without an alarm.

Waking up without an alarm clock lets you gradually face the day. Follow these steps to break the alarm addiction. Within weeks, you should be waking up at the same time without the blaring and buzzing that causes stress.