Product: Alarm Clock: Biology
Please, just let me sleep   (+16, -5)  [vote for, against]
An alarm clock with discretion

My sleep patterns are none too good as of late. I call it sleeping in chapters.

I struggle to fall asleep for an hour or more, and finally succeed. I then sleep for an hour or an hour and a half, and then I wake up and repeat the cycle.

If I'm fortunate, I'll get three chapters of sleep in a night. And then, there's that elusive fourth chapter - the latest, last and potentially best hour of sleep of the night.

Of course, that's when my alarm clock goes off.

So, here's the pitch: the alarm clock has an adjustable setting, with a range from one to ten.

This is the "How badly do I need to be to work on time tomorrow" setting.

The user sleeps wearing a set of EEG monitoring electrodes. The clock monitors the amount of "good" sleep that the wearer gets, and based on the "Need to be to work on time" setting, decides whether or not to let the clock ring on time.
-- normzone, Jan 03 2006

(?) [Letsbuildafort], if you're interested... http://www.supersho...cs/moj4-guzzi-1.gif
...there's enough parts for two complete bikes there [normzone, Jan 05 2006]

(???) Exactly what you need http://dsc.discover...425/alarmclock.html
[ixnaum, Jan 06 2006]

(?) This is almost baked http://www.serenity..._alarm_watches.html
[xandram, Jan 18 2006]

If I believed in the autoboner I'd say I just met him/her - but I don't, so I won't.

[rolls over, finds pillow, sighs]
-- normzone, Jan 03 2006


This rather relies on an employer with at least near-human levels of concern. Fortunately my boss didn't seem to mind me sleeping in this morning. [+]
-- david_scothern, Jan 03 2006


Wow was that the autobunner I saw going by? or was it me? It was me.
-- zeno, Jan 03 2006


sssshh. <turns out light>
-- po, Jan 03 2006


Actually I never had trouble sleeping but I understand exactly what you are going through. We have a daughter of one and she still sleeps in our bedroom. Sometimes she wakes up or makes a noise in her sleep. Some time ago she needed some extra feeding and change of diaper in the night. She has been a little under the weather etc. So in those circumstances I too sleep in chapters. Even when I have three chapters totalling 7 hours, I still feel very tired and can not get myself to do more than what is requiered, during the day.

The only way I have to cope with this is alter my mind-set. I tell myself that I do not go to bed in order to sleep but just to have a little lie down. That way, if I do get any sleep, it is better than I imagined. I wish you much sleep [normzone]
-- zeno, Jan 03 2006


I think you've hit upon it, [boysparks] - "intermediary settings would be for - being only 15, 30, 45.. mins late".

I was a half-hour later than my latest adviseable entry window this morning. Got away with it, but I can't go on like this.

In truth, if I exercise to exhaustion in the evenings, I should sleep better. Ah, New Years resolutions.
-- normzone, Jan 03 2006


empathy, I wake up 3 or 4 times a night as well. but, then, with this alarm i might never actually get into work again. on the fence. +/-
-- Zuzu, Jan 05 2006


What if you dream about being hooked up to this EEG machine and you got a good nights sleep in the dream.
-- Antegrity, Jan 05 2006


My final dreams in my last hour of stolen sleep this morning were about all the motorcycle parts and tools I gave up when I started riding horses.

It seems I'd been storing them in a Chinese restaurant, and they insisted I take them. I could remember in mind-numbing detail the transmissions, cables, and tools that I had.

[Letsbuildafort], if you're interested in any old Moto Guzzi parts, I left them in a parking lot in the dream world.
-- normzone, Jan 05 2006


baked .. see link
-- ixnaum, Jan 06 2006


Well, that's the first half of it, but it doesn't have the adjustable "How much I'd like to oversleep" setting.
-- normzone, Jan 06 2006


//An alarm clock with discretion// One's butler always exhibits discretion.
-- AbsintheWithoutLeave, Jan 06 2006


i don't trust people with watches or alarm clocks. it infers they are captive to time. i take pride in arriving an hour/day late etc.
-- benfrost, Jan 06 2006


I remember once when I told a friend to wake me up and get me out of bed at a certain time, half asleep or not, no matter how much I wanted to stay asleep and resist his attempt to wake me up. When he woke me up I told him, "Remember when I said all that other stuff? Forget about what I said and let me sleep."

Having said that I am sure that with such an invention man is much smarter than the machine and will find a way to stay in bed regardless of the setting.
-- Jscotty, Jan 07 2006


A clock that called in and pretended to be you?
-- pocmloc, Aug 08 2011


A pressure mat under the matters might be a better way of monitoring a nights sleep
-- j paul, Aug 09 2011


^neat!
-- mouseposture, Aug 10 2011


//A pressure mat under the matters...// mistress ?
-- FlyingToaster, Aug 10 2011


Linkrot appears to have claimed all three links.
-- normzone, Feb 05 2014


I have an app on my phone that theoretically monitors sleep patterns by way of the accelerometer, and wakes me any time within a half hour window, during a shallow sleep period. Not quite the same thing, but it could be adapted.
-- MechE, Feb 05 2014



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