Alarm clocks

When I did morning radio, I was always up by 3:45 am.

For years.

It had become so ingrained in me that I rarely used an alarm clock. I’d just wake up at 3:45, give or take a few minutes.

My family, on the other hand, requires multiple alarms.

Sunday morning, Julie and I had to get up early to go to the Dover campus of our church for some volunteer training. We agreed to leave the house at 5am.

So Julie set her alarm clock for…3:30.

“You need to get up at 3:30 to be ready by 5?”, I asked, slightly louder than I intended.

“I’m not getting up at 3:30. I’m just setting the first alarm for 3:30”, she replied defensively.

Debating alarm clock technique with a morning person is frustrating, I’m sure.

Our daughter Lola was, and perhaps still is, the Alarm Clock Queen.

When she was in college, and she had to be up by 7, this is how her alarm clock routine went:

5 am. 5:10 am. 5:15 am. 5:20 am. 5:30 am. 5:35 am. 5:40 am. 5:45 am. 5:47 am. 5:49 am. 5:50 am.

You get the point. She’d eventually get up at 6:30.

In my world, she just ruined 90-minutes of good sleep.

In her world, she just enjoyed 90-minutes of snoozing.

Snoozing, of course, isn’t real sleep. It’s half-sleep, with weird dreams and the constant awareness that the clock is about to go off again.

Sometimes Lola would sleep through the first several alarms. Even on the loudest, most obnoxious settings.

I suggested once that we find her a clock that shakes the bed and dumps cold water on her head.

Night Owls don’t understand Morning People.

Morning People don’t understand Night Owls.

To me it’s easy. Go to bed early and get up when the clock goes off.

The first time.