The Campus

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As college students, we are used to completing various assignments in short periods of time. Working at late nights that stretch into the next day, we usually find ourselves not being very happy waking up after only a few hours of sleep. There are a couple of reasons contributing to that phenomenon - our biology and/or our study habits.

Biologically, our bodies are designed to work during the day and relax at night. Individual bodies have their own sleeping clocks and due to this natural rhythm, on average we need 6 to 8 hours of sleep for our brains and bodies to regain energy. When we cannot wake up early, a possible cause is that our inner clock is set to wake up later because our biological sleeping processes have not been completed.

The quick solution is a loud alarm clock. Even our cell phones have this feature. The issue with cell phones is that they're kind of tricky to manage and are generally not that easy to use. Smart-phones usually have either a physical or touch screen QWERTY keyboard that makes inputting information into the phone much easier. This is very useful to us because it allows multiple opportunities to be awakened. More alarm clocks, however, don't necessarily make it easier to get up in the morning.

Another solution to the "I don't want to wake up" problem is using a different type of an alarm clock. Regular alarm clocks usually scream very loud in order for you to wake up. The problem with this method is that, as mentioned above, our bodies have natural rhythms and sometimes due to those rhythms, we just don't hear it. Using an alarm clock with a bed shaker is something not many people try. A bed shaker is a device you attach to a specialized alarm clock, and when the alarm goes off, the bed shaker literally shakes the bed. It is a small circular device you put underneath your bed mattress. One example of such an alarm clock is Sonic Alert SB300 Sonic Boom Loud Vibrating Alarm Clock which could be purchased online for around $40. I've found that this alarm clock is very effective and gets the job done, that is, it actually gets me up.

On a final note, even though technologies can help us wake up, it's still better to sleep according to our natural clocks controlled by our bodies and not an anxiety inducing piece of electronics.

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