
Why did I wake up just before my alarm clock went off? - JetSpiegel
https://joearms.github.io/2015/03/02/Waking-Up.html
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justinsb
Interesting, but pure speculation.

I would add an additional fact which seems to be contrary to the proposed
model: I regularly wake up a few minutes before my alarm clock, in plenty of
time to turn it off.

I believe I have a fairly good sense of time (but have no empirical evidence
for that!)

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xahrepap
This is what I was thinking the whole time I was reading. The author and I
must be talking about two different things. Because when I say I woke up just
before the alarm, I mean enough time to turn it off before it goes off. But
within 5 minutes.

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dtien
This is just your subconscious mind at work.

I read this back in jr high and still one of my goto techniques when trying to
solve a problem.

This book: [http://www.amazon.com/The-Power-Your-Subconscious-
Mind/dp/16...](http://www.amazon.com/The-Power-Your-Subconscious-
Mind/dp/1614270198) Some spiritual stuff in it, but if you're not into that,
read it for the way your brain/subconscious works. great read and in fact one
of the examples in there is telling yourself you NEED to wake up at a certain
time and then waking up right at that moment.

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Cerium
I wake up about 5 minutes before I wish to wake up. After doing this a few
months I stopped setting the alarm and continued to wake up on time.

I think it is likely related to training against other criteria: birds,
sunrise, cars ... etc. since a change in location will throw off my timing and
require a few weeks to learn the new 'time'.

Zen alarm clocks are awesome btw, [http://www.now-zen.com/](http://www.now-
zen.com/). I love mine and used it extensively when I was a student. The alarm
is sounds beautiful and seems to week. The association of a particular bell
sound with the requirement of waking is powerful. After using the alarm for a
few weeks I no longer would remember hearing it but feel compelled to get up
and disable the alarm before it could ring again!

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ajuc
When I'm going to sleep at reasonable time I wake up within 5 minutes of 06:00
no matter if I set the alarm or not.

When I'm not having enough sleep I wake up after alarm goes off, and usually
it's already beeping for a few good minutes, before it wakes me. And I do
notice immediately that it's after the alarm.

So I doubt waking before alarm is an ilussion.

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tzakrajs
It is already well understood that our brains can keep track of time. I think
the author is mistaken with their Occam's Razor assertion.

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SamReidHughes
Alarm clocks often turn on the speaker, making audible noise in doing so,
slightly before sounding the alarm.

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bikamonki
It bugs me too and it happens quite often! Always within the minute! Internal
time keeper?

