Most of us start our mornings the same way: by waking up to an alarm. But it’s not always that simple. Some of us hit snooze once, twice, or many times. Others turn off the alarm or sleep through the noise only to wake up hours later than they had planned.
Below, we’ll dive into how you can wake up to an alarm and why you're struggling to get out of bed when it goes off or oversleeping it altogether. Plus, we’ll share how the RISE app alarm can gently wake you up and make getting out of bed easier to do.
“If you find it hard to wake up when your alarm clock rings, or sometimes find yourself oversleeping your alarm, the first thing to check is whether you’re getting enough sleep," says Dr. Chester Wu. "If you’re sleep deprived, it’ll be much harder to wake up in the morning. Try heading to bed 15 or 30 minutes earlier for the next few weeks and seeing if your mornings get easier.”
Dr. Chester Wu is double board certified in Psychiatry and Sleep Medicine, and provides sleep medicine services, medication management, and psychotherapy to adults at his private sleep medicine and psychiatry practice.
You might not be able to wake up to your alarm because you’ve got a lot of sleep debt, you’re out of sync with your circadian rhythm, you’ve got sleep inertia, or you’ve got a medical condition or sleep disorder.
Let’s dive into those in more detail.
Sleep debt is the running total of how much sleep you’ve missed out on recently. It’s compared to your sleep need, which is the genetically determined amount of sleep you need.
In simple terms, if you need eight hours of sleep, but only get six hours, you’ll have about two hours of sleep debt.
At RISE, we measure your sleep debt over the last 14 nights. So if you’ve been skipping sleep recently, even if you got enough sleep last night, you’ll still have sleep debt.
And when you’ve got a lot of sleep debt, it’s not just your health that can suffer. You’ll find it harder to wake up to an alarm.
If you’ve got high sleep debt you might:
Heads-up: You might need more sleep than you think. We looked at the sleep needs of 1.95 million RISE users aged 24 and up. The median sleep need was eight hours, but 48% of users need eight hours or more sleep a night.
RISE uses a year’s worth of your phone data and sleep science algorithms to calculate your sleep need. It automatically tracks your sleep times to work out how much sleep debt you have.
We’ve covered more on how much sleep debt you have here.
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Your circadian rhythm is your body’s natural internal clock. It runs on a roughly 24-hour cycle and plays a part in controlling your sleep cycle.
If you’re out of sync with it, you may feel low on energy when your alarm clock rings.
You might be out of sync with your circadian rhythm if:
And if your sleep schedule is all over the place, you might wake up in a deep sleep stage of sleep, which may make you feel sleepier than usual.
It’s harder to be woken up from deep sleep than it is from REM sleep or light sleep. So if you’re in a deep sleep stage when your alarm clock rings, you might not even wake up.
RISE uses your sleep data and inferred light exposure to predict your circadian rhythm each day. You’ll see when your body naturally wants to wake up and go to sleep, so you can sync up with these times.
RISE users on iOS 1.202 and above can see their circadian rhythm on the Energy screen here.
Sleep inertia is the grogginess you feel right after waking up. It’s natural, but it will feel worse and last longer if you’ve got high sleep debt.
The symptoms of sleep inertia include:
When you’re in the grips of sleep inertia, you might find yourself hitting snooze or turning your alarm off and going back to sleep. Even if you do manage to get out of bed, you’ll feel sleepy and it may take a while to fully wake up.
A medical condition or sleep disorder could be the reason you can’t wake up to an alarm.
Medical conditions include:
And sleep disorders include:
If you have one of these health or sleep issues, you might find it hard to get the sleep you need, and so struggle to wake up when your alarm rings.
Side effects from medications like antidepressants or sleep aids can also make it harder to wake up when your alarm rings as they come with fatigue as a side effect.
Speak to your healthcare provider if you think a health issue could be to blame. They can run tests to confirm and recommend treatment options to help.
You can wake up to your first alarm by lowering your sleep debt, getting in sync with your circadian rhythm, using a gentle alarm sound, and doing an activity that wakes you up first thing.
Here’s how to nail this advice.
Lowering your sleep debt can help make getting out of bed easier each morning.
Here’s how to lower your sleep debt:
We recommend keeping sleep debt below five hours. Research suggests your mental performance with five hours of sleep debt is roughly comparable to what it would be with no sleep debt at all.
So five hours is an achievable goal to aim for that’ll make a difference to your energy levels.
Check RISE for how much sleep debt you have and try chipping away at it to get more morning energy.
RISE users on iOS 1.202 and above can click view their sleep need here and view their sleep debt here.
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This will help you feel sleepy at bedtime and more ready to wake up when your alarm clock rings.
Here’s how to sync up with your circadian rhythm:
Sleeping and waking up when your body naturally wants to is best. But that’s not always possible. For example, you might be a night owl who has to do early mornings for work.
If your sleep-wake cycle doesn’t match your life, you can learn how to reset your circadian rhythm here.
A shrill jarring alarm sound can trigger a rush of adrenaline, which is not a peaceful way to start the day. And research suggests repeated sudden awakenings can harm our heart health.
Don’t settle for the default iPhone alarm sound. Instead, swap loud beeps for a gentler sound that can slowly rouse you from sleep.
Research suggests the best alarm sounds are:
These types of alarms can help you reduce sleep inertia, meaning you’ll feel less sleepy when they go off and you’ll — hopefully — be less likely to press snooze.
The RISE phone alarm has the option of melodic sounds, your choice of music, or gentle watch or phone vibrations.
Heads-up: If you regularly oversleep your alarm, you could be a heavy sleeper and find it takes more noise to rouse you from sleep. Research suggests people who generate more “sleep spindles” — a type of brain activity — have a higher tolerance for noise while sleeping.
Try experimenting with different alarms that include a loud alarm sound, light, and vibrations. And remember the lower your sleep debt the easier it’ll be to wake up in the morning.
Dive deeper into what differentiates light sleepers from heavy sleepers here.
Hitting snooze can make you feel more tired.
You read that right. Instead of getting extra sleep time, you may have lower energy levels when you eventually get out of bed.
A 2022 study found hitting the snooze alarm prolongs sleep inertia compared to using a single alarm.
And when you snooze, you fragment your sleep. And as one study puts it, “fragmented sleep is less restorative than consolidated sleep, and leads to sleepiness-related daytime impairment.”
Remind yourself you’re not getting more sleep by snoozing, you’re just making mornings harder than they need to be.
You don’t need to jump right out of bed when your alarm clock rings and right into a HIIT workout. Instead, do something gentle to ease your brain into wakefulness and stop you from drifting back off.
With the RISE alarm, when you turn the alarm off, the app will automatically kick you straight to your favorite app — whether that’s TikTok or the news.
You can then have some guilt-free phone time to help slowly warm up your brain. The blue light from your screen can help wake you up, too.
But don’t worry, we won’t let you get sucked into social media for too long. RISE will send you a reminder after 15 minutes, so you can get started with your day.
If you snooze your alarm in your sleep and have to wake up early, it’s time to take drastic action. Try placing your phone or alarm clock on the other side of your bedroom. But make sure it’ll ring loud enough to wake you up.
When it goes off, you’ll have to get out of bed to turn it off. And once you’re out of bed, you’ll — hopefully — stay out of bed.
Have a plan for what you’ll do next. This could be jumping in the shower or making a cup of coffee.
You can’t avoid sleep inertia altogether, but there are some things you can do to shake it off faster to make it less likely you’ll hit snooze and crawl back under the covers.
Here’s how to feel less groggy first thing:
We’ve covered more ways to wake up faster here.
Having a morning routine you look forward to can make it easier to get out of bed and get started with your day.
Try waking up 60 to 90 minutes before you need to be “on” for the day. This should give you enough time to shake off sleep inertia, and you can use this time to do some enjoyable activities such as:
Many of these activities can help you have more energy in the morning, too.
You might not have control over when you wake up, but if you do, setting your alarm at the right time for you can make it easier to wake up when it goes off.
First, think about your sleep need. Make sure you’re giving yourself enough time in bed to meet your sleep need each night.
We recommend adding 30 minutes to an hour to your sleep need and giving yourself this amount of time in bed. This will give you time to fall asleep and wake up in the middle of the night (which is normal) and still get enough shut-eye.
For example, if you need to set your alarm for 8 a.m., and you need eight hours of sleep, you’d want to be getting into bed around 11 p.m.
Next, think about your chronotype. This is whether you’re an early bird or night owl. If you have control over it, wake up when your body naturally wants you to.
The RISE alarm can tell you, right as you’re setting it, whether your alarm time will contribute to sleep debt or not. If it will, try setting a later alarm to make sure you’re getting enough sleep — which will make it much easier to not oversleep your alarm.
We’ve covered more on the best time to sleep and wake up here.
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The best type of alarm to wake up to is one that gently wakes you up from sleep.
Here are some options to consider.
One of the gentler ways to wake up is via sounds that gradually build. Songs or tones that start out at a lower volume and/or intensity and progressively become louder can help slowly lift you out of sleep.
Research suggests lower-frequency alarm sounds (500 Hz) might be more effective at waking us and curbing sleep inertia than higher-frequency sounds. That might sound something like this.
The less sleep inertia you feel when you wake up, the more likely you’ll stay awake, rather than hit snooze.
While the term “melodic” is subjective, research shows that when our wake-up call comes in the form of pleasing and familiar musical elements it has the potential to boost our mood and lessen sleep inertia.
There’s research to suggest that an alarm tone or song in C5 with a tempo of 100 to 120 beats per minute — like this one — may be optimal for increasing arousal upon waking, making it more difficult to drift back to sleep.
Beyond sounds and tones, you can opt for music to wake you up. Any music can help, but one study found “excitative music” can decrease sleep inertia and it’s even more effective when it’s music you like.
And a 2020 study found that The Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations” and The Cure’s “Close to Me” were two types of melodic songs that can help you wake up.
Sunrise alarm clocks use light to wake you up. They gradually get brighter and brighter, gently rousing you from sleep.
Light is a powerful signal to your circadian rhythm, telling your body it’s daytime.
While wake-up lights and alarms can be a gentle way to wake up, make sure you get out in sunlight in the mornings, as natural light is best for resetting your circadian rhythm. You can buy smart blinds that open at a set time in the morning.
Head-ups: Light may not be enough to wake up heavy sleepers. Make sure you use light and sound or have a backup alarm sound if this is you.
Many fitness trackers and smartwatches come with a vibration alarm feature that wakes you up with gentle vibrations, either with sound or just the vibrations alone.
This is a great option if you need to wake up earlier than your partner.
For deep sleepers, “bed shaker” alarms use a vibrating pad attachment that you place under your mattress or pillow to buzz you awake.
Here’s a recap of how RISE’s smart alarm can wake you up:
RISE can also guide you through sleep habits to help you lower your sleep debt and better sleep, which will make it easier to wake up to your alarm.
The best way to wake up to your alarm is to make sure you’re getting enough sleep to begin with. It’s going to be harder to wake up if you’re sleep deprived. And if your body can, it’ll keep on sleeping to get more shut-eye.
Getting enough sleep and still struggling to resist the snooze button? Make sure you’re living in sync with your circadian rhythm and try hacks like using a gentler alarm sound, putting your alarm clock on the other side of the room, and doing an easy and enjoyable task first thing to slowly wake yourself up.
The RISE app is the alarm clock that takes all this into account. RISE can work out how much sleep you need, how much sleep debt you have, and predict your circadian rhythm each day to help you sync up with it.
When it comes to the alarm feature, RISE can make sure your wake-up time won’t contribute to sleep debt and offer gentle sounds and vibrations to transition you into wakefulness.
You could be waking up the first time your alarm goes off in a matter of days. We found 80% of RISE users feel more energy within five days.
You can wake up to an alarm by keeping your sleep debt low, living in sync with your circadian rhythm, choosing a gentle alarm sound, putting your alarm on the other side of your bedroom, and doing an easy and enjoyable task first thing to stop yourself falling back to sleep.
Stop sleeping through your alarm by keeping your sleep debt low, living in sync with your circadian rhythm, putting your alarm on the other side of your bedroom, and experimenting with different alarm sounds or lights and vibrations.
You may not wake up to your alarm because you’re not getting enough sleep, you’re living out of sync with your circadian rhythm, or you have a medical condition or sleep disorder.
Wake up to your alarm as a deep sleeper by making sure you’re getting enough sleep and you’re living in sync with your circadian rhythm. Try experimenting with different alarm sounds, lights, and vibrations, or placing your alarm clock on the other side of your bedroom.
If your alarm isn’t waking you up, you should first make sure you’re getting enough sleep and living in sync with your circadian rhythm. If you are, try using a new alarm clock with a different sound, light, or vibration. You can also talk to your healthcare provider about medical conditions and sleep disorders that could be to blame.
Wake up without an alarm by getting enough sleep and living in sync with your circadian rhythm with a regular sleep schedule. You can also try alarms that wake you up with light or vibrations, instead of sounds.
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