Why heavy sleepers beat normal alarms
Most alarms can be silenced with one half-conscious swipe. Heavy sleepers get very good at that swipe. You turn the alarm off, fall back asleep within seconds, and wake up an hour later with no memory of doing it. Setting five alarms in a row just teaches you to swipe five times.
The problem usually isn't volume. It's that turning the alarm off takes less brainpower than staying awake. The fix is to flip that: make switching it off the thing that wakes you up.
How PushClock gets a heavy sleeper out of bed
PushClock is a mission alarm. When you set an alarm you also pick a mission, and the alarm will not end until the mission is done.
- No snooze button. Mission alarms don't have one. Tapping dismiss only opens your mission.
- It comes back. Leave the app or lock your phone mid-mission and the alarm rings again within seconds.
- It checks your work. The camera counts real push-ups and squats rep by rep, and photo missions are verified automatically, so waving the phone around doesn't count.
- It stays loud. Try to turn the volume down mid-alarm and PushClock pushes it back up.
Pick a mission that matches how deep you sleep
There are more than 25 missions, and each one has adjustable difficulty, so you can start gentle and ramp up.
If you need to physically leave the bed
Choose a movement mission: push-ups, squats, sit-ups, jumping jacks, a plank, or 50 steps. Getting your heart rate up is the fastest way to shake off sleep inertia, the groggy feeling right after waking.
If you need to leave the room
Choose a photo mission. "Touch grass" sends you outside. "Make your bed" means you can't crawl back into it. An object hunt has you searching the house for a specific item.
If you wake up but drift straight back off
Choose a brain game: math problems, a memory game, guess the flag, or a tongue twister you have to say out loud. They force your brain to switch on before the sound stops.
Tips that make any alarm work better
- Put the phone across the room. Combined with a mission, you're standing up before you've had a chance to negotiate.
- Keep your wake time consistent. A steady schedule makes mornings easier than any alarm can. PushClock tracks your streak and average wake time so you can see it working.
- Recruit witnesses. Wake Squads let friends see whether you actually got up. Social pressure is remarkably effective at 6am.
- Check your sleep. PushClock shows your last week of sleep from Apple Health or Health Connect. If you're regularly short on sleep, an earlier bedtime will help more than a harsher alarm.
If you sleep through alarms no matter what you try, or you're exhausted even after a full night, it's worth mentioning to a doctor. An app can't fix an underlying sleep problem.