Phone as an Alarm Clock??

[NotAChevy]

cnn.com/2025/01/26/health/a...

Do you agree or not?

[Queen_of_Tara]

Well I agree and disagree. I use my phone because I am able to have different alarms depending on the day of the week. I have wake alarms...alarms to take different pills in the morning and night. A standard alarm clock doesn't have that many alarms that it can recall. I also have a "do not disturb" function on my phone during sleeping hours so no notifications or bings or pings go off from before bed time to after waking up. That is key. I don't generally feel the desire to be on my phone during that time so for me I don't worry about having at my bed side. I also hate standard alarm clock buzzing or chirping noises. So I have different music for different alarms which wakes me up in a better mood. I do snooze the alarms a fair amount which I need to work on!!!

[STEM_Dad]

I think it depends on the person, their phone habits, and what their regular saving pattern is like.Articles come up like this all the time. Why? Whether they are right or not, it seems like they're not very effective.

For some people, it might be exactly the right thing to do to switch from the phone alarm to an alarm clock. However, for others, this is likely to be a waste of money because they will revert right back to using their phone.

The argument that using an alarm clock gets away from hitting snooze is faulty, because the snooze button came about as a feature on alarm clocks in the first place. Just watch old movies and TV shows going back for decades, and you can see the same behavior modeled that we see to this very day about people hitting snooze or stopping the alarm, and rolling over to go back to sleep.

Buying a device does not change a behavior. To change your behavior, first you have to want to change, then you need a plan, then you need to follow the plan and you need reinforcement to help you stick with it. It sounds easy, but it can be incredibly hard to change behavior.

~~~~~

Lots of people reach for their phone out of habit, even when we wake in the middle of the night. It's true that this can be contributing to sleep issues, because of the blue light wavelengths emitted by the screen and the cognitive stimulation of the apps, videos, or websites they are consuming.

Why do we do this? Well, when we wake up in the middle of the night, we might lay awake for a long while before we fall asleep again. When that happens, we can get bored. When we get bored (which can happen in a very short time for us due to our ADHD), we reach for our phone. This activity can keep us awake, even if we are sleepy.

Note: This problem isn't limited to people with ADHD!

The question is whether a person wants to change. If they do, maybe switching to an alarm clock and putting their phone out of their bedroom is the solution.

~~~~~

As for me, my phone isn't just my alarm clock, it's also my sleep sound player. I've found that playing calming sounds often helps me to sleep better. (I've made a lot of other improvements to my sleep quality, too.)

However, I do end up scrolling on my phone at night. It's not a major problem for me like it used to be, but it is still a bit of a problem. (I'm just not willing to give it up, right now.)

[NotAChevy in reply to STEM_Dad]

I really didn't want to give my opinion (though I agree w/you both), I just wanted to see what others thought. I love throwing these type of articles out there, and getting responses so I can learn to understand others thought pattern. Thanks for the input,

And I welcome others who’d love to chime in!

[Pro-masker]

For me I couldn't live a decent life without alarms...even then it's a struggle...as an alarm, whether alarm clock or phone...always put the alarm across the room so you HAVE to get up to stop it...once I'm up that's it, I'm up! Takes a small amount of will power, but its just the way it helps me...alarms for meds...alarms to keep me on track with time when working otherwise I would never have a break or know what the time is...

[Lanego]

I use an alarm clock but I hate the alarm sound it makes. If I have my iPhone at the bedside I'm more likely to scroll before bedtime, or if I wake up up in middle of the night and check the time and see I have a message I'm tempted to check the message. The alarm clock is the best alternative for me.