Your working day most likely starts with an alarm. And you probably use your phone's alarm, because of how convenient it is. But what song is it playing in the morning? Scientists at RMIT University in Australia conducted a research, which revealed that choosing the right sound to wake up to can reduce sleep inertia. In other words, putting your favorite song as an alarm might actually be a good idea.
The days of old alarm clocks are over – you now can and should wake up to a melody. Image credit: Nenad Stojkovic via Wikimedia (CC BY 2.0)
Some people don’t actually think so. They believe that waking up with an alarm is so dreadful that it is only going to ruin your favorite music. However, this new study showed that melodic alarm sounds help you wake up better than default beeping noises. Scientists designed a special app, which allowed participants to wake up to different sounds and then assess their alertness through a game-like interface. In fact, similar tests were performed by astronauts on the International Space Station.
Sleep inertia basically describes your inability to wake up and just go. It bothers millions of people in the world. When you hear your alarm through your dreams, you want to close your eyes and continue sleeping. This problem is not unfamiliar to the best astronauts in the world. One NASA astronaut reported missing the time to take pictures because he couldn’t wake up even with the help of an alarm.
Then there are people who think you basically should scare yourself awake. They believe that alarm should be loud and trick them into thinking that some kind of an emergency situation is taking place. Researchers don’t believe that to be the case. Studies with children showed that low-pitched alarm or even the sound of a human voice are more effective. Also, you get used to these loud and scary alarm sounds and learn to ignore them just as easily as your normal alarms.
This new study showed that melodic alarm sounds helped people to wake up faster and deliver more accurate responses on the alertness tests. It doesn’t even matter what song it was – genre didn’t seem to be important as long as people could wake up to a melody instead of loud high-pitched beeping. Happy by Pharrell Williams, Borderline by Madonna and Wedding Cake Island by Midnight Oil all seemed to be good options. But you should probably choose a song of your liking. And don’t settle on one song so that you wouldn’t get used to that sound and wouldn’t incorporate it into your dreams. Or wouldn’t start hating your favorite music.
Waking up is a very important part of the day. You should pay more attention to it. If you manage to wake up happy and alert, you will start your day more productively and overall will be happier. Changing the alarm sound might be that little improvement that will mean a lot.
Source: RMIT University