Shake-awake!

I think that I have now cracked the problem (as far as it is possible to crack!) of oversleeping in the morning!

I had been without my shake-awake (S-A) alarm clock for the last few weeks as I had managed to leave it at my brothers house and have been relying on the Lumie clock plus my bedside light timer to wake me up.

Which did work, but then my shake-awake turned up yesterday (Thanks Marielle!) and so I used it this morning, in combination with the Lumie and the bedside light (sledgehammer to crack a nut perhaps!?).

The thing is that the light wakes me up gradually, and the S-A goes off at a particular time (with a snooze button of eight minutes) and I have discovered that what it is is that the S-A is slightly more violent and demands that I get up, plus with the Lumie I wake up so gradually that I don't really have any idea what time it is. I know when the S-A goes off because I set that time and then I know that when it goes off again, it is eight minutes later - which I think wakes me up better because I am far more aware of what time it is and how much time I have left to do all the things I need to do before leaving the house!

Did any of that make sense!!? It did to me when I was thinking about it this morning!

By the way, anyone that doesn't know what a Shake-awake is (and why on earth doesn't she get an alarm clock like all normal people!?) - it is an alarm clock that goes under the pillow and vibrates to wake me up. As I sleep without my hearing aids I have great trouble hearing ANYTHING during the night, which is how Phoebe managed to cause havoc in the house a few weeks ago when she brought a bird in!!