{"id":141090,"date":"2023-09-11T10:29:28","date_gmt":"2023-09-11T10:29:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity-hub.com\/?p=141090"},"modified":"2023-09-11T10:29:28","modified_gmt":"2023-09-11T10:29:28","slug":"alarming-alarms-for-snooze-button-addicts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity-hub.com\/lifestyle\/alarming-alarms-for-snooze-button-addicts\/","title":{"rendered":"Alarming alarms for snooze button addicts"},"content":{"rendered":"
Seven o’clock on Saturday morning, and I am running semi-conscious around a friend\u2019s garden in my nightie, attempting to stifle what sounds like a children\u2019s television show theme tune blaring from my phone.<\/p>\n
My behaviour is a last-ditch attempt to learn how to get out of bed, because only when I have taken 100 steps will the blasted alarm on the smartphone stop.<\/p>\n
Over the summer I have found it increasingly difficult to detach from my duvet, despite deploying two alarms \u2014 one on my iPhone and the other on a bedside radio.<\/p>\n
When they go off on a weekday at 5.45am I hit snooze, again and again. I\u2019m stuck in limbo, which, as a time-pressed working mother-of-two feels criminally wasteful.<\/p>\n
Before I know it, the long workout and life admin I\u2019ve planned have been shelved.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Over the summer, Antonia found it increasingly difficult to get out of bed, despite setting two alarms everyday<\/p>\n
My husband Chris, who usually wakes at the same time but irritatingly manages to get up immediately for work, refuses to shove me out of bed.<\/p>\n
Now with school back, intervention is suggested by our daughter, Rosie, 12.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018You know you can get an app for your phone that starts an alarm that won\u2019t turn off until you\u2019ve done a load of maths and got the answers right?\u2019 she asks. I did not.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nor did I realise there are other apps offering similarly brutal ways to force me out of bed. But can any ring in the changes?<\/p>\n
BIG CHALLENGE FOR THE MEMORY<\/span><\/p>\n Challenges Alarm Clock <\/span><\/span>(Free and paid-for versions on Apple and Android)<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Challenges Alarm Clock makes you complete a game to turn the alarm off\u00a0<\/p>\n To jolt the brain into action, this presents a randomised memory game. I pick a \u2018ticking noise\u2019 alarm.\u00a0<\/p>\n I have to complete a game to stop the vibrating, which means remembering the order in which ten cats on my screen flash.<\/p>\n After five minutes of irate screen jabbing, I cheat. Disappointed the alarm didn\u2019t actually ring and that I resorted to cheating, I go back to sleep.<\/p>\n 1\/5<\/span><\/p>\n MAYHEM FOR MATHS NERDS<\/span><\/p>\n Mathe Alarm Clock (for Apple and Android, free or \u00a37.99 for the ad-free version)<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Mathe app makes you complete maths problems on waking<\/p>\n Stupidly, I choose the hardest of three levels on the spuriously spelt Mathe app, and the maximum number of ten exercises to complete before the alarm will switch off.<\/p>\n When the alarm sounds, I must choose which of two sums that make absolutely no sense.\u00a0<\/p>\n Every time I answer wrongly another exercise is added, and after seven minutes I can stand no more and turn my phone off.\u00a0<\/p>\n When I turn it back on after my workout, it\u2019s still ringing. I wake Rosie for help. \u2018Did you not learn this in school?\u2019 she asks, typing in the answers.<\/p>\n 4\/5<\/span><\/p>\n ALL FIRED UP FIRST THING<\/span><\/p>\n Loud Alarm Clock (free, or \u00a33.99 for an ad-free version for Apple and Android)<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Loud Alarm Clock has ‘volume-boosted’ audio files\u00a0<\/p>\n Who wouldn\u2019t want to be woken up by a fire alarm, which, thanks to this app\u2019s \u2018volume-boosted\u2019 audio files, is more deafening than an iPhone alarm on max?<\/p>\n The other nine alarms are unpleasant, from an evacuation drill to nails running down a chalkboard.\u00a0<\/p>\n When the air-raid siren wails the next morning I jolt upright. \u2018Surely even you have to get up now?\u2019 Chris asks, unimpressed that his own day has got off to such a dramatic start.\u00a0<\/p>\n I do, the adrenaline pumping through my veins.<\/p>\n 3\/5<\/span><\/p>\n BIG STEPS TO HAPPINESS<\/span><\/p>\n Alarmy (for Apple and Android, free or \u00a35.99 a month for ad-free premium version)<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Alarmy makes you take a certain number of steps on waking\u00a0<\/p>\n The Alarmy app\u2019s paid-for version offers nine \u2018missions\u2019 to turn off the alarm. I choose a \u2018happy clap\u2019 alarm and set myself a target of 100 steps.<\/p>\n We\u2019re staying with friends but, I need to work. Determined not to wake everyone else at 7am, I stumble outside.\u00a0<\/p>\n I circle the rain-sodden grass, not noticing that I hadn\u2019t clicked to officially start the challenge \u2014 so I have to keep on walking until my 100 steps are completed before I can finally go back indoors.\u00a0<\/p>\n 5\/5<\/span><\/p>\n CAN YOU CRACK THE CODE?<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Barcode Alarm Clock makes you scan a barcode to turn the alarm off<\/p>\n Barcode Alarm Clock (for Apple, free or \u00a37.99 for the ad-free version)<\/span><\/p>\n Forcing you into movement, this makes you scan a barcode with your smartphone to turn your alarm off.\u00a0<\/p>\n I choose the barcode on the Rice Krispies. Next morning I stagger downstairs when the alarm rings.\u00a0<\/p>\n By 5.50am I\u2019ve turned it off \u2014 and breakfast is out, too.\u00a0<\/p>\n 4\/5<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n IT\u2019S FREAKY AND UNIQUE<\/span><\/p>\n FreakyAlarm (for Apple, \u00a31.99)<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n FreakyAlarm sets quick fire ‘games’ to get you out of bed<\/p>\n The first suggestion that the FreakyAlarm app is going to be a nightmare is the sound of shooting, after which I\u2019m bombarded with quick-fire \u2018games\u2019.<\/p>\n Even the medium level feels like a maths GCSE on steroids, as I calculate sums to balance a weighing scale, organise dancing triangles by size, and compete on a high-speed game of noughts and crosses that nearly leaves me in tears, as the shooting sound gives way to a baby wailing.<\/p>\n My pride at finishing the seven games is punctured by the \u2018donkey\u2019 badge I am awarded for 15 errors.\u00a0<\/p>\n A masochistic start to the morning, although the app\u2019s calendar charting your completion statistics could prove addictive.<\/p>\n