How to wake up to an alarm clock???

I can set 19... unless there is imminent danger, I literally do not hear them. I'm gonna be 35 next month and still can't do it. My grandmother couldn't,my sister can't, and my daughter can't (all bipolar 1). Help??

I should add: I've tried them ALL. Light boxes, vibrating ones for deaf people, loud ones, everything, setting the pets (one meows on my chest every morning for several hours every day - apparently, I told him to **** off this morning). The dog barking might work, but only for long enough to let him out. Often, I don't even manage to let him back in. I'm basically sleepwalking when he succeeds, and he's a SERVICE DOG.

when I was younger, a friend of mine swore by this trick

tap your head on the pillow X amount of times (X being what time you want to get up), and next morning you will wake up at that time naturally

I don't believe a word of it myself, but acording to him it used to work for people in the army so maybe their is some truth to it.

you could try getting a radio alarm.

so when it's time for it to be set off, you hear a radio station or peace of music at high volume

Well, I guess I might give it a shot...

Oh, have I tried. I tend to just dream about the music...

let me know if the army thing works.

as I say, I think it's a silly legend. but who really knows

I sorta have an alarm problem too. I hear them I just hit snooze and go back to bed. Till I realize I'm going to be late

It's the antipsychotics. :-P I have had the same problem in the past. Now, on my current cocktail, I can wake up after snoozing the alarm for about 30 minutes.

Has this always been a problem? Otherwise I would look at your meds and what you self medicate with. And I may be wrong but isn't 3mg of Xanax a lot?

Not for me. I was like this before being diagnosed.

Yes. It's been a problem my whole life. And I don't self medicate with anything.

I'm not on any. I'm on a couple benzos (which don't do anywhere near as much as they would to almost anyone else because I'm an ex-heroin addict) and depakote only.

I literally don't even hear it in the first place. The only people in my family who can successfully use an alarm have been my little brother (the weirdo of the family) and my mom (who used to BE my alarm). My mom's brother can't even do it. His wife wakes him up. The rest of us have slept through earthquakes. As long as there isn't imminent danger, we are totally unresponsive while sleeping.

To add to this... even if the fire alarm goes off, unless I smell smoke, I'm not going to hear it. It's happened before. On the flip side, the smell of something burning does wake me instantly, so that's good... I know we're safe, but it's kind of ruining our lives and I'd like to know how to help my daughter with it, to. I constantly miss work trainings and meetings, I'm frequently late, I miss appointments, I'm literally barred from working days ever, my daughter cannot attend brick and mortar school (because again - this is both of us, and she's 14)... it affects every aspect of our life and has been going on as long as both of us have been alive.

Here's an example: when she was in third grade (no meds - nobody believed me that she needed them), I was sent to Becca court for her tardies. Here's what was going on... I couldn't wake her. Totally unresponsive. So I would dress her, wash her up, brush her hair and teeth, physically carry her down the stairs and into the car, carry her and all of her stuff into the school building, set her up with breakfast, notify the office that she was there, and leave because there wasn't anything else I could do. I was much the same way.

I changed my password in order to login on a browser (the only way I could update my signature - meds changed years ago) and because of that, I cannot login into any other forum on tapatalk. That was kind of the purpose of using tapatalk, but oh well... now you guys will know what I'm talking about, I guess.

My son is like that too- can't get up a lot of days. Its annoying when I'm trying to get his 150-pound self to school!

OP, you could do like Lewis Black says: "Fire that son of a ***** up and throw it at my head!" Might work.

What does that mean? I've never heard it before...

Lewis Black is a comedian. He does a skit about being offered cognac on a plane, saying, "So I said, fire that son of a ***** up and throw it at my head!" I figured if you had something thrown at your head you'd wake up.

It's possible, but there's nobody to throw it. It's just me and my daughter here.

It might help to have a really annoying tune as an alarm.

I have this problem. I have solved it by going to bed so early that I wake up on my own. I have not found other solutions.

I know this is not normally recommended, but I try to keep the alarm clock in very close proximity to me. Also, if there is a repeat option that often helps. This is coming from somebody who can sleep 12+ hours with no problems (done several sleep tests).

I don't know if my meds aren't quite in order, or what, but my ability to sleep at any given time (even with a sleep med) still fluctuates. I have learned that switching to days does not work for me at all over time. I tried for years and never got more than four hours per night, had terrible nightmares, and frequently overslept. I think my body is not meant for day time. But it would be nice if I could at least hear the alarm clock once in a while so I don't miss my annual CPI (tomorrow because I missed it last month).