How Using Light to Wake Up Early Is Better Than Gradually Increasing Music Volume

The apps that gradually increase volume to create a natural waking cycle may not be as good for you as light.

When I moved to my new apartment I was happy that I had a lot of windows for light. I was moving from a ridiculously expensive condo, which despite its small size, had floor to ceiling windows, When you live in Chicago, this makes a huge difference in how lethargic you feel, especially in the winter time when there are few hours of light and even those are overcast.

Without a lot of windows to take advantage of the paltry light we get much of the year, even those of us without winter seasonal affective disorder will find ourselves with the cold weather blahs. So being able to find an apartment that had a lot of windows looking out in three directions which maximized the amount of light was great.

However, as I moved in May, I quickly noticed something that was a bit less appealing with regards to the amount of light the apartment got. Although there were windows in three directions, the majority of them faced east. The combination of windows, and early morning light which reflected off the lake meant that my bedroom was like high noon by about 6:00 am. This of course, meant that I was awake.

Some people leap out of bed in the morning, throw open the curtains and start singing to the bluebirds. I am, most definitely, not one of them. Anyone who knows me will tell you that I do not wake up well. In fact, my family will say to stay away from me until I’ve been up for at least an hour and had two cups of coffee. This would be excellent advice.

I am also not a good sleeper, and even when I’m able to fall asleep at a reasonable hour, I am constantly up and down, rarely sleeping for more than 3–4 hours on a good night and my sleeping shifts so that I am more likely to be in a deeper sleep closer to morning. This means that it’s even harder for me to wake up when I need to, and going from a deep sleep to suddenly being awake when an alarm goes off is particularly noxious for me

Trying a Music Alarm That Gradually Increased in Volume

Because of my trouble sleeping and getting up in the morning, I am always looking for better way to wake up that won’t make me feel like someone has shaken me til my heart is in my throat. One day, I realized that there must be a variety of alarm clock apps available that I could download that might have features to help with some of these problems.

I found one with lots of different tunes that you could also set to start off very softly and increase in volume over several minutes. It was supposed to wake you up in a less traumatic manner than alarms that shocked you awake by suddenly blaring in your ear..

“That’s it!” I thought. I intended to try it out before I needed to use it, but always seemed to wake up before it was due to go off. After several tries, I pretty much forgot about it until I had a morning doctors appointment. I set the alarm and as is typical for anytime I have somewhere to be in the morning, I tossed and turned, eventually falling asleep a few hours before I had to wake up.

The next morning I woke up, then noticed the music and remembered the alarm. I was up and there was no sudden jolt or racing heart. Nor did I feel as exhausted as I usually did when I hadn’t gotten much sleep. I stretched and turned over to pick up my phone, then did a double take. It was almost two hours after I was due to get up. I was supposed to have been at the doctors five minutes later and it took almost an hour to get there on the subway!

I ended up needing to reschedule and getting charged the full amount of the appointment. I couldn’t imagine what had gone wrong. I’d never slept through an alarm before. That night I set it again, for earlier than I thought I’d wake up. This time I woke up to the music but when I looked, again it was later than I had set it for, if only 15 minutes.

Here Comes the Sun

As I didn’t have anywhere to be for a while, I went back to waking up on my own based on my own schedule. I’ve always been more of a late night person so I have always stayed up late. During the winter this wasn’t such a problem. Then we changed the clocks and summer rolled back around.

As the mornings got brighter and the light reflecting off the water began coming straight through the plastic blinds there was no chance of me sleeping once the sun started to rise no matter what time I had managed to fall asleep the night before. But even though I wasn’t getting much sleep I didn’t feel as exhausted as when I was woken up suddenly by an alarm.

That was when I realized that there might be something I could use here. A friend of mine had been using one of those clocks that had a light you could set to slowly start to brighten until you ultimately woke up and I asked her about it. She said she was getting a new one and that I was welcome to take her old one. I gladly did so.

That night I set the dawn simulator to slowly wake me half an hour before sunrise. That meant it began to grow light a half an hour before that. Sure enough, by the time it was fully bright, I was awake. I tried it several more times that week with the same result.

Why Did Gradually Brightening Light Wake Me While Music Gradually Increasing in Volume Didn’t?

Thinking about the differences between the gradual music and gradual light method it seems like the difference is that if I’m deeply asleep it seems like I adjust as the music grows in volume such that I’m never able to perceive the music at a level that it will wake me up. The only times the music alone seemed to work was when I was so exhausted the night before that I fell asleep in enough time to get six to eight hours of sleep. I assume that it’s likely this meant I wasn’t as deeply asleep when the music started to play.

The dawn simulator works by capitalizing on the way our body naturally wakes up. The type of light we get from the sun does several things that help us awaken. It suppresses melatonin, a hormone that helps us sleep and increase cortisol, a different hormone that increases wakefulness.

Sunlight also increases our production of serotonin, which is a neurotransmitter that helps regulate sleep and mood. Serotonin is a precursor to melatonin. Once serotonin has been produced, after about 12–15 hours it is converted into melatonin. In other words, sunlight in the morning helps us sleep better at night.

Wake up lights are not only an effective way to wake-up in the morning, but with continued use, they can also restore the balance of our sleep/wake cycle in terms of quality as well as quantity. The hormonal effects can also help improve our mood and give us energy throughout the day. Light therapy is the main type of treatment for winter type Seasonal Affective Disorder and dawn simulators are often a component of this type of therapy. Even if we don’t have Seasonal Affective Disorder, waking up naturally to light in the morning can improve mood.

Final Thoughts

Over time, I’ve experimented with the dawn simulator and determined the best system is combining it with a music alarm. I set the simulator and schedule the music alarm to five minute before the light reaches its full bright. In most cases, I wake up before the music goes off but often stay in bed until then. But when paired, I feel confident I will get up when I intend to in a way that doesn’t make me feel irritable.

I have also noticed when I have used the light alarm everyday for around a week that my sleep starts to improve as does my mood and motivation during the day. I am planning to experiment further to see if these changes will become regular if I use it every night. While it may seem like forcing myself to get up around dawn every morning when I don’t need to is a major concession, if it improves my state of mind, my mood and my sleep I think it is a trade off that is definitely worth it.

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