Biological Clock?

[sarathustrah]

alright... wonderin if anyone else has heard of, or can do this...

i noticed back in high school... when i was on a regular schedule... i would set the alarm but very often i would wake up a few minutes before it even went off... i thought nothing of it... as if it was just habit... even though i went to bed at different times i could still just wake up out of routine...

however... im graduated... im a slacker... no job... no school.. no schedule whatsoever... im a housewife.

the hubby doesnt have a steady schedule... some days he works mornings... some days he works nights... and i never wake up when the alarm goes off for him... though he claims it goes off... so i became worried i would miss the alarm or sleep through the fire alarm or somethin...

So every once in a great while i do have to wake up for something...
my sister comes to town and i need to get up and get ready by a certain time... so ill set the alarm... and then somehow wake up the very minute before it goes off...

my sister theorizes its a mechanism in the clock, that by conditioning, we hear and respond to... but i set my alarm on the opposite side of the room so that we have to get up to shut it off since we would accidentally fall back asleep or shut it off in a daze and not even realize it went off.. PLUS we sleep with the tv on... so it could be a mechanism but i doubt it...

is there something more about a biological clock and the sense of time? anyone know anything about it?
anyone have the same type of experiences to share?

[Khethil]

Yea, I've been doing this for a long time. For some odd reason, I set my alarm clock each night but almost always get up 1 to 10 minutes before.

My understanding is that the reason for this is a combination of my Circadian Rhythm (the body's 24-hour cycle) and psychological conditioning. In my case, I live out in the sticks (no sounds) and use a digital alarm clock (no sounds from the clock). There's always the possibility that some sound is occurring of which I'm not conscious (a distant train that goes by, perhaps?) but I doubt it. I'm more inclined to believe its a result of conditioning: I'm retired military, but for years (decades?) I've been getting up at 5:00am. This morning I woke up spontaneously at 4:54.

There's lots of good information out there on the web on this, man have methods for "conditioning" your body - wean you off the alarm clock.

[Corax]

i used to wake up at roughly 11:30 without setting my alarm, but in the last couple weeks caffeine has made my "biological clock" go all out of whack, so i gotta use the alarm. consider your situation a good thing, but i bet you could screw it up very easaly by staying up late.

[benson]

My nan never uses an alarm clock but always gets up when she needs to. She says that if she needs to get up at 7am then she will just wake up at 7am. I wish I could do the same!

[Theaetetus]

I often set an alarm when I have to wake up by a certain time--especially if I go to sleep a little too late. It never fails though that I wake up before the alarm. I think it was caused by being too cheap to by an alarm clock that wasn't radio only and only picking up the top 40 radio station. I once woke up three days in a row to that stupid Hootie and the Blowfish song. What was it? "I Only Want to Be With You?" Ever since then I think my Circadian Rhythm tuned itself to what time I need to be awake. Not to mention, my cell phone alarm is not something you want to wake up to everyday. Multiple neurosis may arise as a result.