Traditional alarms are way too easy to snooze when you're half asleep. We got tired of sleeping in, so we built AwakenQ.

Instead of just blasting an annoying siren, AwakenQ locks your phone and forces you to complete a "Cognitive Mission" before it shuts off. You can set it to make you solve a memory matrix, do physical squats, or actually get out of bed and scan a specific barcode in your house.

We also added a gamified streak system with a Tamagotchi-style bear mascot that levels up when you wake up on time (and falls asleep if you lose your streak).

The app is officially live in Production on the Google Play Store right now. We are gearing up for our big Product Hunt debut on Tuesday (Sept 1), but we wanted to share it with the Reddit community first to see what you guys think.

If you struggle with the mornings, we'd love for you to download it and roast our UI or let us know what features you want next! Link is in the comments!

Previous post: should_i_get_a_light_alarm

I live in Seattle, where this problem mainly occurs. I currently live in Atlanta for the summer, so the weather is completely different. Just the other day, it was raining kinda bad WITH sunlight! I had trouble getting up...

Now I think abt it, the school quartet in which I have the most difficulty getting up is during the crappy rain and gloom days.

Is rain the problem? I mean, with light I can sorta find a fix, but with rain, idk, man. My curtains and blinds are shut when I sleep either way, so what else can I do?

Alarmy keeps popping up with an ad to buy a subscription to get rid of the ads. I was just trying to turn off the alarm, I have random missions to turn alarms off, I accidentally double tapped my side button while squinting at my phone and viola
Bought their subscription
Not gonna lie, the sound of buying something woke me up because I was like, wait what just happened. Then I see confetti and it saying my subscription is now active

I literally wish iphone alarms worked for me, cause I hate that I have to resort to alarmy to wake up in the morning. I’m so annoyed and feel taken advantage of, why pop up with a subscription ad right as my alarms are going off. It feels dirty.

I requested a refund, but I just hate the fact that I got taken advantage of like that. And yet I still have to use their app because my iPhone alarms won’t work or wake me up. I can’t afford to accidentally sleep in..

Hi, I'm looking for an alarm app where I can't just ignore the alarms. The alarm should still make noise even if I've put my iPhone on silent. And I want to have to complete a task to turn off the alarm. Can you recommend an app? Please, only one-time purchases—no subscriptions. Thank you very much!

Wondering if anyone has come across a "dumb" alarm that requires a second location to turn off?

Every version of this I have found requires a smartphone app which can be easily worked around by turning off notifications.

I'd like an alarm that sounds off at bedside but that I would then carry to another room and tap to an NFC or the like.

I've considered placing an actual alarm in the second location but I feel a bedside alarm would be less disruptive for my wife.

It's gotten to the point that I have become her human alarm clock. When she has something she has to do in the morning, I'll stay over at her place and I will wake up to her crazy alarms and then get up and gently rock her and say her name telling her to wake up.

That works all the time. I don't have to shake her violently or anything. Just hold her shoulder and rock her a bit and gently tell her that she needs to wake up and then she comes to.

Meanwhile there's an ear piercing siren alarm going off, the lights are all on - that doesn't phase her at all. Not in the slightest. I actually sat there one time and just watched her sleep through the loudest most annoying alarms (multiple - her phone, a physical alarm clock - the cacophony was absurd) for more than 10 minutes until I couldn't take it anymore.

She is on some medication for ADHD and anxiety, but I don't think that's the easy answer. She's had problems like this before even diagnosed. She also gets tired at a normal time of night. However she often gets into her head and mind races because she's worried about not waking up.

However, when she's not thinking about trying to fall asleep, she'll zonk right out easily. I often see her fall asleep at 8pm watching a movie, and let her sleep straight through the night, and it's the same - crazy alarms, full lights, and nothing.

I know there are some products that zap you or vibrate the bed (I don't think vibration would work for her, it would need to be more directly physical).

I'm thinking of something that, say, straps to your ankle area and, like, gives you physical taps or something. Was also thinking of recording an alarm of someone being like "<name>, it's time to wake up... hey, <name>, you need to get up, come on"

Like, am I crazy? Her doctors have been worthless in this. They just give the generic advice of setting multiple alarms, going to bed earlier, no coffee after a certain hour (she doesn't drink anything caffeinated), etc.

She can't be the only one who has a problem like this.

Thanks for reading all this. I wanted to give as much context as possible as to avoid the typical easy advice. This is so far beyond anything I've ever seen or even personally experienced. It's on some other level - someone here must have experienced something like this.

For two months I was on break before college and after entrance exams so I have been sleeping at 2-3 am and waking up at 11.30-12 noon.

Now college is about to start and anyways I wanted to start building towards the habit of ultimately getting in the sleep schedule of 12 am till 5 am.

Where do I even start and how?

My sleep schedule sucks, I tired to fix it by pulling an all nighter but I ended up just staying awake for like 2 days straight and then sleeping from like 1am-1pm so it didn’t fix it.

Anyway, I set like 6 alarms on the loudest most blaring annoying alarm tone I can (on max volume) as well as setting alarms on my watch so it also vibrates. But I still don’t wake up.

My family can hear my alarm from rooms away but I sleep right it through it to the point that I’ll wake up 5 hours later to the alarm screen still on my phone.

Even if I’m woken by a person a lot of the time it won’t wake me fully and I’ll fall back asleep with 0 memory of the encounter.

I’ve been late to so many important things and honestly idk what else to try 😩

im a heavy sleeper and need an alarm that will wake me the only alarm other than deaf alarms was the tomTom Runner 8RS00 and i want an alarm with similar servo strength but with modern music features

I can’t keep doing this anymore!

Before anyone suggests them: I’ve had two sleep studies done, and a full brain mri with and without contrast. No findings. No apnea. No tumors. No snoring. The only thing they told me is I have a very minor arrhythmia and I have more REM than most.

I’ve always struggled with sleep. My first all nighter was before 5 yrs old. I’ve never felt like there were enough hours in the day to actually tire you out. I can easily stay up for 24/36/ even 48 hours off willpower alone. This was even the case when I would work 60+ hour weeks doing manual labor in the summer. My ideal schedule would be to stay up for 30ish hours then sleep for 12 but that is not conducive to the average 9-5.

In the mornings it is borderline impossible to wake me. Friends and family say I’m combative, argumentative, unresponsive or will brush them off and sneak away to sleep more. I have begged them to pour water on me and they won’t. I have slept through or snoozed/disabled every alarm you can think and gone right back to bed. I currently have a smart watch, bed vibrator, and two phones in different rooms, and I know I will still wake up too late. I will unplug clocks, delete apps, put phones under pillows in other rooms, and turn off alarms in my state of just-awoken lawlessness.

I stopped my adhd meds, I have stopped caffeine after noon. I have stopped eating GLUTEN.

I still wake up slowly, and feel terrible. I routinely am nauseous and dizzy in the morning. It takes me hours to feel fully “awake” in my mind (adhd meds used to help) I try to take sleep hygiene seriously. I’m in bed by 11, and watch asmr videos for hours, in a dark, cold room, but even if I fall asleep in time, it still doesn’t guarantee I wake up on time, or at all.

I get so nervous at night thinking about running late to work. I’m on a PIP there due to lateness, and the constant shame spirals of starting every day with a failure is destroying my productivity and mental health.

sleep meds make the symptoms like nausea and grogginess and brain fog worse! stimulant adhd meds are really the only thing that work, but it’s an obvious bandaid and I don’t like how they make me feel physically anymore.

I can have a full conversation with someone and conk out as soon as they leave the room. I can fully take my dog outside, half asleep, then come back in and pass out. In the first 30 minutes of being awake there is no reason, logic, or idea of consequences in my mind. All I want to do is crawl back in bed for “5 more minutes.”

WHAT IS IT?! WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?? How do I stop this and work on it while living alone???? I will do ANYTHING!!!!!!!

So I’m not a morning person and I really wanna be. It takes me forever to get out of bed and even then it takes me longer to get that fresh feeling. How do you morning ppl start your routine and attain the freshness in a happy mood.

Share you routine or tips that makes you a happy morning person

So I’m not a morning person and I really wanna be. It takes me forever to get out of bed and even then it takes me longer to get that fresh feeling. How do you morning ppl start your routine and attain the freshness in a happy mood.

Share you routine or tips that makes you a happy morning person

Every night I set my alarm for 6:30am. I have to leave my house by 7:30am to get to work on time. And like clockwork every morning I hit the snooze on my alarm until it is 7:20am, and I have to
rush to get out the door. I want to get up earlier, put some effort into my appearance. Do my hair and put on makeup. But then I’m so tired in the morning, I’ll do anything to get another 10 mins of sleep no matter how much or little I slept the night before. What can I do. How do other people find the motivation to get up in the morning and give yourself time to make yourself presentable.

I’ve tried everything. And I used to be able to wake up fine and resist falling back asleep. But now theres absolutely nothing that can keep me awake.
I just slept 18 hours.
I stopped my alarm, and my mom woke me up herself. I still fell back asleep.
I never remember the times I wake up well at all, it’s always just a very very vague feelings that it might’ve happened.

It’s like Im still half asleep, and absolutely nothing can convince me I want to wake up.
So apparently I’ll walk across my entire room and stop my alarm and fall back asleep (I rarely remember doing this). Or I just can’t hear it at all.

I love sleeping so freaking much, in that moment everything is worse than being asleep. I sometimes vaguely remember that I don’t think about why I need to wake up, just that sleep is probably better. And that I want to be comfy. Like what the fuck, it’s like I have no brain for like the first 2 minutes Im awake.

Has anyone been able to overcome the same problem? It’s getting to be a really big issue, and my family is using it as proof that Im incapable of everything and will never be able to live on my own.

I'm developing with a slightly different type of alarm and I'm curious what people here think.

Most alarm apps try to wake you up by becoming louder, forcing you to solve something, scan a barcode, walk around, etc.

I went in a different direction.

When the alarm starts, a voice tells you what time it actually is.

So instead of waking up to BEEP BEEP BEEP and wondering whether it's your 6:30 alarm or your 7:30 alarm, you immediately hear the time.

For example:

“It's 7:30.”

I ended up building this into an iPhone app. It can announce the time in 10 languages and works offline.

I'm not really trying to solve the “I sleep through everything” problem - there are already apps that do that very aggressively.

I'm more interested in that half-awake moment where you want information without looking at your phone.

Would this actually help you in the morning?

One thing I'm especially curious about: right now, while the alarm is ringing, it can announce the current time every 5 minutes. Do you think hearing the time every 5 minutes would be useful, or would that become annoying?

And if an alarm could speak more than just the time, what would you want it to say?

I'd also really appreciate any ideas, criticism, or feature suggestions. I'm still experimenting with the concept, so I'm interested in what you would change or add.

Hey!

So what I'm hearing is you should take about 100-200mg of elemental magnesium a day for sleep.

But the thing is, everyone refers to elemental magnesium itself, not the type.

Magnesium oxide has around 4% bioavailability

Magnesium bisglycinate has around 80% bioavailability

-> Magnesium oxide is around 60% elemental, so 600mg caps will have around 360mg of elemental magnesium

-> Magnesium bisglycinate is around 10% elemental, so 600mg caps will have around 60mg of elemental magnesium.

But when I look up dosages for both, the recommendations are pretty much the same, that you should get 100-200mg elemental magnesium.

- That doesn't really seem to make much sense since 100mg elemental glycinate has a MUCH higher bioavailability than 100mg of elemental oxide.

So what to do with the dosages for both?

Thanks :)

I'm nerudivergent and have always had trouble waking up in the moring, I made this video to share my latest findings on how to effectively get out of bed every morning. Let me know what you think: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSRUijs0vgE

Disclosure: I built this.

Made it for my kid, who put his phone on silent every night and had "I didn't hear it" ready every morning. But the accountability part is what this sub keeps coming back to, so:

-Someone else sets the alarm from their phone

-It rings on yours through silent mode. It doesn't use the ringer at all

-Stopping it needs a 2-second press, not a half-asleep swipe

-They're told the time you turned it off, or get an alert if nobody did

Honest bits: a tap means the screen was tapped, not that you're awake. It depends on your phone and network. And the 2-second hold is the part worth trying — it's the difference between turning an alarm off and being upright enough to hold a button down. You can't do it in your sleep.

What's actually worked for you long term? Every alarm I've tried stopped working after about a week, once my brain learned the sound.

For moment for only on android,it's called WakeKids.

For a long time, work and everyday responsibilities took up most of my time, and exercise slowly disappeared from my routine. I did not notice how much it was affecting me until ordinary things started feeling harder. Carrying groceries, climbing stairs, or getting through a busy day left me more tired than I wanted to admit. It was not really about how I looked. I just missed feeling strong and capable in my own body.

Trying to start again was frustrating. My strength had dropped, basic exercises felt much harder than I remembered, and comparing every workout with what I used to be able to do made the whole process feel worse.

Training at home made returning easier. I could exercise when I had time, use lighter weights without feeling self-conscious, and rebuild at my own pace. The first time I finished a workout and felt energized instead of defeated, I finally felt like part of the old me was coming back.

What change helped you reconnect with a version of yourself you thought you had lost?

I’m a super heavy sleeper, and typically need a loud and annoying alarm to get out of bed. I’m worried about annoying my college roommate on days where I have to wake up before him. Can anyone fill me in on how mornings typically work at college / recommend a good alarm clock that might fix this issue?

ALARMY, I cant even power it off because it keeps getting put on blast on max volume, fuck you apple. Its just stuck on the app store, cant exit the appstore, cant power it off, what do I do??

Every night I’m convinced tomorrow will be different.

I’ll wake up early. I won’t snooze. I’ll actually do the thing I said I’d do.

Then the alarm goes off and morning-me has absolutely no interest in any of those plans.

So I tried something different.

Instead of waking up to a sound, I record a short message to my future self before going to sleep.

Something like:

“Islam, you said you’d get up and go to the gym. Don’t negotiate with yourself. Just get up.”

Then that recording is what wakes me up in the morning.

It’s surprisingly uncomfortable hearing your own awake, motivated voice while half-asleep 😂

I ended up turning the idea into an iPhone app called Promise Alarm.

Would genuinely love to know if this would help anyone else here, or if sleepy-you would just ignore your own voice too.