WHY DO PEOPLE OFTEN WAKE UP JUST BEFORE THE ALARM?

Why do people wake up before the alarm?

Some people find that, no matter what time they go to bed, they wake at the same time every morning, quite often just before their alarm clock sounds. Scientists believe that a person wakes at the same time each day because of the body’s circadian rhythms, the internal “body clock” that regulates the cyclic processes of the body over a twenty-four-hour period.

These rhythms are important in determining the sleep patterns of people and are thought to be predominantly internal (that is, not affected by external stimuli), being affected and largely defined by regular activity in people, which goes some way to explaining why people generally wake up at around the same time every day. Studies have also shown that a person’s body temperature rises at the same time each morning, which is also linked to waking.

Waking just before the alarm is thought to be the work of the subconscious. People anticipate the time they’re going to wake up, and this anticipation makes them wake just before the alarm goes off. Both waking and the sound of the alarm cause stress, so the subconscious sets a time of waking just before the alarm goes off. The theory is that, if people think of an exact time they are going to awaken and imagine themselves waking at that time, the subconscious takes over while they’re asleep and makes this happen Indeed, some studies have shown an increase in certain hormones in the body that wake a person in circumstances when they were aware of the time that the alarm was due to go off, caused by the subconscious anticipating of this time and prompting the body to wake itself.