<p>The WakeAssure alarm clock–which I like to call the “Nuclear Option” alarm clock–really, really works. At the college level, and at the HS level, based on nearly a year of personal experience with two near-comatose-in-the-morning kids. If waking up isn’t optional…buy this thing!</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.enablemart.com/productDetail.aspx?pid=51&dept=12&store=10[/url]”>http://www.enablemart.com/productDetail.aspx?pid=51&dept=12&store=10</a></p>
<p>I LOVE it!!! Mine is one of those near comatose kids. Hopefully with only one 9:00 am class, she isn’t doing too badly. But three missed classes results in a failure, so hopefully her current method is working.</p>
<p>Hmmm…that could be good. My son is sleeping with ear plugs in at the dorm (he is actually a light sleeper) and stresses about not hearing his alarm (it’s not that close to him because of lofted bed). So, he says he keeps waking up to look at it. Maybe this would buy him some zzzz’s.</p>
<p>The “bedshaker” is a very aggressive vibrating pad that goes under the pillow. It’s very funny viewed out of context, but really works in real life. It still makes me laugh, but it seems to work very, very well.</p>
<p>How long does the bed shaking last? My S lives close to ear-splitting bells that ring at 8:30 or so, but he goes back to sleep once they stop. I have not heard of his missing classes that begin at 11, but I suspect he would not tell me about it.</p>
<p>I don’t know how long the shaking lasts…but I think that’s a good thing. He has had a very loud CD-playing alarm clock that would awake every person in our entire mansion, except him. I’ve been awakened to the 5th Symphony on a Saturday morning more times than I care to discuss–blasting away at full volume, he doesn’t hear it. The shaking wakes him up, and in fact, he describes the shaking as what his sister used to do to him when she lived in the next room. :)</p>
<p>Driver:</p>
<p>You need to try Wagner or Mahler, or maybe Carmina Burana Beethoven does not blast loud enough.</p>
<p>The shaking clock is called “shake awake”. My deaf friend had one and recommended it to me for my middle D (she can sleep through anything). Naturally D has refused to use it, prefering for me to shake her awake instead. I have kept the shake awake for when she goes to college. You can purchase shake awake online…just google it.</p>
<p>Okay, confession time: my S has a human shake awake system: he has a bunk bed and says that when his roomie gets up, he shakes the bed(s) and S awake. No need to buy a clock. :)</p>
<p>I bought a similar clock, “the sonic boom”, for graduation gifts last year. Every kid I gave one too has since thanked me profusely. They all were kind of like, “huh?” when they got it, but now that it is reliably (and forcefully) waking them up for college classes (no more moms making repeated trips upstairs to shake and cajole), they know the value of it!!</p>
<p>Funny how these same conversations come around on CC every year… The “sonic boom” clock we got for older s. a year and a half ago has been well-used. Not only did he use it at college(relatively successfully-- only missed a few morning classes) but it went along with him to summercamp this past summer so he could awaken himself (counselor) and the little kiddies in the bunk. Definitely a great gift, and well worth the cost (which wasn’t too bad).</p>
<p>I sent a Sonic Boom along with S#2 to CTY camp this summer and someone stole it. No definitive word on whether it might be because they wanted to use it themselves, or whether S#2 was annoying everyone by not waking up when it went off anyway so they wanted to hide it from him, or whether S#2 actually ENCOURAGED someone to take it so he wouldn’t have to deal with its effective results.</p>
<p>The vibrating pad thingie was really excellent, though. You could set it to pulse in waves, or just keep going until said heavy sleeper finally got up and turned it off. (Or tossed it out of bed, which did happen occasionally…)</p>
<p>Has anyone tried a sunrise alarm clock? They are supposed to mimic the sun rising gradually such that you wake at the preset time to bright light. Just wondering how well they work, or if they work at all.</p>
<p>LOL, my daughter called on her way to class yesterday and announced that she need to see a *****(static in her cell phone) therapist, because there was something wrong with her. After a full day of worry, we talked and I found out that the missing word was sleep. She claims that no matter how much sleep she gets she just can’t get up in the morning. I told her about the WakeAssure clock and she immediately dismissed it with “I would just turn it off and go back to sleep”. So here is another option…“Clocky”. This furry cylinder rolls off the night stand and hides when the snooze button is pressed. It is even programmed to search for different locations to hide in.
Clocky was invented by an MIT design student.</p>
<p><a href=“http://web.media.mit.edu/~nanda/projects/clocky.html[/url]”>http://web.media.mit.edu/~nanda/projects/clocky.html</a></p>