10 Alarm Clocks for Heavy Sleepers

Alarm clocks that work 

 

No one loves an alarm clock. But if you've missed more than a few morning meetings, you may be ready for one you love to hate.

A money-shredding alarm clock might fit the bill: It shreds bills if you don't get up. Or how about one that dials random numbers, like your boss's, from your cell phone until you wake up? In truth, these are only design concepts. (Whew!)

Instead, consider one of these 10 real alarm clocks that use nightmarish methods to rouse—or at least seriously annoy—heavy sleepers.

Wake Up, Work Out Alarm Clock

 

The last thing you may want to do is pump iron before breakfast. That's too bad, if you set this 1.5-pound dumbbell clock ($30; gadgetsandgear.com).

It will shut off only after you've done 30 bicep curls.

What's more, it has internal motion censors too—so you can't cheat!

Blender Alarm Clock

At first stroke, Met's speaking clock bill will be... £17,000

The Met last year spent nearly £17,000 in 55,000 calls to the speaking clock, figures show today.

Officers and staff also spent more than £95,000 calling directory enquiries, according to details released under the Freedom of Information Act. The sums involved were branded a "waste of taxpayers' money".

The force's spending on the speaking clock last year, which costs 31p a time, was £16,879. The amount is down on the previous year, when £18,401.65 was spent on the speaking clock and £121,501.10 on directory enquiries.
A Scotland Yard spokesman said both premium-rate services were essential to the day-to-day requirements of employees, adding: "There are evidential and operational reasons for officers and staff requiring the exact time and contact details.
"It must be remembered however that a huge number of our officers will not have direct access to the internet as they are not office-based. We are committed to reducing such costs wherever possible and all directory enquiries from landline tele-phones are routed to one service."

The story of the speaking clock in Britain

Precisely! It needed just four words to tell you this article is about the speaking clock. Known officially as Timeline and more commonly as plain TIM, the speaking clock is one of those essential features of everyday life to which you give scarcely a second thought It's there when you want it and that's it, isn't it?

Well, yes and well, no. In fact it hasn't always been there and it has changed over the years. And there's quite a bit more to TIM than history, as I found out when I started to dig out a bit of information about this national institution.

Synchronised

Institution is probably a fair word since as a nation we seem to be remarkably keen on ringing up the speaking clock. Even in its first year, 1936, the service registered nearly 13 million calls and it was not a nationwide service then—that came six years later. Today we make more than 135 million calls a year and that's a lot of watches being checked.

Major organisations such as British Rail and London Weekend Television have permanent feeds of the clock from BT into their private internal phone systems so employees can check the time without making an outside call. The timing of all ITV television programmes is synchronised to TIM

Speaking Alarm Clock

Introduction

Alarm application is a fully featured computerized alarm clock. It has unique interface and is stylish. It is based on my first program that I created in 1984 when I had the great Sinclair Spectrum 48K. That alarm clock was noisy when it was not in action . This one is hardly usable as a regular alarm clock. That is because of the noisy fan in the computer, I will never get used to sleep with the computer on . The digits are created from a bitmap taken by a digital camera (the original bitmap from it was quite dirty (because of the JPEG lossy compression)).
This application is not written for any reuse in mind.
It seems that the alarm letters are not clear on some monitors

Features

1. Alarm is capable of keeping people awake .
2. Digits interface is processed from digital image of electronic alarm clock (my stereo clock).
3. Unique Interface (UI) (region adjusted with SetWindowRgn).
4. Snap to invisible grid (when the window is moved).
5. Applicable interactive option dialog.
6. Speak clock with regular intervals (Icelandic) (class CSpeakNumber decodes all whole digit numbers).
7. Filtered "edit" entry for clock "__:__".

The best alarm clock apps for Android

The days of the standalone bedside alarm clock are numbered, with the simple inclusion of a “clock” app on every smartphone taking over. But there are so many options out there, why settle for the app pre-loaded on your phone? Your alarm doesn't just have to be a bland beeping sound that makes you want to throw your phone across the room. Read on after the break and see the best alarm clock apps available for your device.

Best Free Timer and Alarm Clock

Introduction
Lots of people use their computer for almost anything. So why not use it as an alarm clock, waking you up from your dreams? And what about reminding you to go for an appointment right away before it's too late while being engrossed in something else on a computer?

There are lots of alarm clocks on the internet, but most of them don't wake your computer from standby or hibernation. Why leave your computer running all night just for one important task: to wake you up?!

These are freeware programs which might be useful and interesting to you if you don't like that waste of energy either.
Discussion


WakeupOnStandBy, like the name already says, it wakes your computer from standby or hibernation. You can set this program to run whatever you want after it wakes up. It's also possible to set it for different time schedules, using multiple instances of the program.
You could use it as an alarm clock by starting up internet radio or m3u-playlists. It works nicely in combination with another one of the developer's free tools, called Toff, which puts your system to sleep.

Alarm Clock of Justice is a computer alarm clock that can wake your computer from standby or hibernation to play a customized alarm. This includes any file type.
The program has a customizable snooze as well as a standard activated, volume-level control.
Not all soundcards support this volume control though, so you should test if your card supports it or you have to turn this option off.
Simple Alarm Clock, a really simple version from the same developer that just does what it's supposed to: Waking from standby/hibernation and running the file you want.

Free Alarm Clock has a clean and simple user interface, combined with useful functions such as loop and snooze, repeat alarm, wake up the computer from a sleep mode, turn on monitor power and adjustable volume.
You can set as many alarms as you need, choose the sound for each alarm, label it and indicate in the text field the activities you need to do at the times you set.

How to Wake Up Without an Alarm Clock

Of all sounds (including fingernails screeching down a blackboard and the shrill tones of the Emergency Alert System), few are as obnoxious as those of an alarm clock. Human beings have survived for most of our history without these confounded noisemakers —so why would you need one now? Using your natural circadian rhythms and employing other environmental signals other than sound can help you wake up without an annoying alarm.

Method 1 of 3: Getting Into a Rhythm

 
1  Determine what time you will need to wake up on most days. Make this your sleep goal for every day. Even if you don't need the time on a day or two, consider it a boost to your productivity. Step 1 for your routine -- check.
In order to set yourself to an alarm-less rhythm, there won't be any sleeping in on weekends, unfortunately (at least at the beginning). You need to program yourself, and that means 7 days a week.
2   Use your alarm clock to wake up at approximately that same time each morning. Our bodies’ physiological processes are governed by the circadian rhythm, a cycle that in humans is closely adapted to the 24-hour day. By training yourself to wake up at the same time each day, you