I got a CD alarm clock for Christmas, one of those clocks where the alarm can be a song from a CD. It's pretty cool, and serves well as a CD player in my bedroom, so I can listen to music as I fall asleep and not worry about falling asleep with my stereo playing all night, (it has a sleep timer).The tricky thing is picking songs to be woken up by. Previously, I had mentioned a trip to Disneyland, and the realization that "Gimme Shelter" by the Stones is an awesome song to wake up to. It starts quiet with some soothing "ooo ooo ooo"s and builds to a rockin' conclusion. So I set that as my wake-up alarm for a number of weeks. But then I started to fear I would build up some kind of Pavlovian response to the song, and instantly get sleepy any time I heard it. So I had to switch tunes.
I've been experimenting with different songs. Cheap Trick and "I Want You to Want Me" worked nicely for a while, but I didn't want to grow to hate that song, so I stopped using it. Other choices proved less successful because they were just too mellow, and I ended up sleeping right through them. (I love Ricard Buckner, but he doesn't make me want to jump out of bed and face the day. More often than not, he makes me want to crawl under the covers and sob.) This past week it's been "Sabotage" by the Beastie Boys. Set REALLY loud.
But for the past few days, I've found myself waking up and feeling kind of angry, so I think I should switch that one out, too. I'm wondering if I should choose songs that I hate, so I won't be tempted to let them keep playing, thus allowing me to fall back asleep. Unless I get up and turn off the snooze alarm, I'd have to keep listening, and I wouldn't want that. But then I have a fear I'll wake up hating the day because I began it listening to a crappy song.
Or maybe I should just go the "Groundhog Day" route and stick to Sonny and Cher... FOREVER!
Sheesh. Maybe the MMMMEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHH!! of a regular old alarm isn't such a bad thing.
3 comments:
might i suggest some jesus and mary chain to awaken you? something droningly ambient such as 'sunray' or 'drop' or something? something just neutral enough is all im saying. no 'rockin' conclusion' to miss out on!
Hmmm...might be worth a shot, though I fear the ambient aspect might cause me to fall back into slumber. It might be better music to fall asleep to, which is a whole other category. I know I can't listen to "Mazzy Star" without instantly falling into a deep coma-like sleep.
But I do like The Jesus and Mary Chain. I really should listen to more of them--in my completely awake state. (As if such a thing exists these days!)
How about a goofy upbeat 50s song like "Rockin' Robin" or something? Or maybe that classical song that they always use in cartoons to indicate that it's a beautiful fresh morning in the countryside (I don't know the name - I'll hum it for you when I see you next).
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