Rise And Shine
A
clutch of apps and alarm clocks can make waking up bright and early a
not-so-daunting chore
If you are among the lucky few who
spring out of bed cheerfully at 5 am ready for a jog and a few morsels of
muesli before bounding through the day, you obviously don’t need any advice.
But let’s face it, a sizeable number of people blink vaguely at the morning
before finally recognising it for what it is and wondering why it arrives at
such an unearthly hour with unfailing regularity. Some take up to half a day to
tune in to what’s happening around them. It is to them that we offer empathy —
and a few tricks.
If your problem in the morning is
that you don’t feel good because a sore head is interfering with your good
intentions, the reason may be a bout of heavy drinking the night before!
For some, even a bit of alcohol can ruin sleep, making it difficult to wake up
refreshed the next day. Well, you know how much you can handle, but if you need
help with that (you guessed it!), there are several apps that you can pick
depending on the severity and frequency of the problem.
Such apps are on all platforms, but
here’s Blood Alcohol Calculator, free on Android, which with a few inputs from
you, will give an estimate of your BAC. Use for a while to get a fix on how
much is enough to affect the quality of your sleep.
But many of us have a faulty sleep
architecture from consistently bad sleep hygiene. A whole host of apps,
the better crop being on iOS, aim to help you with sleep onset, sleep depth,
and consistency. Above all, it’s this kind of sleep repair that will make you a
willing and happy waker-upper. Smartwatches and fitness gadgets like the
Jawbone Up, FitBit and possibly the Galaxy Gear, as it gets more apps, watch
your sleep pattern and give you information you can act on.
Apps like the popular Sleep Cycle try to do the same thing though it’s obviously easier for a gadget which is in constant physical contact than it is for a phone to monitor your sleep. Android also has a bunch of apps which get you to sleep and watch. After a while of this, you can more easily normalise your zzzs and wake up less often looking and feeling like Grumpy Cat.
Apps like the popular Sleep Cycle try to do the same thing though it’s obviously easier for a gadget which is in constant physical contact than it is for a phone to monitor your sleep. Android also has a bunch of apps which get you to sleep and watch. After a while of this, you can more easily normalise your zzzs and wake up less often looking and feeling like Grumpy Cat.
Some people like to pop awake,
others prefer to ease into full consciousness. Music fits right into the second
plan and a multitude of apps wake you up with soothing sounds of nature or, on
iOS, hook into your own iTunes library. These aren’t necessarily free but you
might consider one with an interface that pleases you and specific features
that fit your needs and pay the typical $1.99 because it’s worth improving the
experience, end to end. Rise, on the Apple App Store, is a big favorite because
of its easy interface and playlist selection feature.
There’s Double Twist on the Google Play Store. Many alarm clocks focus on the weather but while they look beautiful, they can get downright boring when you live in a place where the weather is consistent for long chunks of time. If you’re really the focused type, try an alarm clock that gives you information on the date and weather and then reads out news, going by your RSS news feeds. On Android, Gentle Alarm Clock, VoiceWave and Caynax are some options. In fact, these will also read out your appointments and to-do list. Many radio apps like TuneIn Radio have alarm features built in.
There’s Double Twist on the Google Play Store. Many alarm clocks focus on the weather but while they look beautiful, they can get downright boring when you live in a place where the weather is consistent for long chunks of time. If you’re really the focused type, try an alarm clock that gives you information on the date and weather and then reads out news, going by your RSS news feeds. On Android, Gentle Alarm Clock, VoiceWave and Caynax are some options. In fact, these will also read out your appointments and to-do list. Many radio apps like TuneIn Radio have alarm features built in.
If the gentle and polite approach
doesn’t work for you, take the challenge of some of the new breed of ‘sadistic’
alarm apps such as Carrot on iOS which not only gives you tasks of increasing
difficulty if you don’t wake up but is also quite rude. On Android there’s
Extreme Alarm Clock and Wake and Shake which gets you moving as well. These are
getting fairly popular and also involve a social angle where you compete with
others for points from wake-up tasks, which can also include solving math
problems. Ouch, first thing in the morning!
If all else fails, try recording your own voice with
whatever message you think will do the trick. And if that doesn’t work either,
forget about all the high-tech and get yourself a dog. That should do it.
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http://www.businessworld.in/news/after-hours/lifestyle/rise-and-shine/1100145/page-1.html#sthash.jhCTSkSZ.dpuf
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