Waking up in the morning


The alarm on my phone wakes me up in the morning. As soon as the alarm rings, I am irritated. It is not the right way to start the day. Then I snooze the alarm which goes off a few minutes later without fail. This exercise is faithfully repeated for a few times before I decide to get up. There has always been a lingering doubt in my mind about the whole process. What is the best way to wake up? Shouldn't we seamlessly shift from deep sleep to consciousness? Is such a transition possible?

Waking up is always vexatious. It is not only a struggle to wake up yourself but also an equally stressful one to wake another person up. If you have kids or siblings in your home, you or another family member represents the alarm. You try to call out the name loudly repeatedly, pull out the blanket to expose the sleeping one, and finally end up bringing the house down with a litany of curses.

When my daughter was younger, I was surprised to find how her visiting grandfather tried to wake her up. He gently touched her arm and gently called her name repeatedly. While I rolled up my eyes silently wishing him luck, her grandfather patiently repeated her name softly. To my surprise, my daughter woke up without the usual rituals. I had to admit it was the right way to do things.

The above incident might make you think that we get wiser as we age. But this line of thinking of not correct. A few weeks back, I didn't switch on the alarm as I was on vacation. Still, I woke up at 6:30 am. A hand was pressing my wrist lightly. As a result, I woke up. The hand belonged to my two-year-old son. There was no need to snooze as the smile was way better than morning shot of caffeine. 

It is the best way to get up. There is no cacophony of alarms to beat the sleep out of you. But the challenge lies in recreating or replicating this way of waking up.

Photo Courtesy: Bridget Coila

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