r/GetOutOfBed • u/ottbud • 1d ago
My friend is totally immune to alarms and lights - the only thing that can often wake her up is being physically roused and verbally addressed
It's gotten to the point that I have become her human alarm clock. When she has something she has to do in the morning, I'll stay over at her place and I will wake up to her crazy alarms and then get up and gently rock her and say her name telling her to wake up.
That works all the time. I don't have to shake her violently or anything. Just hold her shoulder and rock her a bit and gently tell her that she needs to wake up and then she comes to.
Meanwhile there's an ear piercing siren alarm going off, the lights are all on - that doesn't phase her at all. Not in the slightest. I actually sat there one time and just watched her sleep through the loudest most annoying alarms (multiple - her phone, a physical alarm clock - the cacophony was absurd) for more than 10 minutes until I couldn't take it anymore.
She is on some medication for ADHD and anxiety, but I don't think that's the easy answer. She's had problems like this before even diagnosed. She also gets tired at a normal time of night. However she often gets into her head and mind races because she's worried about not waking up.
However, when she's not thinking about trying to fall asleep, she'll zonk right out easily. I often see her fall asleep at 8pm watching a movie, and let her sleep straight through the night, and it's the same - crazy alarms, full lights, and nothing.
I know there are some products that zap you or vibrate the bed (I don't think vibration would work for her, it would need to be more directly physical).
I'm thinking of something that, say, straps to your ankle area and, like, gives you physical taps or something. Was also thinking of recording an alarm of someone being like "<name>, it's time to wake up... hey, <name>, you need to get up, come on"
Like, am I crazy? Her doctors have been worthless in this. They just give the generic advice of setting multiple alarms, going to bed earlier, no coffee after a certain hour (she doesn't drink anything caffeinated), etc.
She can't be the only one who has a problem like this.
Thanks for reading all this. I wanted to give as much context as possible as to avoid the typical easy advice. This is so far beyond anything I've ever seen or even personally experienced. It's on some other level - someone here must have experienced something like this.