The Anti-sleep arsenal

Continuing on my fight against dozing, I hereby display my arsenal of tools that I use to get up in the morning.

So, I initially started by just keeping an alarm in my mobile and then snoozing it away to glory. Over time, I got so accustomed to it, that I started turning it off than snoozing. Realizing that this is kinda scary, I decided I needed "more" :)

Then came the alarm clock. The intelligent me would stagger the times that the mobile and the alarm clock go off so that I didn't over sleep, but yet I successfully snoozed both of them to glory for atleast half an hour everyday. And then the inevitable happened. I could successfully turn both of them off and go off to sleep again.

Finally, I got the most killer alarm that I have ever used. A clock radio. Yeah, I  know most people do not believe in the power of a clock radio, but having successfully used it for more than 6 years of my life, I decided its the only thing that can get me out of bed everyday.

So why do I like a clock radio so much? Well, first things first, even if a radio starts playing in the morning, I rarely turn it off. I can happily sleep with the songs playing in the background, and at the same time, some where in the back of mind I am always aware that the songs are playing for me to get up. And then, if there is news going on, I get to subconsciously hear the news for the day too :) !!

The only movie that gave celebrity status to a clock radio is definitely Groundhog day. So here is the scene from that movie for your viewing pleasure. And if you have not seen the movie yet, its definitely a must see ...

And those of you who have not yet figured out the song that plays when the clock strikes 6:00 AM in the movie, it is "I got you babe" by Sonny and Cher. Here is the live version:

MBA and Time management

So finally, I got sucked into the vicious circle of "being short of time" for everything everyday. My first trimester (though tiring) didn't really eat into my sleeping time, which I comfortably had still held at an average of 7-8 hours (that's a luxury by an MBA student's standard). And I was smirking to myself that having sleepless nights in MBA was a myth. If you work smart, you can always sleep well.

Then came the last 3 weeks of trimester 2, and I realized that "smart working" is a myth. If the professors try hard enough, they can actually make you sleep less. Having multiple submissions, presentations and tests on the same day became a norm, and Mr Smart Pants could no longer stick to his routine!

Though I still don't do all-nighters (every student's worst nightmare!). I have come down on my sleeping hours to an average of 6 (which means at times I have gone down to the magical figure of 4 hours a day!). Hahaha. I know this is still a lot more for most of you. But at 6 hours per day, my brain stops working and I am like a walking zombie. Looking at people and registering an hour later that I just saw that person!!

If you know, zombies are not much creative people. Same here. My sense of humor has diminished to the level that even reading the word "humor" makes me laugh :) !! If I wrote blogs at that state, I would sound like a news reporter (I bet you already noticed it here!).

My Trimester 3 starts on Monday and I await another onslaught of assignments, presentations and tests. Not that I am complaining, but then, I am not made for sleeping less :) !!!