How to Not Fall Back Asleep After Your Alarm

You were sure you got up. Then you open your eyes and it is 8:40. Turning the alarm off and falling straight back asleep is common, and there is a simple safety net for it.

Why it happens

Stopping an alarm takes almost no awareness. Your hand can do it while your brain is still mostly asleep, which is why some people have no memory of turning it off at all. Lying back down "for a second" in that state usually ends in real sleep, because nothing else is asking for your attention.

Habits that help

• Sit up before you decide anything. Feet on the floor first, thinking second.
• Put the phone out of reach so stopping the alarm means standing up.
• Have one small thing to do next, decided the night before, so the minute after the alarm is not empty.
• Avoid a second alarm that always rings. A backup that goes off every day, even when you are already up, trains you to ignore it.

A backup alarm that only rings when you need it

The trouble with setting two alarms in the Clock app is that the second one rings every morning, including the mornings you got up fine. Rise's wake-up check works the other way round:

1. Turn on the wake-up check from the Home screen, and pick 5, 10 or 20 minutes in Settings.
2. Your alarm rings. You stop it and start your morning focus session.
3. Starting the session moves the check to tomorrow. Nothing else rings.
4. If you stopped the alarm and fell back asleep instead, the check rings: "Are you still up?"

The alarm itself has no snooze button. If you set a snooze on purpose from Rise's Home screen, the check waits until after it, so the two never ring on top of each other. The wake-up check is part of Rise Pro.

Does it ring on Silent?

Yes. Both the wake-up alarm and the wake-up check are system alarms built on Apple's AlarmKit, so they ring in Silent mode and through Do Not Disturb and Focus, the same way the Clock app's alarms do.