Ever had the experience where you set your alarm for 7:30 in the morning, nod off, and then suddenly your eyes pop open at 7:28? You might feel like your body has stolen those precious two extra minutes of sleep—or you could be pondering whether you possess an uncanny knack for timekeeping even while you’re asleep.
We posed this question to a sleep medicine expert and sought to understand what happens when we awaken just moments before our alarm sounds. She offered us three possible explanations, one of which intriguingly touches upon a touch of the supernatural.
Andrea Matsumura, MD, a representative for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, shares her insights.
Congratulations, you might be waking up right as your alarm is about to ring because you’ve mastered your sleep routine.
“If you hit the hay at the same time each night, manage to get at least seven hours of shut-eye, and rise each morning feeling rejuvenated, then your body is perfectly in sync with its circadian rhythm,” explains Andrea Matsumura, MD, an expert in internal and sleep medicine.
Our circadian rhythm, often likened to our 24-hour internal clock, dictates when we should sleep and when we should wake. It’s influenced, in part, by a brain region that’s sensitive to environmental cues, such as light and darkness. “As night falls, melatonin is released, lulling us into sleep. Light—like sunlight peeking through your curtains—sets off our circadian wake cycle for the day,” Matsumura elaborates.
Thus, maintaining consistent sleep and wake times, and particularly using light and darkness to signal your body, can ensure your circadian rhythm operates like a precision orchestra—always on time.
You might be so anxious about missing your alarm—that you have a flight to catch or a crucial early meeting—that your body preempts the alarm.
“When the body expects to wake up earlier, it can release stress hormones like cortisol and ACTH to prepare for the day, even before the alarm sounds,” Matsumura notes.
In such cases, you might wake up several times throughout the night, not just right before your alarm, even if you don’t recall these awakenings.
If this scenario happens to you frequently, and you’re constantly waking up anxious and disoriented, your circadian rhythm might be askew. “When someone is a night owl and goes to bed late, for instance, but needs to rise early for work, they might develop a heightened vigilance during sleep, feeling as though they’re sleeping with one eye open,” Matsumura observes.
Fortunately, there are ways to restore your circadian rhythm.
Here’s a curious theory: Some individuals might be able to will themselves to wake up at a specific time, according to Matsumura.
“There’s scientific research backing the power of manifestation and persuasion,” she notes. “We see it all the time with athletes, who train their brains to visualize success on the field, for example, and make it a reality. So it’s plausible that people can cultivate the ability to wake up at a certain time without relying on an alarm clock.”
So, how do we train ourselves to wake up at will?
“I’m not sure,” Matsumura responds. “That hasn’t been thoroughly studied. However, we can infer that the power of manifestation may assist us in adjusting our sleep timing, as long as it aligns with our circadian rhythm.”
Give it a shot tonight and see what happens! (But keep the alarm clock handy, just in case.)
