How are we able to wake up 1 or 2 minutes before the alarm? How does our bodies know what time it is?
In: 53
It’s fascinating how our internal body clock, called the circadian rhythm, helps us wake up before the alarm
Our body gets used to a routine and releases hormones that prepare us to wake up at roughly the same time every day.
You actually wake up dozens of times during the night, but usually only for a few seconds or minutes, and fall back asleep quickly enough that you have no memory of actually waking up. What happens here is one of those periods lines up with when your alarm goes off, so rather than fall back asleep you just stay awake, and this time you *do* remember the awake period.
Circadian rhythms also play a role, I know when I’m more consistent about waking up at the same time, I’m more likely to wake up just before my alarm, whereas when my sleep is more chaotic I’m getting woken up by my alarm more often.
There’s something called the cicada rhyme it’s your bodies internal clock and it adapts to your sleep schedule
You’re not dead. Your body and brain are still functioning. They just turned you off for a while while they did repairs.
People do all sorts of things while sleeping. Talk to others, reposition, scratch, look around, undress or wrap the blankets around them depending on temperature and the social circumstance.
You are part of your brain, not vice versa. It does stuff all the time without you knowing. Everything from catching something before you realize it was dropped, to processing ideas in the background and suddenly telling you the conclusion, playing back conversations or anticipating interactions, playing music on repeat, identifying and listening for important sounds and alerting you in a “Wait, was that a crash? I wasn’t paying attention.” sort of way.
Your brain is like a sidekick. Or maybe you’re the sidekick. I don’t know. Point is that there is more to you than just what you’re currently conscious of.
We all have a thing called a “circadian rhythm”. It’s our sort of internal body clock that works on the day/night cycle of 24 hours. Given enough time, your body can adapt to your routine so much that you wake before your alarm.
It’s never an exact thing because your body doesn’t understand accuracy to the minute, but it’s close enough.