Foto von Benjamin Voros auf Unsplash
In the modern era, even sleep has become a luxury and not so much a necessity. Sleep has to fight with several elements, like screen time and smartphones, to get our attention. The notification bell is constantly blaring. The Instagram pop-up notification is making constant noise. The unread WhatsApp messages make their presence felt. The news app is flooding with breaking news. It is almost as if sleep is battling with every aspect of our lives to carve a niche for itself. Smartphones have become the last thing we see at night before going to sleep and the first thing we set our eyes on in the morning, which is detrimental, to say the least.
What is resulting in disturbed sleep? It is an obvious fact that increased screen time is associated with a lack of sleep and results in exacerbating all kinds of mental and physical health conditions. With smartphones surely becoming an addiction, juggling with sleep has attained a new normal. Our attention is mostly divided between the flooding emails, group notifications, and various app updates, which results in disturbed sleep patterns. A deficient quality of sleep is known to result in lethargy, lack of focus, tiredness, and an unwillingness to stay active and work. Thus, having good, quality sleep is really important, not just to keep the mind functioning properly but also to keep the body clock efficient.
You must be wondering how to achieve this quality sleep that everyone talks about. Do you remember waking up refreshed when you used to have just one alarm blaring from the corner of your room? The old-fashioned alarm clock that had a deafening noise almost made you mad.
The Digital Abyss
Before we delve deeper into the significance of using old-fashioned alarm clocks, let’s discuss why using only digital devices to wake up isn’t a good idea. We can all agree that smartphones have become an indispensable part of our lives due to their multifaceted uses. From working as the quintessential phone to keeping us connected to the world, be it through social media, news apps, or entertainment, But the ugly truth about smartphones is that no matter how useful they are, they emit blue light. Blue light, if you do not know, is detrimental to the melatonin our brain releases. Melatonin is the sleep hormone, also known as the darkness hormone, since it is released best in the absence of light. If you’re still not convinced, here are some of the reasons why you need to turn the dial anti-clockwise and go back to that era again.
Better sleep quality
You must have heard this time and time again that the quality of sleep matters more than the quantity of it. What this means is that a few hours of uninterrupted sleep can usually make you feel more refreshed after waking up than a disturbed eight-hour sleep. Haven’t you felt that sometimes a half-hour nap can be so much more relaxing than a two-hour-long afternoon siesta?
The old-fashioned alarm clock enhances our quality of sleep. Since it does not emit any harmful blue light, the old-fashioned alarm clock does not disrupt your melatonin level. With reduced exposure to blue light, our brain automatically goes into the sleep zone as night advances. It also keeps up the natural pace of the circadian rhythm while its hands move constantly, emitting that gentle ticking that lulls you to sleep.
No More Waking Up with a Start
Digital devices can usually have extremely jarring alarm tones that jolt you out of your deep sleep. This can cause serious anxiety and an increased heart rate. The old-fashioned alarm clocks mostly work with a crescendo, increasing their rate slowly and steadily rather than giving you a shock first thing in the morning. This usually signals the body to transition and move slowly towards wakefulness. The gentle alarm tone also enables you to start your day on a positive note rather than waking up with a jolt and feeling anxious for the rest of the day.
Healthy Morning Ritual
Every successful person has a ritual that they adhere to. Setting an alarm on an old-fashioned alarm clock is like setting intention at night, which signals your body to wake up as soon as the alarm goes off. The concept of snooze that smartphones have introduced us to has only made us lazier and more lethargic. We unabashedly set multiple alarms and hit snooze more than a couple of times before finally waking up.
This has led us to develop an unhealthy relationship, both with alarms and sleep. The fraction of sleep that we steal during those borrowed snooze moments serves us in no way. It only makes sleep more disrupted and our brains hazier. Find more information about this here. So introduce this healthy ritual into your routine and make your life more relaxed and organized.
Embrace the simplicity and old-world charm.
Life in the modern world is loaded with frenzy, to say the least, and what better way to introduce calm and tranquility into your life than to brew some old charm into it? Also, setting multiple alarms on your smartphone or other digital devices is nothing short of a mechanical activity, whereas setting an alarm has a slight old-world charm. The old-fashioned analogue clock operates on batteries and does not emit blue light.
While digital devices may have their benefits, they keep us distracted throughout the night with the ping of notifications. If not for notification, a slight buzz or vibration from the digital devices is sure to make a dent in our sleep. And even if that’s not the case, we’re still tempted to look at the screen once in a while or every time we wake up. The reason? We’ve become used to sleeping with these devices right next to us. With old-fashioned clocks, you don’t get to do that. You need to put them on a table or stand, so there is no temptation.
Forcing you to wake up
Snoozing has become a habit for most of us with the invention of digital devices that double as alarm clocks. As convenient as that is, this habit has made our discipline go for a toss. We keep snoozing till the eleventh hour and then wake up in a hurry. The old-fashioned alarm clock does not provide you with that option, so you have to wake up and turn off the alarm.
This does two things: first, it forces you out of bed, and second, it keeps you disciplined since the analogue clock does not have the option of multiple alarms. It ensures that you wake up more energized and refreshed.
Conclusion
Thus, in a world governed by technology and digital space, old-fashioned alarm clocks return you to a tranquil and calm space. They inculcate discipline and, most importantly, help you sleep better, which is truly a luxury in this hyperactive world. The world that is high on caffeine surely needs this old-world charm to restore balance and equanimity.