How To Set An Alarm That Won’t Wake Your Roommate Up

I live with four other people, three of them cranky children. If I need to get up early, I want to sneak out of the house without anyone else waking up. But if I set a quiet, subtle alarm, then I’ll ignore it, too.

If you have roommates, or a partner with a different sleep schedule than you, I know you know this problem. The best solution I’ve found requires a smart watch or fitness tracker. These usually let you set a silent alarm that will buzz you when it’s time to get up. But that’s only half the solution. Here’s the ultimate way to use your fear of waking up your roommate to get you out of bed:

1. Set a loud, annoying alarm on your phone. Do not put your phone within reach of your bed, of course (you shouldn’t be doing that anyway.) Make sure it’s in a place where it will awaken your roommate/partner/baby. This could be your baby’s bedroom down the hall. You are now very motivated to make sure this alarm does not go off.

2. Set a silent alarm on your watch for five minutes before the loud alarm goes off.

So if you want to be up at 6, set your silent alarm for 5:55. When it buzzes, you need to go get your phone, and either cancel the upcoming alarm, or simply stick it in your pocket and take it with you into the bathroom while you brush your teeth. (Or stuff it under a pillow, or what have you.)

With the Apple Watch, an iPhone alarm will also buzz your watch, so if you are both smart and lazy, you might eventually figure out that you can shut off the loud alarm from your watch. If you are quick enough, you might not wake anybody up.

If you reach this level of advanced snoozing, the solution is to buy yourself an old school, metal, ring-a-ling, give-you-a-heart-attack-and-wake-up-everybody-on-the-block alarm clock. In a pinch you could use a cute widdle travellers’ alarm clock with an ear piercing digital beep. Just make sure it’s loud, annoying, and far away from your bed.