2026-08-04

# X: Experimenting with a chess alarm

Disclaimer
 - personal
 - target audience - strictly myself

Main
 - I am losing a lot of cumulative time due to all the days I am not able to fix my sleep schedule.
 - I slept yesterday around 2:30 and work up today around 11 am if I remember correctly. My regular alarm is 8:30 am.
 - Methods that have not been fully successful, for me:
   - Keep the phone far away enough that you have to walk out of the bed to dismiss the alarm - I go back to sleep anyway
   - Force passcode entry in order to dismiss the alarm - I go back to sleep anyway
   - Keep a note asking me to open the window for sunlight, when I dismiss the alarm - This hasn't yet set in as a habit so I sometimes forget to open the window. Also I sometimes go back to sleep even with the window open
   - Set alarm such that I get 7 hours sleep minimum, even if I slept late. So if I sleep 2:30 am this means alarm for 9:30 am, if I sleep 2 am this means alarm 9 am. - I still think this is a good idea but I end up going back to sleep
 - Methods I could try:
   - Force myself to do a high focus task like play chess - I just now set this up today
   - Use multiple alarms spaced 30 min apart - I could experiment with this in future
   - Get a bigger window with even more sunlight - Not doing right now for reasons discussed in other posts