Are you Alarmed or Excited to wake-up?

I think the first few hours of waking up, especially in the morning, should be deeply meaningful. Waking up in the morning is a powerful phenomenon in life that we should be excited about and not taken for granted. But do we really wake up excited in the morning?

I don't know if you have noticed this in your life, but as an adult, a good and enjoyable night of sleep is becoming rare. This makes waking up with excitement in the morning even more rare.

As I woke up this morning, I called for an investigations into this phenomenon. If you love your body, know the importance of a good sleep to your body and need to wake up with some excitement in life, I invite you to join me in this investigation.

What excites you about waking up in the morning? Should you have at least one primary exciting reason for waking in the morning?

It is Monday morning and I woke up feeling so relieved that I don't have to go to work - it's a public holiday. The relief is from knowing that I am feeling tired and today I have a choice to sleep it off. When I am tired and given a choice, I don't suffer from anxiety or body aches from sleeping and staying in bed all day until I reach a state of deep relaxation and sometimes borderline lethargic.

Tilili, tilili, tilili, tilili... the alarm went off. However, today, I set it up to wake me up 2 hours later than my usual wake-up time. I am not particularly proud that I still need an alarm to wake up, even on a public holiday. As part of my investigation, I had a suspect, the "alarm clock." I went on to Google the word "alarm" and got four definitions:
1. a call to arms
2. a signal that warns or alerts
3. a sudden sharp apprehension and fear resulting from the perception of imminent danger
4. a warning notice

For those who still need to set alarm clocks to wake up, which of the definitions above best define your wake up call?

Honestly, whatever well-meaning reasons we use as an excuse to set our alarm clocks to wake up, none of the definitions above befits the reasons we should be waking up to life, if at all.

If am to interpret my new found knowledge on alarms in this context, waking up to alarm clocks is like constantly waking up to being alerted of the imminent dangers of life, warned and called to arms with a notice. Eish... is this what we wake up to?

I was wondering where I lost my excitement for waking up to life. My investigation is suggesting that my alarm-filled waking up lifestyle has entered my subconscious and taken over the true meaning of waking up in the morning. It seems like we have been nurtured to wake up "alarmed," not "excited." Sadly, it also feels like I have to find and fill in elements of excitement in life after I have woken up, but it is not necessarily the primary reason that woke me up. Am I alone in this? Since misery loves company, I will assume you are also experiencing the same. Thank you for acknowledging me.

My investigation reveals, for most, the primary things that we wake up to are obligations and responsibilities - I can imagine there’s very little excitement in any of these. We have to wake up at a certain time not because we don’t want to miss the excitement of being awake but because if we don’t, we will "ideally" be late for school or work. Think about it, how often do you get woken up or wake up and only look forward to doing something that excites you? In other words, apart from obligations, responsibilities, and other emergencies, what really excites you about waking up in the morning?

Life is very interesting, as babies, it seems like there’s always a struggle to reconcile between excitement for being awake and our tiny bodies needing some rest to recharge. I guess that is why babies cry uncontrollably when its time to sleep as they can’t seem to reconcile the two energies. We used to be soothed to sleep as babies to help us balance the excitement of being awake and the need to rest. As kids were forced to go to sleep because we had so much excitement for life and wanted to be more awake than asleep. Sleeping was not something to look forward to until your system crashes, and no one can wake you up however hard they try. As adults, we force us to stay awake, and we can hardly sleep enough - it’s a mess. For the elderly on the other hand, they don’t need a reminder to sleep. However interesting your story is or your agenda, they will sleep away on your face.

The investigation further asks, is there a way of waking up with or to excitement and then during the day find and fill-in elements of obligations and responsibilities? This might sound foreign but make your imagination go wild.

If you hold a baby for the first time, they usually observe you first with all the funny faces and sounds you are trying to make to excite them, it's like they are scanning you and if you are lucky to pass the test, they will smile back and make even more wierd sounds than yours - they are excited. I would like to use this metaphor as a tool to help us remember and find again that reason for excitement when we wake up. The next time you frantically wake up to that annoying tilili, tilili, tilili sound of your alarm clock that has mastered your life, stop and think. By waking up, is there really imminent danger to your life? I mean, even if all bills have not been paid, is this the only reason you have to wake up? Like a baby, scan through the wierd faces and acts of the people you know in your life, the animals, buildings, and the sounds they make, surely there's someone or something that will excite you and put a smile on your face. Scan for safe people and things that give you excitement, as a first step towards remembering, make them the reason you wake up.

Imagine yourself frantically waking up to not missing an exciting event. The memories of such moments of excitement for me were when I was still a school boy. The first day back to school was so exciting, not because of classes but because I had new shoes, new uniform, new school bag and stationery that I couldn’t wait to show off to my friends. It was difficult to sleep the night before, and I would wake up way before the required time. Come to think of it, I didn’t have to think or pay for any of this... a true definition of the best things in life are free.

This brings me to another point, to help us remember what should excite us when we wake up - the free things in life. We take for granted the free things in life. Have you ever wondered where the air we breathe comes from and how we are still able to freely breathe even when we are not thinking about it? It is one of the best free things in life, but we barely know or remember how this should excite us, at least when we first wake up in the morning.

So, are you alarmed or excited to wake-up in the morning? Now that we found the culprit for not waking up excited in the morning, if we all got rid of our alarm clocks today, how different will your morning be tomorrow? Will there be more excitement or chaos?

I am keen to know how your answer to "What excites you when you wake up in the morning?" evolve with time.