Using Heat to Assist in Waking Up

Recent societal events have made waking up in the morning a lot harder. Even the irritating “alarm” sound on my iPhone won’t cut it anymore. I wanted to find another mechanism to help me wake up in the morning.

A paper published to PubMed, a database containing biomedical and life sciences journal articles plus other related content, described how heat can disrupt sleep and that it is better for humans to sleep under cooler conditions (link here). Also, an article by sleep.org described how “most experts agree the best temperature for sleep falls between 60 and 67 degrees Fahrenheit (15.6 to 19.4 degrees Celsius) … as an increase in body heat can cause you to wake up” (link here).

Knowing that information, I took it upon myself to find tools that many people may already have at home to try and make my morning wake-up process easier.

As a result, with some tools that you can find around the house or purchase cheaply, here is how you can use heat to help aid your morning wake-up process!

You will need:

• An electric blanket (mine was an old one that we've had in our house for years)
• A smart plug that can be controlled using an app (I used the Wyze smart plug which is linked here)
• A smartphone

First: Ensure that the electric blanket you are using works, heats up, and would get you both comfortably and uncomfortably warm.

Second: If you haven't already, download the corresponding app for your smart plug on your smartphone.

Pro Tip: Test the functionality of the smart plug. I connected the power cord of a lamp to the smart plug that was then plugged into a wall outlet. Using the smart plug app on my smartphone, I tested the smart plug by powering my lamp on/off to see if it works.

Plug the power cord of the electric blanket into the smart plug. Then, plug the smart plug into a wall outlet that is closest to your bed.

Pro Tip: Ensure that the electric blanket is always set to 'ON' and the desired heat temperature. If the electric blanket is off, then it won't heat up when the smart plug is scheduled to be powered on.

Within the smart plug app, set the time that you want the smart plug to power on.

Pro Tip: I’d recommend setting the time for 15-30 minutes before your initial wake-up time. The 15-30 minutes should give the blanket enough time to heat up and start to heat you up as well.

When you are going to bed, cover yourself in the electric blanket and go to sleep. In the morning, you will be aided in your wake-up process by having help from the extra warmth!

If you already have a smart home system like an Amazon Echo Dot, Apple HomePod, etc. you can connect the electric blanket to a smart plug that works with that system.

Also, you can set those smart home systems to utilize sound, in addition to heat, to help aid the wake-up process!