How To Wake Up A Heavy Sleeper (9 Effective Ways)

In this article we will explain how to wake up a heavy sleeper in a safe and calm manner. The article will also shed light upon the stages of sleep and what purposes does sleep – especially deep sleep – serve!

How To Wake Up A Heavy Sleeper?

There are a number of ways that you can wake up a heavy sleeper like:

• Natural Lights
• Music
• Information Stimulation
• Smells
• Wake Up Lights
• Phone
• Distant Alarms – Ruggie
• Sleep Early
• Drink Water Before Bed

Before we look at each method, let us take a look at the concept of sleep and what it is!

Stages Of Sleep

There are four stages of sleep where one stage involves rapid eye movement (REM) and the other stages are non rapid eye movement (NREM) stages. They have been explained below:

• Stage 1: This is NREM sleep that typically lasts around 1-5 minutes and can be characterized as dozing off stage! This is when the body and brain activities start to slow down and there are periods of brief movements where the body twitches. 

• Stage 2: This is also a NREM sleep stage where the body is now in a subdued state, the temperature drops and brain and body activity has slowed down to the extent that brain waves show a new pattern and there is no eye movement. However there are short bursts of activity to ensure the person stays asleep if there is any external stimuli. This stage lasts around 10 – 25 minutes.

• Stage 3: Yet another NREM stage where the person’s body is totally relaxed and they are in a deep sleep and hence it is difficult to wake them up. The brain emits waves that are known as delta waves. Experts believe that this stage is critical to restorative sleep, allowing for bodily recovery and growth. It may also bolster the immune system and other key bodily processes. Even though brain activity is reduced, there is evidence that deep sleep contributes to insightful thinking6, creativity7, and memory.

• Stage 4: This is the REM stage where the person experiences atonia which means they are temporarily paralysed except for the breathing muscles and the eye’s movement. Usually, you need to go through other stages to enter REM sleep and this stage makes up about 25% of one’s total sleep.

What happens when you fall asleep? You have dreams! In this section we will take a quick look at what dreams are and how they keep your dear one fast asleep and why!

What Are Dreams?

A topic of scientific, religious and historical interest, dreams are successions of images, ideas and sensations that occur in one’s mind when they are going through a certain stage of the sleep cycle. Dreams are often not controlled by one and though there has been much research on dreams and what affects their content, much confusion still remains to date.

On average, every night a person is expected to dream 3 to 5 times although they may not remember it. Each dream can last between 5 to 20 minutes but occurs likely during the REM or rapid eye movement stage.

Dreams serve a number of purposes such as:

• Offline Memory Processing: The brain consolidates memory tasks and learning to assist waking consciousness.

• Preparation: During sleep, the brain dreams so as to help one prepare for future tasks or threats.

• Simulation Activity: Dreams also serve as a simulation or exercise because they resemble the period when we are awake.

• Capabilities: Dreaming also helps one develop cognitive capabilities especially when one is carrying out tasks in the dream.

• Past, Present, Future: A unique state of consciousness that incorporates experienceTrusted Source of the present, processing of the past, and preparation for the future

Nonetheless, dreams serve many purposes as highlighted above! However, one may ask what the stages are of the sleep cycle. We will explore these in the upcoming section of this article.

How To Wake Up A Heavy Sleeper – 9 Effective Ways

In this section, we will look at 9 effective ways to wake up a heavy sleeper!

Natural Lights

Natural light is a great way to get someone to wake up! It is known to suppress melatonin which is a hormone that helps you fall asleep while at the same time increases the serotonin levels in your blood which is known for making you more alert! 

Not only does this help your body follow it’s natural cycle hence making sleep more easier and beneficial but it is an easy method. You can use certain curtains that allow most of the light to pass through them. This way, as soon as the sun starts coming up, this method will begin to work slowly but effectively on you. You can also install cracking blinds that also let a lot of light pass through them. More light will help wake up your body or that of a heavy sleeper inside your home!

Music

Some people prefer being awoken by music they like rather than that annoying alarm clock that sits on the shelf! Research has also found that music helps reduce sleep inertia – that terrible force you feel that just makes you want to fall back to sleep!

This is a good method where you can choose your choice of music to wake up your dear one who is indeed a heavy sleeper. It can be music that is soft and pleasant and gives a calming effect or one that is loud and exciting – perfect to wake up a heavy sleeper!

Information Stimulation

Another great way to slowly but effectively wake up a heavy sleeper is to stimulate their mind. You can do this by trying to get their mind’s attention. You can begin talking to them however this may annoy them. 

A better way is to put on a favorite program of theirs or the morning news if they enjoy listening to it with a cup of tea. Not only will they not be irritated but they will listen to what they hear and begin to wake up. This information stimulation will bring them out of their deep slumber and to the real world.

Smells

This is another interesting way to wake up a heavy sleeper. The taste of fresh coffee beans being roasted is one smell people love to wake up to. Not only is the smell itself very comforting and arousing but it reminds them of the cup of coffee they will be drinking soon.

This also serves as a motivation to get up; coffee is something that people actually look forward to.

Wake Up Lights

We mentioned natural lights but artificial lights can also be used that are programmed to become brighter slowly and slowly according to your ideal wake up time.

Phone

Your mobile phone is indeed an interesting device. It can do so many things but one of those things is to set an alarm of your choice!

• You can program countless sounds and songs to wake you up, so when you find something that works, you can stick with it.
• You’re used to responding to your phone when it rings or you get a notification. So when it’s telling you to wake up, you may be more likely to pay attention.
• It can be easily manipulated to allow you to snooze for an extra few minutes, even though the general rule is to avoid hitting the snooze button in the morning.

Distant Alarms – Ruggie

There are a number of innovative alarms that are used to wake up a deep or heavy sleeper. They operate on the basis of creative ideas that are quite different from the typical way an alarm clock works!

Take Ruggie as an example that does not stop making noise unless you get up and put a certain amount of weight on it!

Sleep Early

One of the reasons heavy sleepers are unable to wake up easily in the morning is because they don’t sleep on time. Remember, early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy and wise!

Drink Water Before Bed

If you can’t get him to wake up, just make sure he drinks plenty of water before bed! His bladder will do the rest of the job!

Conclusion

This article looked at numerous ways that can be used to wake up a deep or heavy sleeper! It also shed light on the purpose of sleep and its stages.

References

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6751071/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31990906/