See a doctor before you try another alarm

You set the alarm, then a second one. You sleep through them, or you switch them off and wake an hour later. You are late, or you have stopped making plans for the morning, and somewhere along the way you decided that the problem is you.

If you sleep long, wake only with great difficulty, and the alarm tricks have not worked, ask a doctor to look for a medical cause before you decide it is a flaw in your character.

Some people say the same thing: chronic oversleeping and extreme tiredness can be a symptom of something underneath, and getting it diagnosed is the first step and not the last. The causes people name differ. Some people say it can be sleep apnoea, thyroid trouble, anaemia or a vitamin deficiency. Some people add narcolepsy or idiopathic hypersomnia, which means being very sleepy with no known cause. Another says oversleeping can be a symptom of depression, and that treating the depression takes the oversleeping away with it.

When the alarm is not the problem

Some people say a bright wake-up light did nothing for them, because the trouble was being physically unable to stay awake, not a lack of motivation. Some say an alarm that sets a task, such as scanning a barcode, did not hold either: they did the task and fell straight back asleep. That is the pattern worth taking to a doctor. A person who does everything the alarm asks and still cannot stay up may not be short of willpower at all.

People disagree about how much is medical and how much is habit. Some say it is a medical problem and willpower is beside the point. Others say a routine of diet, exercise and evening preparation fixes it, and that tests may be unnecessary. The deciding fact people name is whether you have had a sleep study and blood tests. Until you have, which it is stays open.

What a doctor can look at

The US National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute lists daytime sleepiness and tiredness among the symptoms of sleep apnea, along with breathing that starts and stops in sleep, gasping for air, and loud snoring, and says a sleep study helps diagnose it. The NHS says to see a GP if you always feel very tired during the day, and that sleep apnoea can be serious if it is not diagnosed and treated. One person warns that apnoea can happen without snoring or being heavy, so you cannot rule it out by looking at yourself.

For the rest, the NHS says to see a GP if you have felt tired for a few weeks and are not sure why, or if the tiredness affects your daily life, and that you may need blood tests for anaemia, diabetes or an overactive thyroid. Some people name iron, vitamin D and B12 as things worth checking. The US National Institute of Mental Health lists oversleeping among the signs of depression and says to talk to a health care provider if the signs persist.

While you wait

None of this treats a medical cause. It is for the part that is habit, and some people found it helped.

• Make the alarm cost something. One person puts it across the room, and some people use one that needs a task. One person warns that moving the scanned item next to the bed defeats the point.
• Put light on you as you wake. Some people suggest bright light on waking, from a light that brightens gradually, or direct sun through an open curtain.
• Stand up and do one small thing. Some people say action comes before motivation: stand, make the bed, drink water. Others reply that when the tiredness is depressive, even standing is out of reach. If that is you, it is a reason to see the doctor sooner, not to push harder.
• Take the decisions out of the morning. Some people lay out clothes, coffee and the plan the night before, and keep the phone out of the bedroom.
• Go to bed earlier. Some people say an alarm app only holds for a while, and what lasts is a bedtime you keep, with caffeine kept to the morning.

Some people do not say to fight it at all. They say a later body clock is real and, if the job allows, building the day around it beats fighting it. One person says the long sleep may be a way of coping or part of recovering, and that letting it be without judgement can ease the shame that keeps it going.

Who this page is not for

If you go to bed late and sleep fewer than seven hours, when the CDC’s figure for adults is seven or more, the mornings are hard because the nights are short, and the page on anchoring the wake-up time is closer to what you need. If a baby is breaking your nights, the sleepiness has an obvious cause: one person in that position was told to be gentle with themselves and change one tiny thing at a time.

The alarm tricks are not pointless. This page only asks you to find out first what they are being asked to fix.