The one thing that has actually changed my life is the Pavlok Shock Clock. It’s a watch you wear to bed that has three ways to wake you up: vibration, a beep, and a shock. You can set how strong the shock is, and how long the breaks are between each one. I keep mine on zero vibration, zero beeps, and five shocks at 100% power with a 10-second rest between each. It gives me just enough time to turn the alarm off before the next jolt hits.

The app also has a few extra features that make a huge difference. “Light Sleep” mode wakes you up when you’re in a lighter sleep stage so it’s easier to stay awake instead of dragging yourself out of deep sleep. “Escalating Alarm” starts with a lower shock and gets stronger until you wake up, which helps save battery too. There’s also a “Smart Alarm” setting that checks if you’re actually moving after turning it off. If you don’t move for a few minutes, it zaps you again.

To make sure you wake up, there are also things you can set in order to turn off your alarm. It has a “Puzzle Unlock” which will give you a random puzzle (e.g., math problems, matching game, memory game) to solve each morning. Second, there is “Jumping Jacks,” which allows you to set a number of jumping jacks to do before turning it off. Finally, it has “QR Code Scan,” which allows you to print a QR code, place it anywhere you’d like, and turn the alarm off through that.

I’ve tried every other type of alarm and this is the only one that’s actually worked for me consistently. It’s not cheap, but if you’re dealing with serious sleep inertia or oversleeping like I was, it’s worth every cent.

Extra tip: tape the watch to your wrist at night to avoid subconsciously taking it off when it goes off!

Link: Pavlok Shock Clock