“It's Time, You Must Wake up Now”

Abstract

Seven subjects who claimed to be able to awake accurately from sleep at a predetermined time were required to awake in the sleep laboratory at 03:30 and 03:30 on two separate nights. Eight of the 12 spontaneous awakenings were within ±20 min. from the target time, and 8 awakenings were from REM sleep. The two best performing subjects were tested for additional 7 nights in the laboratory but accuracy deteriorated considerably with only 2 awakenings within ±20 min. from target time. Approximately 50% of all awakenings, however, were from REM sleep. It is concluded that some individuals are able ro awake at predetermined times and that this ability might be dependent on motivational level and the sleep stage.