Why we set alarms and don't wake up? || Acharya Prashant, at Chanakya University (2022)

Acharya Prashant

6min

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Why we set alarms and don't wake up? || Acharya Prashant, at Chanakya University (2022)

Questioner (Q): Good afternoon, Sir. I want to know that when we decide something, how is it that the next moment or after some time, we deny it by ourselves. For example, I decide the previous night that I have to get up early in the morning, but when the alarm is ringing, I switch it off and go back to sleep. So, is it a dual personality or what is it?

Acharya Prashant (AP): Is it the first time this happened with you?

Q: No Sir, it’s constantly happening. Sometimes I get up, but sometimes I switch it off and sleep.

AP: Even when you were setting the alarm last night, you knew that the odds were against you, because it has happened again and again. The probability of you honestly getting up when the alarm rings is let’s say 0.1 or 0.2, right? 10 to 20 percent.

Mostly, it is likely that the alarm will ring and you will shut it down, “Let me sleep.” You know that in advance; you know that when you are awake; you know that when you have yet not fallen asleep, right?

Let’s say, at 10:00 pm in the night, you are setting an alarm for 5:00 am. Now, when the alarm would ring at 5:00 am, you would be drowsy, you would be half asleep, very reluctant to get up. That would be the condition of your consciousness at 5:00 am, right? And you know that in advance—you know how your insides are, you know your determination is weak. But at 10:00 pm, when you are setting the alarm, you are still wide awake, are you not? You are awake and you know that most probably this system is not going to work—“I will set the alarm, but I’ll still not get up.” What to do then?

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