After losing all my hearing in one ear, I frequently slept through my wake up alarm. I often slept on my hearing side as the other side had recently had surgery. Missing my wake up alarm was a problem, but sleeping through a fire alarm taught me that it was dire that I find a new night time alter system. Thankfully, the fire alarm was just a malfunctioning device and there was no real danger, but after that incident I was really worried about sleeping without my hearing husband at home.

I went on a search to solve these night alert issues. Many alert systems were cost prohibitive or didn’t really solve my particular problems. It took a lot of time and trial and error, but these days I have a decent set up. I use a combination of my phone and a smart watch to solve this problem. It really helps me feel a lot more safe sleeping alone.

The first part of my solution was procuring a smart watch. This was a game changer for any and all notifications. I have used a few models, including a Samsung watch. I currently have a Google Pixel watch. I have recently learned that the brand of smart watch really does matter. I was told Apple watches do not have the ability to change the strength of vibration or the pattern so many people habituate and no longer wake from the watch. My watch has customizable vibration and I have literally never slept through it. I use it every day as my wake up alarm.

I wear my watch all day and all night so I charge it when I shower. My Google Pixel watch needs a charge every day to every other day but it charges quickly. My previous Samsung watch was a simpler model and the charge lasted like a week, which was lovely. Learning about the charging needs is another important factor to discover when purchasing a smart watch.

I combine my smart watch with Sound Notifications on Android. Sound Notifications is built into Android phones in the accessibility features. Essentially, you use your phone’s microphone to listen for alarms (or doorbells, babies crying, water running, dogs barking, etc). Then sound notifications makes my smart watch vibrate to alert me. I love this feature as it really relieves my anxiety. Using sound notifications does drain the phone’s battery more quickly but this doesn’t come into play for me because I primarily use it at night when my phone is on the charger.

While no system is perfect, this has helped me feel significantly less anxious and unsafe when sleeping without a hearing person in the room. I have heard there is work going into developing a device specifically for this need, which could be a great product for deaf and hard of hearing people. In the meantime, I am thankful I at least have this system. It’s good to be able to rest deeply and not sleep lightly and in fear of missing an alert.

Some useful resources: https://www.innocaption.com/recentnews/best-deaf-hard-of-hearing-alarm-clocks

https://edocs.dhs.state.mn.us/lfserver/Public/DHS-7905A-ENG