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First alarm: iPod plugged into a stereo playing something pleasant. (7.20am)

Second alarm: iPhone alarm 40 minutes later. I now mega-loathe the "Harp" alarm tone. (8.00am)

Third alarm: Girlfriend kicking me out of bed between 5-10 minutes later. (~8.10am)

Works like a charm every time.

After ~6 months of using my call phone as my alarm clock, I now have a strong pavlovian conditioning to several of the Verizon ringtones, especially "rings"

I'll hear it randomly in public in the middle of the day and immediately get a rush of adrenalin -- "oh fuck I'm waking up 6 hours late aaaahhh!!!" -- and it will take me at least 15 minutes to calm down fully. For hours afterward my ears will parse any plausible input into phantom ringing (that happens randomly by itself too).

Spot-on, I like to change my wake-up alarm tones frequently to prevent my brain from filtering them out + preventing the effect you describe here.

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