Setting a clock in your head?

Does anyone notice that for some reason you can tell your body what time you need to wake up, and for whatever reason you will wake up around this time? A couple nights ago I set it for 4 AM, and I woke up but then all of sudden I had STRONG vibrations and I couldn't move or I dont think I could move, maybe I didnt even try to move? I had these vibrations and I was trying to escape them (It was late at night and I was in fear, and then I remember having a pretty scary dream about being chased and me ending up kicking some ass)

hmm, that happens to me once in a while, like once, a few years back, i wanted to wake up at 7:00 Am for a important task, and i awoke at 6:59, And my alarm clock wasn't plugged in :O. I believe that i forgot to plug it in the night before, and thankfully, i had a dream to wake me up around then :cheeky:

Your mind doesn't like to wake up thru shock (The alarm) so it wakes u up before the shock. and I think you woke up at SP

I do the same thing if I set my alarm clock. The first night, the alarm gets me up, then I'll wake a few minutes before the alarm for a week or more afterward.

Not being able to move, and sometimes experiencing "vibrations" (among other completely harmless hallucinations) is characteristic of sleep paralysis. Sometimes if you're really tired or have a wonky sleep schedule, you can end up sometimes waking up into it, or going into it before falling unconscious when you're going to sleep. As for the time-setting itself, I've done it a couple times by just affirming to myself that I'd wake up at "X" time, and ended up waking a half hour or so earlier.

Yes, your brain is a fantastic biological computer, and timing is something it seems to know very well. No matter what time I set my alarm to, I will naturally wake up 5-15 minutes before it.

Sounds like you woke up in sleep paralysis. This happens from time to time, and it's nothing to be scared of. I've been paralyzed for a few minutes before, it usually comes with hallucinations. My mypothesis for this is that your brain is still dreaming, hense the strong visuals and the SP.

love the name typedef by the way, I'm a C coder too.

I happen to have an awesome internal clock, like you. I used to always wake up 5 muinutes before my alarm, even on days where I had to wake up at a weird time. I'm not so good at it now, for whatever reason...maybe I'm just getting older? :P

I had a lucid dream not long ago where I saw a huge clock saying 10:38, before moving on to do other awesome stuff. I didn't set an alarm. Guess when I woke up?