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That may soon change. Back in July, Johns Hopkins researchers published a trio of studies in Nature Medicine and npj Digital Medicine, showcasing an early warning system that uses artificial intelligence. The system caught 82 percent of sepsis cases and reduced deaths by nearly 20 percent. While AI — in this case, machine learning — has long promised to improve health care, most studies demonstrating its benefits have been conducted on historical datasets. Sources told Undark that, to the best of their knowledge, when used on patients in real-time, no AI algorithm has shown success at scale. Suchi Saria, director of the Machine Learning and Health Care Lab at Johns Hopkins University and senior author of the studies, said the novelty of this research is how “AI is implemented at the bedside, used by thousands of providers, and where we’re seeing lives saved.”

The Targeted Real-time Early Warning System, or TREWS, scans through hospitals’ electronic health records — digital versions of patients’ medical histories — to identify clinical signs that predict sepsis, alert providers about at-risk patients, and facilitate early treatment. Leveraging vast amounts of data, TREWS provides real-time patient insights and a unique level of transparency into its reasoning, according to study co-author and Johns Hopkins internal medicine physician Albert Wu.

Ten years ago, 12-year-old Rory Staunton dove for a ball in gym class and scraped his arm. He woke up the next day with a 104 F fever, so his parents took him to the pediatrician and eventually the emergency room. It was just the stomach flu, they were told. Three days later, Rory died of sepsis after bacteria from the scrape infiltrated his blood and triggered organ failure.

“How does that happen in a modern society?” his father, Ciaran Staunton, said in a recent interview with Undark.

Each year in the United States, sepsis kills over a quarter million people — more than stroke, diabetes, or lung cancer. One reason for all this carnage is that sepsis isn’t well understood, and if not detected in time, it’s essentially a death sentence. Consequently, much research has focused on catching sepsis early, but the disease’s complexity has plagued existing clinical support systems — electronic tools that use pop-up alerts to improve patient care — with low accuracy and high rates of false alarm.

Last but not least, waking up is easier when you have a good reason to be conscious. Sure, you might have to get up for work, but you’ll want to be vertical if you’re anticipating a delicious breakfast, or a workout that’s actually fun (the latter kills two birds with one stone, since—as we mentioned earlier—regular exercise helps you sleep better).

[Related: Redesign your bedroom for a better night’s sleep]

Automation makes this easy, too. Program your thermostat to raise the temperature before you wake so getting out of bed will feel pleasant rather than bone-chilling. Set your automatic coffee maker to start brewing before your alarm goes off, so you’ll rise to the aroma of fresh coffee. Just don’t drink too much java over the course of the day.

“Caffeine certainly can help to delay daytime sleepiness,” says Kline, But it’s no substitute for a solid eight hours. As Kline puts it, “We can only delay sleep debt for so long before we have to pay it back.”