“Tornado sirens are meant to alert people who are outside, it’s kind of an added benefit if you hear it while you are inside,” said Steven Harris with the Office of Emergency Preparedness at the University of Georgia.

If these sirens go off when you’re sleeping, the chances of you hearing them and knowing there is a tornado warning are even slimmer.

This is what makes nocturnal tornadoes so dangerous.

“We encourage the university community to have back up ways to receive alerts, especially at night,” said Harris.

Knowing how to be alerted best is especially important this time of the year.

“They happen March, April, May; it’s tornado season here,” said Harris.

Preparation for nightly storms should start before your head hits the pillow.

“Everyone needs to take some personal responsibility and know that if you hear it’s supposed to be storming tonight you may not want to silence your phone,” Harris said.

If you’re a really sound sleeper, you may want to tell your roommate or neighbor to come knocking if you don’t wake up from those storm alerts.

“you might want to tell a friend…say hey if there’s ever a warning let me know,” said Harris.

This is good advice for at least one student here.

“My mom always said, ‘I’ll wake yo guys up,’ so I never really thought about it, but here, I probably would just sleep through it,” said Lucie D’Angelo, a University of Georgia student.

If you are a University of Georgia student or faculty member, download the UGA Alert app, or you can download a weather alert app from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.