wake up without an alarm clock

The sunlight helps a LOT. Woke up 7 minutes before my alarm this morning, at 6:23 AM. (Granted I went back to sleep for an hour after but hey I was tired :))

I call this goal complete.

Not so good today… still woke up at 7:30, but went back to sleep until and past my 8 o’clock alarm. I think the problem is, I need eight hours of sleep… and I went to sleep at 12:30 last night. New plan: go to sleep at 11:30 each night!

For the past week, I’ve found that my eyes open just around 7:30 AM, at which point I usually go back to sleep until my 8-ish alarm, which takes half an hour to actually wake me up.

Today though, today I refused to fall back asleep, and was able to pull myself out of bed before my alarm! (but still a ways past 7:30). Maybe it was the extra sunshine? Either way, I want to make this a habit. Let’s see if I can.

I want to be able to wake up when I’ve stopped sleeping, not when a boss wants me to…

6:59 today, woke and rose. 59 minutes later than I’d hoped for, but still enough time to accomplish all my morning activities, pack a lunch, and show up to fluids on time. I had gone to bed at 11:00.

I am not going to set the alarm and I will not worry about when I wake up, I will when I am ready!
Not exactly everyday, like I would like but one day at a time right?

The strange thing is that I usually can wake up about 5 minutes before whenever I need to wake up. When I was sailing we’d have watches (like shifts not rolex) that would rotate through the day. One watch you’d have 3 hours to sleep and have to be up at 7pm, then the next watch you have 6 hours to sleep and have to be up at noon… that kind of thing. Never had a problem with it.

Still, when I need to be up for something important, I chicken out and set my alarm anyhow.

Always trust a tuna-ready tabby to wake you up at 7:22. Works every time.

Today was day #1 of this experiment. Going to do this on days when I have no meetings. It’s so nice!!! Peaceful.

The trick is that you stay active all day, get tired, and go to bed early.