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I've had trouble waking up on command for basically my entire life. I just recently started grad school. The only job I've ever had before was in the evening, and it's never a problem for me to be awake then.
The thing is, I can already tell that attendance is basically mandatory for me from now on. I won't be able to get a decent GPA in graduate level classes despite missing 8am classes ~weekly like I could in undergrad. The other morning, I woke up at 8:10 asleep on top of my phone/alarm clock. I was lucky that I woke up at all, I had slept until 9am and missed my first class the day before.
It's not even that my alarm doesn't wake me up, either. A few days ago, I had five alarms set, at 10 minute intervals starting an hour before I had to leave in the morning. The first one woke me up, I spent over 10 minutes solving math problems to turn the alarm off (the next alarm went off while I was solving the first one). Once I got it defused, I turned all the other alarms off, and went back to sleep for two hours.
(I have my alarm set so that I have to solve relatively difficult mental math problems to shut it off or set a snooze. they'd take me 2-3 minutes at worst when I'm actually awake but they're not easy/possible for me to solve when I'm in the groggy just-woke-up state.)
This is beginning to really stress me out, because I need to go to the lectures every day so I can do consistently well on exams. I have never had perfect attendance in a class that met before 10am in my life; and my attendance is really good in classes that meet at 10am or later. Naturally, six of my nine credits are 8am classes this semester.
What are some steps I can take to make sure I wake up in the morning? I need to fix this problem now or I won't be able to continue on the path to get what I want out of life. How do you guys manage it?
(Note that while I'm willing to try basically anything, going to sleep early isn't necessarily an option.)
The essential difference between this question and the other one on Personal Productivity is that I have trouble sleeping in when I DO have something important to do. I don't mind sleeping in when I don't, sleep is basically good if my body wants it.
You say going to sleep earlier may not be an option. When do you go to bed and do you fall asleep quickly? – KenB – 2016-03-06T06:07:11.723
I'll go to sleep between 12-2am, and I usually do, yes. – sig_seg_v – 2016-03-06T16:35:58.117
What time are you trying to get up in the morning? Should have asked that too. :) – KenB – 2016-03-06T16:37:33.230
~7am, I had mistakenly thought I mentioned that in the question.
(I live two blocks from work, so my commute is <5 minutes door to door) – sig_seg_v – 2016-03-06T20:36:36.780