Waking Up
 

Granted I've never been much of a morning person, I find it increasingly difficult to wake up here at school every morning. Unfortunately, I've become somewhat of an insomniac, and I dont really feel tired until 4:30 or so a.m. The problem with that is my having to get up at 6:30 every morning for practice, and having class at 9:30.

It seems no matter how early/late I set my alarm, or even if I move it away so I have to walk to it, I end up falling asleep again. (Same goes in the afternoon, I nearly missed a midterm and had to sprint to the building.)

So, what do the rest of you think is an effective means of dragging yourself out of bed in the morning?

Move the alarm across the room, then, immediately take a shower. That always gets me up in the morning.

Well, one way would be to establish a rhythm. Waking up at 6 Monday, 10 Tuesday, 7 Wednesday, 12 Thursday, etc. is not the way to go. On the day you gotta get up early, you won't.
I used to have trouble getting up but now that I get up at 6am every morning (except Sat/Sun) it is easier to get up. Also helps to have a dual alarm clock. I have 6 choices of alarm: Buzzer, CD, Radio, Buzzer+CD, Buzzer+Radio, Radio+CD. I have the Buzzer+CD, with the CD going off at 6:00am (System of a Down, loud music) and the buzzer going off at 6:05am in case I turned the music off.
Hope this helps

Your problem is not insomnia -- it is delayed sleep phase syndrome (DSPS).

Read http://www.stanford.edu/~dement/delayed.html

You have a natural sleep cycle that is reponsible for both waking you and putting you to sleep.

In normal phase, it would keep you awake in the evening, put you to sleep late at night, and wake you again in the morning.

By having delayed phase, the hormones and brain activation that normally keeps you awake in the evening is kicking in later. This keeps you from falling asleep, even though you want to. In the morning, your body has finally entered sleep-mode. Hence it is a real struggle to get up and stay up -- your brain clock doesn't match the demands put in you.

You shouldn't be focusing on dragging yourself out of bed -- this will only work so well if you're going to bed at 4:30. Eventually sleep deprivation will catch up with you, and you're still going to have problems falling asleep earlier at night. You need to reset your sleep mode.

Fortunately, your brain is designed to reset its 24 hour rhythms. The key is bright light. Normal indoor lights won't do this -- sunlight or a light box will. You need to get lots of light early in the morning, every day. This exposure should eventually get your brain in sync with your demands, and allow you to fall asleep earlier.

Again, read the link I posted, and perhaps some others. Some doctors know a lot about sleep disorders, but many don't.

It's probably devastating my mental health or something (symptom-free so far), but whenever I go to bed, I usually put a movie on (either TV or on the computer). Usually the same movie for a month of two, and the repetition of the same thing knocks me out either from boredom or just classical conditioning. Unless I'm really tired, if there's nothing on, I'll end up bouncing thoughts in my head for as much as 3 hours before putting something on. So, just find something not too loud and more than a half hour long, turn it on and hit the sack 8+ hours before you have to wake up.

Gonna suck if I ever end up with a room mate of some sort.

I have a hard time getting up in the morning, because I know the dream I'm having is way better than anything that could possibly happen to me during the day. I can't give you any advice or motivation, because I simply don't have the answer. Personally I need someone to wake me up...I never succeed on my own until it's too late.

The morning isn't the problem. It's the night before. Check for the following in your life: caffeine (or other stimulants) after 3pm, social pressure to stay up late, addiction to TFP.

i´m a morning person.
i always jump outta bed and clap the new day in... well, not really, but i don´t usually hang around in bed in the morning.

i shower to totally wake myself up... but i can´t have caffeine, so that´ll have to do...

i´ve found that my best work is done really early in the morning.

i think in your case, the best way to make yourself get up early would be to get to bed earlier when you need to, use more alarms (set them so they go off every two minutes) and take a hot shower where you change the water to cold at the end...

I hate waking up early, but i notice that waking up earlier generally improves your day, dunno why. Right now i'm a student, but in a month or two i'll be working, so i guess i would have to be waking up early again.

My technique is like this. I prepare myself. If i have to wake up at 6.30 am, my radio will turn itself on at 6, then my handphone alarm will beep for the first time at 6.20. As i lay there, i think and plan my day, and generally get ready to get up. As there is the possibility of falling back asleep, my alarm will go off again at 6.30 sharp. Works 90% of the time ;)

have a computer in your room? get the winamp alarm and set like 6 alarms to bring you out of sleep, or a whole playlist.

I've always been a morning person so I can't tell you a method that worked for me. I try and get to bed at a decent hour...that's it.
I always wake up just before my alarm, and it goes off at 5:30 each and every day.

I'm lucky to get 6 hours of sleep a night. Waking up is hard, but once i get up and get moving, I'm good for the day.

One thing to try when trying to get to sleep is to make sure you can see no clocks. Turn your alarm clock around, hide any watches, keep wall clocks out of view. During the night, you won't keep instinctively checking the time and will fall alseep faster. This worked for me when I was trying to bounce back from late, late nights.

I hate the sun.

Waking up is directly related to going to bed.

Rhythm isnt a problem. I HAVE to get up at 6:30 Monday through Saturday.

I've tried the repetition thing. Movies, music, tv, counting sheep, you name it.

Computer is a no-no, as its in an adjacent room.

Light is a toughie, as I cant wake up my roommates, and theres very little light outside when I walk to practice.

I've tried the clock thing as well, turning it away from me and hiding it when I moved it away from the bed so I'd have to walk to it to shut it off.

Lordjeebus: Thats a very interesting link. I think that if things havent reset themselves over Christmas break, then I will end up seeing a doctor. The problem with taking any sort of medication is that I'm on an NCAA Rifle team, and depressants/sleeping pills are banned substances in my sport even though they arent in others.

Unless you die in your sleep.

I'm fairly certain that the common treatment for DSPS is not sleeping pills but light therapy. Basically, you get this really bright light box thing and expose yourself to it in the morning. If your doctor says pills are the only way to go, get a second opinion.

Good luck

I hate mornings. I am definitely a night person. Unfortunately I have a job that I requires I be there at 6:30 AM. I find going to bed at the same timeevery night and getting right up when the alarm goes off helps. Even follow this routine on weekends.
You might also check on sleep apnea. It keeps you from feeling rested no matter how much sleep you get.

Coffee.

I wake up... crawl to the coffee pot and then I'm good to be my normal grumby self for the rest of the day.