In general, no, I don’t wake up til the alarm wakes me. I’m a chronic insomniac (since the hormones hit at age 12 - that’s 24 years of insomnia), which definitely has something to do with it.
My company has flex time, so I don’t normally have to be at the office at a particular time. But if I have something important that I must get up for, I will often wake up before the alarm. I attribute this to sleeping even more restlessly than usual and unconsciously looking at the clock frequently.
I almost always wake up before the alarm, unless I have to go to bed very late or get up very early–under 4 hours or so and I am not gonna just wake up. I wouldn’t set an alarm at all, except that when I don’t I sometimes wake up an hour or two too soon and panic, thinking I have overslept. mMy overal sleep seems less restful, as if I am always a bit tense about not having the safty net. (I am almost compulsive about never being late).
Sure, but only when I’m waking up for something that’s not terribly important. If it’s just a party or a date, I can wake up when I need to, but if it’s work I won’t wake up. And alarms don’t wake me up either, so I suppose that’s one thing I should put on the “Pros” side of the “Should I Move Out of my Parent’s House?” list.
For something important I will wake up without an alarm.
No I can’t. It’s a talent I’ve always wanted to have. You know how in the books the hero wakes up “instantly” due to his internal clock.
I have to put the alarm on the other side of the room, otherwise, I’ll just hit the snooze in my sleep forever. I read for an hour in the bathtub while I slowly come awake, and I don’t really start to feel human until I’ve been awake for 2-3 hours.
Yeah, I regularly wake up a few minutes before my alarm goes off. And my alarm isn’t set to the same time each day. Differences of up to 4 hours.
Haven’t used an alarm clock since high school. Wake up pretty much at five o’clock every morning, working or not.
On the down side, I’ve missed virtually every ending to The X-Files and Law and Order, due to the fact that I usually fall asleep before the completion.
…thank god for syndication…
Once upon a time a little girl lived on a dairy farm. This little girl had to get her ass out of bed by 5:30 a.m. EVERY FREAKIN’ MORNING!!! And this went on for 10 YEARS!!!
<ahem>
Then the little girl grew up a little bit and joined the Navy, where she had to be at work by 5:30 a.m. EVERY FREAKIN’ MORNING!!! If not earlier!!! And this went on for a YEAR!!!
<ahem>
Then the not-so-little girl was put on a schedule in which she worked 48 hours in 5 days - day watches, mid watches, then eve watches. She worked this schedule for 3 FREAKIN’ YEARS!!! Which royallly screwed up her body clock!!!
<ahem>
Fast-forward 5 years, when not-so-little girl works a sked where she has to be to work by 10ish. This is a VERY good thing cos not-so-little girl IS capable (most of the time) of getting her happy butt outta bed by 9. But only if the sun smacks her face in the morning, the alarm clock is really loud, her cat bats at her eyeballs when the alarm goes off, and there’s lots of noise out in the parking lot of her apartment building.
sigh
Any East-Coasters want a permanent job of waking me up in the morning? 
This is a trick I haven’t mastered.
I’m a graduate student, so I (usually) don’t have to be in at any particular time. Which is good, because I find I’m more productive in the middle of the night, when nobody else is around. Frequently, I arrive home around dawn. But I digress…
The times I awake mere minutes before my alarm goes off are so rare that I attribute it to chance. I have proven myself capable of turning my alarm off (not snooze - off) in my sleep and waking up several hours later than I intended to. On the days that I really must get up at a certain time (since they are exceptional), I go the multiple, redundant alarm clock route.
I’m actually a morning person. I come to full alertness pretty quickly, once I pass that awareness-of-alarm barrier.
My body clock ain’t too hip, apparently.
Yeah I wake up about 5 minutes before I have too…I almost never make it to the alarm…prolly goes along with being an insommniac…
Keith
I don’t generally wake up before the alarm. I hit snooze once and get up before it goes of the second time. But…
If something happens and the alarm doesn’t go off, I still wake up at 7 minutes after when the initial bell was supposed go off. This has saved my ass many times. It usually scares the crap out of me though, as the initial alarm gives me time to to lie in bed in stretch out a bit, etc. When I suddenly wake up and look at the clock without an alarm, I always think I’ve overslept and jump up and run around until I can figure out what time it is.
I wake up at 8:30 by law. If I wanna get up earlier, I need an alarm.
It’s strange, but if I don’t set an alarm, I’m liable to keep sleeping beyond when I should’ve woken up. However, if I do set an alarm, I always wake up 5-10 minutes before the alarm goes off. It’s harder with the wife there, though, because (1) it’s way too tempting to stay in bed with her, and (2) she has been known to hit the Snooze every ten minutes for 2 hours straight.
I had that skill for years (no longer due to a seriously irregular schedule), but I did find that it was necessary for there to be a clock visible from my bed. I think I would just half-wake up every so often and check the clock, but I didn’t even wake up long enough to remember it.
mischievous
I wish!
I can’t even wake up on time WITH an alarm clock. If it’s close enough to me, I can hit snooze without waking for hours. If it’s just too far out of reach, I can sleep through the alarm for hours (mine does not shut-off after a while; it will continue beeping for at least three hours). I can honestly say that I do not hear the alarm when I am asleep.
It’s a bit of a problem, as you can imagine. However, the phone almost always wakes me, so if I have something important on, I arrange for someone to ring me. Failing that, people just come over and knock on my bedroom window.
If it’s something I deem important…like a dopefest or something fun on my day off, oh hell yes, I’ll wake up. Hours before I need to. If it’s something I don’t care about…a meeting, school, or work, nope, I’ll sleep until I’m a’finfished sleeping. If I “train my body to sleep and awaken at roughly the same time each day”, I can keep that up for a few days before it once again reverts to “3am” and “noon”.
sigh
I usually wake up right at 9, but only if I don’t have anywhere to be until much later in the day. If I have to be somewhere early, I always wake up late. It never fails.
Like cazzle, I can’t wake up without an alarm. But, oddly enough, if I don’t care what time it is, I usually know the time without looking at the alarm first.
I always wake up within 5 minutes before or after 6:00. ALWAYS! It took me about a year to develope the ability to fall back asleep. Then I always wake up 5 minutes before or after 7:30. ALWAYS!