I resemble that remark. And what's worse? I rarely drink caffeine. Some afternoons I'll drink a little soda (less than 8oz).

Perhaps I'll donate my body to scientific research when I die.

I used to have a hard time getting up. Nowadays the alarm goes off I get up and start the routine. I'm still not awake but it's all on auto pilot. Once you start moving you start the blood flowing.

I don't have any advice. The only thing I have changed is to rarely change my wake up alarm. It goes off at 5:00 A.M. no matter what. I get up at the alarm no matter what. Sometimes I'm thinking about a hammer for the clock tho.

Can't say I have a hard time getting out of bed most days, sure don't want to though! Have to be at work by 0600 so have the alarm set at 0400. Having to take allergy pills lately and makes it alot worse. Even on the weekends I typically wake up before 0500 which sucks but also sucks if I don't since it make Monday harder.. no win situation. Never have been a night owl since I grew up on a farm always had to be up early for the chores.

OP I feel your pain. On days I ride to work I get up at 5:20. At that point I'm on autopilot: bathroom, floss/brush teeth, get dressed, get newspaper, get water bottle and lunch out of freezer, then start loading up the bike. I'm usually in a fog until the garage door goes up and I get a blast of cold air (funny but going outside the front door to get the paper doesn't usually do it). Once I hit the road I start waking up, and that first 6% hill less than a mile from the house really gets the blood pumping and wakes me up.

On days I drive to work, the same alarm wakes me up at 5:20, but I just turn it off and wait for a second alarm which goes off half an hour later. Then, depending on how rested I am, I either get up (rare), hit the snooze a couple of times (usual), or keep hitting the snooze until it stops going off (this alarm clock only lets you hit snooze twice) and get up on my own later - sometimes much later. The later I get up, the more I pay for it by sitting in traffic, so it's advisable to heed that second snooze.

My problem is I just keep hitting snooze over and over. I have 2 separate alarms on my phone. One of them is a sleep tracker, and supposedly helps you wake up feeling fresher by starting the alarm sound at a point when you're not in deep sleep. So it starts going off within a 30-minute window before your absolute latest time setting. Doesn't seem to make much difference for me, though. And simply moving the phone triggers the snooze, so it's just so easy.

Then 10 minutes after I finally turn off that sleep tracker alarm, my normal iPhone alarm goes off, which I generally hit snooze on that at least once.

So for a 5 AM wake up time, my sleep tracker starts going off as early as 4:20, ends at 4:50, and sometimes I'm not out of bed until 5:10 or just after.

And yes it was hard as crap getting up this morning.

I used to be the same way until we had a child and I had to start getting up much earlier. However, when I started bike commuting I had to get up even earlier, and then had to move my wake-up time to 5 am about three years ago when my office relocated and my commute distance increased by 50%. Eventually I got used to the earlier wake-up times, but it was tough at first. On weekends and vacations, I quickly revert to sleeping late but never as late as in the good old days.

mine is 6:45. i hate it but i do it.

No offense intended. I'm secretly jealous.

I have a terrible time getting out of bed too. I've never been a morning person.

Hey Bill:

Congratulations on your upcoming meeting with the president. Be sure to get out of bed on time THAT day!

To answer the question, commuting to work by bike is what makes me WANT to get up in the morning. Yes, I'm as groggy as the next guy, but those bike endorphins are the perfect reward for pulling through and getting out the door.

You just described my Mon-Fri routine, except my alarm turns on the radio at 0448 hrs, so I'm starting to wake up twelve whole minutes before you are....

Getting out of a comfy bed is painful, but once up and getting the ol' "bike motor" started, I like the mornings and enjoy the bike and bus (multi-modal) commute to work.

It's much easier this time of year, when it's light out. Circadian rhythm but also I think it's later when the alarm rings and I look over at the window.

The best policy, which I find difficult to adhere to, is to just drag myself out of bed immediately when the alarm calls. No snooze, just get up. That's a hard habit to get into though.

I might have bigger problem than dragging myself out of bed...case in point this morning:

slient alarm on wrist goes off at 0645, got out of bed, cell phone alarm goes at 0657, put thermal bib pants/baselayers on, see the weather @ 36F with 10mi wind and going stronger, took riding clothes off and decided to drive to work...

/confess

Right there with you. Not a morning person, but now I'm on a day schedule and if I want to swim and ride my bike I have to get up at 0430.

The key for me is going to bed on time (early).

For me, the key to that is willingness to let go of evening time-wasters like TV and internet dawdling.

I am a morning person, getting out of bed is easy, staying in bed would be very hard. When I wake up my feet immediately think of hitting the floor, and what I can start. I wake up at five am for a 5:45 leave time. I am usually ready to head out by 5:30 and try to find reasons to dawdle so I do not leave to early.

I get up early and go for a ride at 5 AM M-F before work. The night before, I lay out my work clothes and my cycling clothes. The alarm goes off at 4:30 AM. I tend to go to sleep at about 11 - 11:30 PM. I think I am able to do this because I still have that New-To-Cycling adrenaline rush still pumping in my veins. I only got into cycling in Jan '15 and yes, I have been riding through all the cold NY weather we have had this year. I wan't going to wait to ride until the thaw.

Frank

I'm not entirely sure if you're being sarcastic or not. Either way though - Awesome!

Workdays bring a 5:30 wakeup. I hate getting up in the dark but work calls. On the weekend, I usually wake up once there is a glimmer of dawn, especially when the birds start to make noise. In the summer this could be before 6:30, which is way early, but I just can't sleep if light is peeking in.

No, I am not being sarcastic. After responding to this thread I mentioned it to my daughter and she said it is like a spring pushes me out of bed in the morning. I thought she totally understood me.

Sleep difficulties have been a major factor why I am not currently bike-commuting to work.
I have always been a night owl and have no trouble staying up late, great difficulty getting up early or on time.
My preferred schedule would be to stay up to 1AM then sleep to 10AM.
A few years ago, I was able to tough it out and do a shorter commute starting 6 to 6:30AM.

But these past few years insommnia has been a real issue. My commute distance and time have increased. There just aren't enough hours in the day to spend over 5 hours related to bike commuting and around 10 hours at work. I now wake up 10-20 times throughout the night and take over an hour to fall asleep. Most nights I'm in bed less than 7 hours. I have health issues that are seriously excaberated by even 1 night going short on sleep, so something had to give.

I cannot stand early mornings. I am a groggy mess until about 9:30am and it is nothing short of pure chance that I don't hurt myself or others when I have to be out the door at 7am. My day would begin very happily with a 10am wake up and finish around 1 or 2am but noooooo. No chance of that happening again. There should be a caffeine pump one could have and set it for 6am and then BAM wake up with enough mental clarity to survive a morning commute.

This is my alarm clock; gets me up every morning at 6:00 am without fail...

Music always helps, but when I'm really hurting, I play this as I'm waking up. The whole video is motivational, but particularly the beginning about waking up is truly genius!!
https://youtu.be/E4b4DJFStVQ

Talk about alarms! I set 3 or 4 alarm clocks with minutes apart and place them on a table unreachable from my bed. Then in the morning when I happen to be waken up by outside noises, I head straight to the clocks and turn every alarm off as I dread hearing that beep beep beep sound. Back to the bed and enjoy some 10+ minutes of cozy bedtime making sure not to fall in asleep again 'cause there's no more alarm...

But in any case I'm definitely more motivated to get up than when I used to before I took up bike commute. Used to be that upon opening my eyes I absolutely hated the prospect of having to take the smelly, dirty, extremely unpleasant subway to begin a day. Now, especially if it's a Saturday morning as I occasionally have to work, I wake up looking forward to a bike ride on a nice and quiet weekend morning.

One important thing is not to go to bed too late with too few hours of sleep. Which is why I must stop here.

Making tea is a therapeutic activity for me. Especially helps when i smell the tea in the tin. Gets all them brain juices flowing like some crack addict anticipating the "fix" or something hahaaaa.

For real though, peaceo f mind that my stuff is all laid out REALLY helps. I am one of those people that definitely get "that feeling" if i leave something behind. It can literally bother me all day. One time i had "that feeling" and it was my PASSPORT i had forgotten as i boarded the train to the airport. No trip to ireland and france for Andy the transit biker!

Since then i learned to listen to that feeling. If i feel satisfied i got everything laid out that i need, it takes load off my mind. Then in the morning i do a very quick check after forcing myself out of bed, then tea & breakfast.

Some days i end up sleeping 16 hours. It sucks. Some days i have less energy than an 20 year old 9 volt forgotten in a smoke detector.

- Andy