For the past few weeks my alarm has been set to 9:15 AM, but I have been waking up on my own around 8 AM. I usually go to sleep around 1 AM, which means I have been getting about 7 hours of sleep per night. The strange thing is that I did not even force myself to change. It just happened.

In the past I loved to sleep. If I had the opportunity, I would sleep until noon having adventures in my dreams. Unfortunately, I would feel tired for the rest of the day when I over-slept. I would also accomplish very little, since most of the day was gone.

How did I change from sleeping in all the time to waking up before my alarm even goes off? I changed the way I thought about sleep.

How I Changed

• Be General, Rather than Precise: In the past I would set my alarm for the precise time that I wanted to wake up. If I woke up earlier, I would go back to sleep and wait for my alarm. Many times I would also wake up, reset my alarm for a later time, and go back to sleep.

  Now I have a very broad time period for when I want to wake up (between 7AM and 9AM). If I naturally wake up way before 7AM (like 5AM), then I go back to sleep. If I wake up within the period, I know it is time to get out of bed. If I do not wake up, then the alarm goes off

• Do Not Finish Dreams: Another thing that made me over-sleep is the desire to finish my dreams. Often I would be in the middle of something in my dream and would be interrupted by consciousness. Dreams are not reality, so they do not need to be finished. There is also a good chance that you will not be dreaming the same thing anyways if you go back to sleep.
• Realize the Grogginess will Pass: When I wake up, I am often in a groggy state and take about an hour to warm up. I remind myself in the morning that I am not physically tired. If I stay awake, then I will gradually gain more energy.

Changing my thoughts allowed me to stop over-sleeping and to wake up in the morning without an alarm. It was not a long and difficult struggle to change. It only required that I remember a few things each time I wake up.