I've been a B person since I was an infant (we went through MANY doctors who all insisted I would "grow out of it") and I have to constantly change my methods for waking up. Otherwise, I will start to subconsciously remember where I put my alarm clocks and I'll turn them off and go back to sleep without remembering, or I will start sleeping through them no matter how loud they are. I currently use the loudest setting for my cell phone alarm and I use the Sonic Boom as a backup (it comes with a bed shaker). My dad also calls me every morning after the first alarm is set to go off to make sure I really got up; I hate that he has to do this, I am 22 years old and it's embarrassing that my parents have to wake me up, but it's one of the only things that has consistently worked. I am unable to work a full 40 hours a week, right now I work 35 hours because my boss was kind enough to let me come in at 10 am and leave at 5:30 pm. However, by the end of the week I am usually so burnt out from having to conform to an A person schedule that I barely know what's going on when I get to work.
During high school I had to wake up at 6:30 every day for classes that started at 7:25. My parents would sometimes have to physically help me out of bed despite the 3 alarms I had set. My dad got creative with it, he would find bands whose music I hated and BLAST their CDs until I got out of bed. In college I never signed up for a class unless it was after 11 am, and the few times I did have an early morning class I got crappy grades because I was always late/absent. I have had a light box for two years and have used it for months at a time as directed. It helps a little with my alertness during the first portion of the day but I haven't been able to reset myself at all with it. And I'm beginning to think...why should I?

Set all my alarms for 07:45 onwards, woke up at 09:30, got to work for 10:15, woke up enough to start doing some work about 11:30 - This is Monday, I've got a week of this to go.

I can't remember the last time i could sleep before 02:00 (usually much later ie between 04:00 and 05:00) but im still expected at work for 09:00 so I've been living on about 3hrs sleep a night most of my adult life.

U wonder what I could haved acheived if I was able to sleep like normal people and go to work awake.

It is great to read about people who have suffered in the same way I have my entire life. I have been yelled at, fired from my job, yelled at AND fired from my job, ridiculed and made to feel like I am lazy, irresponsible, etc. No one seems to believe that when I don't hear my alarm clock, I truly had no choice in the matter. Right now it's 2:57 am and I'm still awake. I have to work at 8:30 in the morning, so you can only imagine how groggy I will be. I'm really happy they are doing research and putting together this organization. We may finally have a voice. We may finally educate people so that we are more accepted and understood. We shouldn't feel guilty anymore for how we are biologically made up!!

I finally found people who have the same problems that I have.

Unfortunately in Australia there is little recognition of this phenomena.

The only solution here is to get shift work, or to work from here for a company in a different time zone.

I am 8 hours ahead of London and 12 hours ahead of Chicago.

I have to set my alarm clock at least 60 minutes before I even start to hear the annoying sound... And after those 60 minutes I've set the cellphone alarm which I place far away form my bed so that alarm starts to sound for at least another 45 minutes before I wake up... so you can image how late I get everyware.

When I was younger I broke like 5 alarm clock, by tossing them to the wall... and several times I had to walk to school (we had buses), and talk with the person, sometimes the principal, who was in charged of closing the door after the bell rang.

I use 4 alarm clocks scattered around. 2 proper alarm clocks (with different sounds) 2 seperate alarm clocks on my computer and my phone alarm. I set them for at least 45 mins before I have to get up to give me extra time to become conscious.

I change the music for my computer ones a couple of times a week becuase I start to get used to them and can sleep through them. I also put something (eg cardboard) accross the buttons so I can't accidentally turn the sound off (but somehow I still do...)

If its going to be a quick sleep (eg if I don't get to sleep till 4 and have to be up at 7, I will keep the lights on as that stops me from sleeping so deeply and helps me wake up.

Oh, and sometimes drinking a pint of water before sleep helps. Needing a wee can be good motivation for getting up!!

I heard somewhere on the internet about an alarm (perhaps for computer??) that would not turn off unless you did maths calculations and puzzles. Does anyone know anything about it. It sounds annoying, but might help.

At uni when doing essays I used to get up about 4pm, watch TV + eat, then go to the library at about 6 and work till about 3 am. It was often really busy - I think a lot of people have this sort of bodyclock.

Dear cqxray,

I CANNOT fall asleep at 9.30 or even at 11.30 p.m. It's just impossible and I think it's so for most of us.

I've tried heavy exercising during the day, reading dull books, drinkin Camomille -tea, making my bedroom comfortable etc., but to no avail. Only "sleeping-pill" helps and then I usually fall asleep at 1 - 2 a.m. I think that is the normal time for me to get to sleep. The tiredness-pills just help me enough so that I do not stay awake till 6 a.m.

I had a realization early this year that I go through my day always feeling slightly drowsy, because I wake up too early. But I wake up "too" early because I like to go to bed late, generally 11:30 to midnight (like to get in those late nite TV shows). So I tried just going to be early, and of course it wasn't that early to just turn in early.

One trick is to do some sports or heavy-ish physical activity during the day, so it's easier to fall asleep when you go to bed by 10 or even 9:30... So waking up at 6:30 (assuming that I've fallen asleep by 10) meant a luxurious 8.5 hours of sleep. With that amount,waking up is easy. The best result: much, much more alert during the day, without the rough edge of drowsiness at the edge of consciousness.

I still have days when I turn in late, but going to bed at an earlier hour on average has been great.

I've got 2 alarm clocks (one is actually a cell phone) positioned far enough from me. I usually just put them off, but they ring again in a few minutes.

When I was a child my father used to carry me from my bed to the kitchen for breakfast and some years later my mother used to yell at me to get up. What a way to wake up...

Now I've settled for taking sleeping pills. They are not real sleeping pills, but pills with a sleeping effect as a side effect. Now I can actually get to sleep at 1-2 a.m instead of 5-6 a.m. and I get some hours of sleep before work / studies. Before the sleeping pills I used to stay awake the whole night if I had something important in the morning, like an exam. Needless to say, that didn't really make my results better AND the whole day after the exam was wasted on being awfully sleepy.

I'd love to work with relatively free waking hours. The first 2-3 hours at work is nightmare at the moment and I have my most productive phase from 4 p.m. to 3 a.m. I am actually considering of working freelance once I graduate from the university (which is quite soon).

I hope we'll have this society in Finland in the future, too! It's so unfair to us that the early birds get to work when they are at their most effective phase!

First of all, I was so excited to find out about this website from the BBC. It almost made me cry to realize that I am not just an irresponsible or lazy person for not being able to get up in the mornings.

When I was in high school, my father would actually physically pull me out of the bed to get me up. I was so excited when I got to college and could take classes in the afternoon and evenings. Though left to my natural cycles, my clock creeps a bit. One night going to bed at 12, next 1, next 2 or 3, etc. until I would have to get up early for some sort of function. Then I would just have to get by on 2 or 4 hours of sleep or so.

Now I work an 8-5 job, to which I am constantly late. I have 2 alarm clocks set with snooze intervals of between 5-9 minutes. The alarms start going off at around 6:30 AM and eventually I will wake up around 7:45 AM. I'm just glad it's not a corporate job where I would be written up and possibly fired.

I'm sure this goes without saying, but when there are important events happening in the morning, how many of you go to sleep in utter fear of waking up late? It's not that I don't want to get up, it's that my body is physically unable to do so. I am tired of people pretending we have a choice, and that we're choosing to be lazy or irresponsible.

Thank you B Society! I hope this makes it to the USA...

I have seen it advertised and have thought about buying one.

My landline in the UK has this automated function for reminder calls, though of course I often just keep setting another one for 30 more minutes... I have been known to do this from 8.30am right through to 2pm.

I like your style, Marilyn - I didn't deliberately adjust my life to accomodate this, but it just happened because "normal" lifestyles didn't have room for me, so I sort of had to find my own level.

When I was younger, my parents would do some of the same things - the water jug, the alarm clocks, wake up calls etc. It was hard having to get up in the morning for school and other activities and I'm amazed I did it.

I'm a freelance as well which means I can pick and choose where I go and what I do at any particular time, especially as we travel quite a lot. (early flights/ferries are HELL) I have a system that sort of works. Because I'm also hearing impaired, I have not only an alarm clock which allows you to set 2 different times on it (one right after another if necessary) but also a separate alarm that vibrates the bed and has a flashing light. (this is just in case I don't hear the original alarms as I don't always...)

My doorbell also does the same - vibrating and flashing whenever someone is at the door and is handy for waking me up when the postman comes.

I have heard of schools trying the different hours thing, but none of them are in our area yet. *crosses fingers* It would certainly make my life easier until our son is old enough to go on his own.

I actually became freelance so I could work at home and keep my own hours as getting up early was so painful. It's bliss. My clients have gradually got used to it and now actually like being able to send me work late at night.

Yes, Chokito, I've used all that to try to wake up early. And more. I have a lamp with 3 spotlights @ 60W each. The timer can be set for 15 min intervals. It goes on an hour before I must get up, goes off 15 min later, on again 15 min later etc. This is in addition to several alarm clocks and a clock radio. I'm never sure that any of it will work, but what wakes me often is the spotlights going OFF. Strange.

Otherwise, I use one half mg melatonin a couple of hours before I must get to bed. I can all too easily override that and stay up, but it does help often.

--DSPS
http://360.yahoo.com/nma120