The sleep habits that help you wake up without an alarm

Ally Hirschlag discovers that waking up naturally can be surprisingly easy, if you take care of other sleep essentials. My reliance on alarms has varied a lot through my life. When I was a teenager, I habitually woke up on school days before my alarm went off. I wasn't exactly jumping out of bed, but my internal alarm clock was reliable enough that I never worried about being late. That partly had to do with my always-on routine, which typically ended at 11pm, when I would crash out. Then, in college, my sleep routine broke down due to a less structured schedule, and I began depending far more on my alarm. When I later entered the workforce, I switched back, reverting to a largely consistent sleep schedule and easily waking up alarm-free once again. In my mid-30s, though, I found myself relying more and more on my alarm, and now I'm past 40, sleep doesn't come as readily at night, while groggy mornings have me regularly mainlining caffeine. So when my editor suggested I test out learning to wake up without an alarm, based on tips from sleep researchers, I eagerly accepted. My circadian rhythm needed a tune-up, and I was ready to put the work in to fix it. After talking with experts