Question: I am a 31 year old high school teacher. For as long as I can remember, I have had a hard time waking up on time. As a child, my mom usually had to wake me up most mornings even if I had an alarm clock. I can remember many occasions when my roommates have had to wake me up after turning off my alarm. That’s right, my roommate sleeping in a different room heard the alarm but I did not.
As you can imagine, this is not an ideal situation when your job necessitates a prompt arrival (like teaching teenagers). I typically go to bed around 11:00 and set my alarm for 5:00. I know this is not ideal but I rarely even get home before 7:00, and then I have to prepare and eat dinner, shower, etc.Even when I get to bed early, like 9:00 or 10:00, I sleep through my alarm. In fact, my body naturally wakes up around 8 or 9, regardless of when I fall asleep (10PM, 2AM, 4AM).I also tend to wake up once or twice in the middle of the night. Sometimes I am aware of this and can control my actions when I wake up. Other times I have no control. Once I turned on my oven in my sleep, another time I ate an entire load of bread. This does not help with my sleep issues at all or make it more likely that I wake up on time.I am now approaching the point where I may be suspended or terminated for late arrivals. Anyone have similar symptoms or advice?