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Be prepared: long read ahead.

The exercises I do are based on the premise that thoughts affect emotions which in turn can affect our actions. This is the basis of Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) and a lot of other therapies that grew out of, or were developed after, CBT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy comes to mind). So if thoughts are the “root” it’s probably a good place to start.

Start writing down the thoughts you have, particularly the negative ones that trouble you. "I'm stupid", "I'm worthless", "No one cares about me" etc… Sometimes it helps to start with an event that troubles you and work backwards from there. An example:

• What was the troubling event? (e.g. my boss yelled at me)
  
• Why is that bad? (e.g. It probably means my work isn't good enough).
  
• And what's bad about that? (e.g. It means I'm not good at my job).
  
• And what does that say about you? (e.g. I'm worthless)
  
  Keep drilling down until you feel what I call a punch in the gut, an internal feeling or sensation that says "yep, this thought feels very real to me". 90% of the time the root thought is something about yourself and can be verbalized in the form of "I AM ___"
  
  Now start challenging each thought in turn. Is this really true? How do I know for sure? Is there some objective measure or have I used a subjective measure? Who said this is true and are they an expert? Is there any evidence that supports this thought? Am I over-looking other evidence that could lead to other conclusions? What other conclusions can I draw? Is this thought true everywhere and all the time?
  
  Look for cognitive distortions in your thoughts. Here’s a helpful PDF with some cognitive distortions.
  
  Here are some free worksheets that describe the process better (which they call ABCD Analysis):
  
  
• Thinking and Feeling
  
• Analysing your Thinking
  
• Changing your Thinking
  
  Here’s a link to a comment I made a while back where I give more links to CBT material. If you're interested.
  
  If you’re happy with the results, you can stop here. However just to add on, I’ve been doing some Mindfulness Meditation & Exercises lately and have also been reading up on Acceptance Commitment Therapy (ACT). For those interested in a practical introduction to ACT for the layman check out The Happiness Trap
  
  Anyway, I have personally found it helpful to bring Mindfulness & Acceptance into the ABCD Analysis. When doing the ABCD Analysis there is a strong human tendency to make certain thoughts & emotions "bad" while holding other thoughts & emotions as "good". The problem with using such polar opposite labels is that the natural human tendency is to run away from the "bad" thoughts and chase after the "good" ones. And we do all sorts of things to run from the bad and chase the good: get angry or frustrated when we have a "bad" thought, repeat positive affirmations ad-infinitum, pump ourselves up with motivation, "plow through" with positive thinking etc...
  
  I'm not saying any of this is wrong or ineffective, I'm just speaking from my personal experience: running from the "bad" and chasing the "good" is tiring!
  
  With Mindfulness & Acceptance, I'm seeing that my thoughts have no inherent power or meaning. A thought like "I am a failure" is a bunch of letters on the screen. Or a disembodied voice in my head. Or an image in my imagination. It is the same with any and all thoughts. They have no inherent meaning or power other than what I give them. This also means that I cannot label some as "bad" and others as "good"; only if thoughts had meaning can I do that.
  
  (On a sidenote, The Happiness Trap has some very good exercises to help separate the thought from the meaning we’ve given the thought)
  
  When I'm running from "bad" thoughts and chasing "good" thoughts, I'm doing so because of the inherent meaning I've given them: "bad" thoughts are "bad" while "good" thoughts are "good". Can you see that the meaning I myself gave these thoughts is what's really running my life? (no pun intended)
  
  If all thoughts are empty of power and empty of meaning, they are in a sense "equal". And there is a temptation to say "since they're all equal, it doesn't matter what thoughts I have so I'm going to choose the ones I like". In my opinion, this is still giving meaning to the thoughts because I will likely choose the thoughts I've labeled "good".
  
  So now what? Here is where I pull out my list of life projects that are meaningful to me. If you’ve never spent time thinking about what would make your life worth living I encourage you to start. And write stuff down. Call it your Life Project list, Dream List, Bucket List.... whatever. This is your personal list of goals, milestones, achievements and projects that will leave you fulfilled.
  
  Pick one of your projects, any one of them. Then ask "who do I need to be in order to progress towards this goal by the end of the day?" Then take action and write reminders for yourself if you need it.
  
  As an example, I did the ABCD Analysis this morning and here are the major thoughts:
  
  
• I am an embarrassment
  
  
• I am disgusting
  
  
• I am hated
  
  
• I am prey
  
  The ABCD analysis alone would've been sufficient but applying Mindfulness & Acceptance I chose that I wanted to experience Joy by the end of the day. A life without joy doesn’t sound like much fun to me :)
  
  I build websites for a living and work from home. So I wrote the following on a Post-It and stuck it to my screen where I'm likely to see it:
  
  "What is 1 thing I can be joyful about in ____?"
  
  The blank is for whatever activity I was doing when I saw the Post-It. So it could read:
  
  
• What is 1 thing I can be joyful about in building this website?
  
  
• What is 1 thing I can be joyful about in writing this documentation?
  
  
• What is 1 thing I can be joyful about in typing this Reddit post?
  
  So does all this help? Well, I’m pretty happy this evening. Is this all just a self-fulfilling prophecy or priming? Maybe, I don't really know. But living my life fulfilled is important to me that as long as I'm doing it in accordance with my value, and I'm not hurting anyone in the process, then I think it's a pretty sweet deal.

Okay, so I am pretty sure you are just me writing from the past, because I have had the exact same problem... BUT luckily for you, I have determined a series of solutions!

• First, go to bed on time. It doesn't seem like it would make that much of a difference, but it really does. (You might want to try the website sleepyti.me for determining the exact time to wake up/fall asleep. I haven't seen astounding differences like some will tout, but I do notice some kind of difference.)
  
  
• Secondly, there are a couple alarm clocks I could recommend:
  
  1.) The Alarmy app
  is one that requires you to get up and take a picture of something in your house/apartment in order to disable the alarm. It is super helpful to me but it does have the tendency to be a bit buggy sometimes (and not got off), so be forewarned...
  
  2.) I have a Clocky alarm as well and it is also pretty effective. It is one of those alarms that rolls off your nightstand and hides. And it certainly does make the most God-awful, absolutely un-ignorable sound in the world, so there's no danger of sleeping through that.
  
  
  So that's my collection of knowledge at the moment. Hopefully it helps!
  
  
  

Keep your curtains open. Try low dose time release melatonin (or Valarian root) to help you get to bed early. I like this. Use Sleep As Android to set an alarm that will wake you up in a light phase of sleep so you feel refreshed. After waking up use a blue light device (or get some sunshine for awhile) to help reset your sleep rhythm. Also if you live in a cold/dark/cloudy area try a vitamin D supplement. These are things that have helped me get into a healthy sleep schedule, hope it helps you!

I don't know about best practices.. but this routine worked when I had to wake up early (4/5AM) to catch the bus:

Before bed:

• Running on the treadmill for 1/2 hour
  
• Camomile tea, shower
  
• Avoid laptop/tablet/phone
  
• Place bottle of water on bed stand
  
• Plug in your brightest lamp to something like this and set it to your alarm time so it turns on when you are supposed to wake up
  
  After waking up:
  
  
• Drink the water immediately
  
  You could try drinking a glass of water before bed for times when you definitely don't want to oversleep, it'll force you to wake up 'cause you have to go to the washroom.
  
  Hope that helps :D ..

This is what I will test with Plan B: a basic electrical timer and a 500-watt flood light. I just ordered them. This is actually cheaper than the $70-80 Phillips light—it'll only cost you around $35.

Although it might be a shock to wake up to, I speculate that I'll get used to it in a few days. Really really bright light is probably very good at entraining circadian rhythms—it needs to be too bright to comfortably ignore. I want to be assaulted with photons.

I also want to test what it's like when the light is colored blue, I imagine that will be more relaxing, since early morning light is very blue.

• 500-watt halogen flood light
  
• 24-hour mechanical timer

Good luck! If it helps at all, I quit smoking by reading this book and by taking Wellbutrin. The book helped me want to quit and the med helped me to ‘stay quit.’

I use this 40W blue CFL and a digital timer connected to a lamp by my bed. Works great!

I think you can get an alarm clock like
this one

You can place it somewhere far from your bed. It has such an annoying sound that will get you out of bed. Also it has no snoozing :)

Also, i found it very helpful to drink some water as first thing to do after getting out of bed.

Hope these work.

[Dohm Sound Machine](Marpac Dohm-DS All-Natural White Noise Sound Machine, Tan https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000KUHFGM/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_JaVFyb8ZMVFDA)

I have always had similar issues with being a light sleeper. The Dohm Sleep Machine really is a must have if you have this problem. It's got incredible reviews because it really is perfect.

My bff had one of these alarm clocks growing up. It runs around the floor and you have to catch it to turn it off.



http://www.amazon.com/Clocky-Alarm-Clock-Wheels-White/dp/B000PWLTNA

The Screaming Meanie. This motherfucker is brutal. Yes, it's outside your price range, yes in fact it's double your price range. But if you want to get up, buy the clock. On most days, I try my best to get a good night's sleep (count backwards in 90 min cycles), I practice good "sleep hygiene", and overall just try my best to make it easy to get out of bed in the morning feeling good. But when I have a morning where I have no option but to get up as soon as my alarm goes off - Screaming Meanie. The medium setting is 90dB. The high is 120dB. It's not a matter of if you'll wake up at those levels - it's when. Because just the threat of it going off is enough to get you out of bed.

Yes this sounds like an infomercial. But it works. And it's the best advice I can give concerning alarm clocks.

I have this one, got it when it was on sale 30% off.

This is the one I have:

Philips HF3520 Wake-Up Light With Colored Sunrise Simulation, White

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0093162RM/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_20I3xbWMFGHG8

I would suggest taking a look at this book or the web page associated to it. Your routine sounds like a textbook case that I read in the book - how a diet with too much coffee coupled with large meals of sugar/carbohydrates results in a person feeling tired and cranky no matter how much sleep you get. Maybe it's something to do with diet?

This clock runs away from you...

Clocky Alarm Clock on Wheels, White https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000PWLTNA/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i4t.zbR7TSM7E

I would also buy some Hue lightbulbs and simulate a sunrise.

I just started this system!!! It works amazingly. Usually I have a quiet cell phone alarm 15 min early, and a louder one 3 min early, and then the loud one. But that's just what works for me--waking up is a lengthy process for me.

I highly recommend the Westclox Banshee alarm. I keep it on the "low" setting and it still terrifies me every morning, even though it's across the room. I can't even fathom what the high setting would be like.

there you go.

I have a similar one and i can hear it from the other room when it rings and it still wakes me up. the only downside is the ticking (being an analog clock) that might become annoying when you try to go to sleep. the snooze button on this is the thing that blocks the alarm bell, but you have to fiddle with it a bit to make it stop, not just push a button.

I'm a little confused why you need a clock with such specific tech features if the problem you're having is with tech failing. Don't you think this type of system could fail easily? Personally I'd go with a very basic clock in this circumstance. This has worked well for me for years. It has two alarm options, so I set one for my week time and one for my weekend time. Just turn them on and off manually. It has a battery backup feature for if you lose power, and adjusts to daylight savings time. I know this isn't what you asked for, but just my two cents.

Go old school. Twin bell alarm clocks are cheap as hell, will ring until you physically turn it off, and Hay-zoose christo are they loud. Here's mine.

I had the exact same problem. When apps didn't do it for me, I got this.

Lock your phone in it, put your keys somewhere hard to get to. (On days where I really needed to get moving, I'd leave the keys in my car and park the car down the street. I'm a masochist, so YMMV).

If you're concerned about trying to smash your phone while it's in the box, just pad it with some paper towels.

After a month or so, I got used to waking up with an alarm and haven't needed it since.

If your bad with the alarm and darkness I would do a combo lamp on a timer and a bed shaker alarm.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0002P33AC/ref=redir_mdp_mobile/176-7901920-0233118

Get a dog.

Just kidding, but only slightly. I've always had trouble waking up in the morning, for years nothing seemed to work. Since I got a puppy a few months back, my alarm goes off and she doesn't leave me alone until I wake up, get out of bed, take her out to pee, and feed her breakfast.

But in your case, everyone else has it right - go to bed earlier (10pm), and no screens past that time. Or buy one of those alarm clocks that runs away and you have to chase it.