In an experiment, a Russian Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (1849-1936) rang a bell every time right before feeding a dog. After many times, even no food was given the dog drooled when the bell rang. That is aural stimulation. We should have such experience too: when we see sour food such as pickled sour fruit (that we have eaten before), our mouth salivates even though we do not eat it. This is visual stimulation. Any of the five senses can go through a process of stimulation to have the Pavlov's effect. So we are going to utilize it to help us wake up on time subconsciously.

Alarm clock with adjustable alarm time was patented by a French Antoine Redier in 1847. Of course human beings have survived without these confounded noisemakers but now we have the technology, why not employ it?

Please note that I am talking about waking up on time here, not about waking up early. How early is early? I think that is rather generic. Wake up on time is more targeted and realistic.

Which type of becoming awake do you want?
a) Become awake but do not get up. If you open your eyes but you do not get up, that is not called wakeup.
b) Become awake and quickly get UP.

How many things we have screwed up due to not waking up on time? If we do not wake up on time, then we are not in control of our own life. I think waking up on time is the first thing in self improvement because if we start the day correctly, we will be more into self improvement for the rest of the day. It will always give us a better day. I know we all already know the bad things of not waking up on time but I think it is still good to list some here:
a) Things will not be that smooth for day if we do not do the first thing of the day right.
b) Feeling of poor-being. Frustration.
c) Time passes fast in the day.
d) Unhealthier body.

There is no excuse for inability to wake up on time. When we are sick, our mind and body are weak so it is OK if we sleep in. But if we are healthy, there is really no reason to sleep in. If we are serious about life and everything we do, then we will not wake up late.

Having enough sleep is a basic factor to wake up on time. At night go to bed only when sleepiness strikes. No fixed bedtime is required. We do not want to waste time on the bed staring at the ceiling if we cannot fall asleep yet. The common guideline of sleeping time is one third of the day (eight hours), but sometimes we need more sleep and sometimes less. Do not watch long TV show at night because even when we are already sleepy we still want stay up to finish the show. A little self discipline is needed. If we are sleepy but we still stay up, there may be such "I do not have enough sleep" voice in your head the next morning. Furthermore, staying up even if we are already sleepy certainly will decay our health. And our emotion next day may be affected by short of sleep. Do not resist drowsiness at night to do something. Instead just wake up on time the next morning to do it instead. It is an illogical contradiction that we resist sleepiness when we are supposed to sleep but surrender to sleepiness when you are not supposed to sleep.

No matter what time we sleep at night, the alarm clock must be set to ring at the same time everyday (yes, including weekends and holidays). If we have insufficient sleep one night, we should become sleepy earlier for bed the next night. So it is OK if we meet up with a good friend and talk until late night. This kind of things does not happen every night. Do not ever negotiate with ourselves that if we do not have enough sleep one night, we have to wake up later the next morning. For me if I do that I will feel bad afterwards. The fixed wakeup time is not negotiable. In fact many fixed times in life are not negotiable. If our work time starts at 8am, can we tell the boss that we do not have enough sleep last night so we come to the office at 9am?

Quick thoughts before lying down:
a) If you are not a busy person that always has something to do, you may want to think of something you want to do after waking up. If there is nothing in mind to do, most probably we will sleep in. What do you like to do tomorrow morning? What is your interest? What about a little work that will have monetary incentive? There must be something for us to do. If really there is nothing then we do not have to wake up anymore, hehe. We live because there is always something we want to do, don't we? For most of us who works as an employee, of course we need to be in the company on time.
b) Think of waking up as something that does not need effort. Do not think of it as a big task. If we start thinking about how to battle/struggle our way to wake up, we will sleep in. Example of such psychology is a footlog. When it is placed across a very shallow stream we can walk on it very easily compared to when it is across two tall buildings. Anyway that does not mean that we should not be       about our life. We can still be serious when we see something as easy to achieve.
c) We should appreciate the time that we can still command our body to move.
d) Perhaps wake up "on time" is still not specific enough so we kind of lose focus what to do next right after becoming awake (and fall asleep again). Wake up and so what? Further define your own meaning / flowchart of wake up. For example "wake up on time" for Mr. X means become awake, then grab the alarm to turn it off, then walk out of the house to buy breakfast (messy hair early in the morning around the neighborhood should not be a big problem).

Sleep beside a window, with curtain wide open. This can be visual stimulation when the sky brightens up. Choose the alarm time when the dim light from the whole sky starts lighting onto our body. Or fix the time before sunrise, particulary right before the sun emerges from the horizon. That is the latest we can go. Do not choose the time when the sky is still very dark (before dawn) because that will confuse us with night. That target is too ideal. Also some electricity is wasted because the light has to be switched on. On the contrary, also do not choose the time when the sky is bright (long after dawn) because the sky will be bright all day long and there will be no time limit. We do not want to have that kind of voice in the head: "It is already bright... it does not make much difference if you wake up now or ten minutes later..." There is one period in the year when the day breaks earlier. Use that period as a standard. Dawn is also called daybreak - the day breaks open so our eyes should also splits open. It is good to see starlight, moonlight and sunlight at the same time. Some say it is good for the eyes to see sunrise everyday. By that time, melatonin (sleeping hormone) production in the body should stop already due to the light. Can you still sleep when the bright skylight is shining on you? For me even if I can, I will feel a little unwell waking up in sunlight.

Putting the alarm within the reach of hand is not that good. When we are really tired, we may turn off the alarm without realizing it even the wakeup time is particularly important for example having to catch up with a trip. Put the alarm near the bathroom or on the sink to remind of washing face.

Use an alarm that is loud and will ring continuously until it is turned it off. Alarm with snooze mode is not really good because it will make us whisper in the head to compromise the wakeup time and the next thing we know is we have developed a bad habit of ignoring and sleeping thru the alarm. It does not matter what tune we want to use for the alarm as long as it can catch our attention. I prefer military music that motivates morale or cheers footsteps. Not only it wakes me up, but also let me feel encouraged for the day. Try telephone alarm too as our mind is conditioned subconsciously for our whole life to "answer the call". And cock's crow is always a good choice.

When the alarm rings and we become awake, wake up immediately without second thought and do exercise (you do stretch yourself, don't you?) or walk to the bathroom to wash face. If you want you can press the 'On' button on the radio or TV. We can take a quick shower for the whole body or if the water is too cold, just for the lower body. Workout or exercise oxygenates our body more and makes us awake. Do anything you like to do to cast away the sleep inertia. Any delay will make the voice in the head talk us into sleep. "Another ten minutes" is a conspiracy. I will feel more tired (stiff shoulder) when I become awake again ten minutes later. The second you open your eyes and you know it is time to wake up, just spring up. Take a deep breath. Do not close your eyes again and pretend to yourself as if you have not opened them. By the way breakfast should be finished before 8am - some say before 8am our digestive system is the most active.

If we become awake before the alarm time and the sky is still dark, we may choose to continue sleeping because we do not want to spoil the Pavlov's effect. But if we become awake before the alarm and we already can see some light in the sky, we should wake up immediately before any voice in the head whispering us into sleeping a few minutes more. Sleeping a few minutes more make us even harder to wake up. It gives a tired feeling. This automatic wakeup happens because our biological wakeup clock starts to function. Turn off the buzzer and we will feel proud of ourselves outrivaling it. You can even plot a graph of your daily wakeup time. When we get used to it, we will wake up on time even one second before the alarm rings or when on rare occasion we do not have an alarm, for example the alarm breaks down etc. So we should strictly continue using the alarm to build the Pavlov's effect and circadian rhythm.

There may be many reasons that some people have difficulty sleeping at night. If the night is hot and stuffy that we cannot fall asleep, take a quick cooling shower for the whole body or just for the lower body. Generally to solve insomnia problem we should:
1) avoid consuming anything that has caffeine.
2) avoid white sugar and its product. It brings up sugar level in blood to an unnatural state.
3) not take sleeping pills. Do not mess up with our body chemicals.
4) exercise. Sweat out some energy. Do not do the exercise before sleep though.
5) not take a nap in the day.
6) again, wake up on time in the morning.

If you wake up in the morning, wash your face and you fall asleep on bed again, that may be a symptom that you have health problem. You are not downright sick though because you can still carry on your daily job. Do not take that as an excuse to wake up late. Deal with it. You know what is lacking for your health for example exercise or dietary fiber.

If you have hearing problem, you need to use a timer light or establish a mechanical system that can get your attention when it is wakeup time. That is also for people that do not have hearing problem but will sleep thru the alarm.

Start doing it tonight! Do not be discouraged if you cannot make it tomorrow morning. Consider it as an experiment like what Pavlov was doing. Come to think of it, we should also "wake up" on time from "sleep" in some matters of self improvement so that we do not miss the good opportunities in life.