To date I have never overslept when I have needed to get up at a specific time. I always set an alarm but am usually wide awake long before it goes off. In fact most times I turn it off before it sounds.
There is a down side to this. If I have to get up really early, say at 3 or 4 am, I go to bed early and wake up every half hour and so I must have an alarm clock in my subconscious.
Then I always like to be somewhere ridiculously early. If I have a flight or train to catch I would prefer to be sitting in an airport lounge or railway platform reading a book with a cup of coffee than I would rushing to get there at the last moment.
It all has something to do with my over heating. If I rush around I get very hot and feel miserable. If I leave plenty of time I'm less likely to end up looking like a wet lettuce. There is nothing worse than sitting on a train in a distressed state due to getting ridiculously hot. Nobody likes a wet lettuce.
It also has the added advantage that the other threequarters can safely sleep knowing that I won't oversleep.
Having to get up extra early isn't very pleasant though. I like to wake up naturally when I'm slept out and that's usually around 7 am.
I suppose we are all different. I know many people who have to have a physical alarm in order to wake up at a specific time.
As I write this we have need of my in built body clock. All will become apparent in future blogs. Let's just say that I have woken up and am writing this blog a good hour before I need to get up.
And what's that noise I hear. Yes it's the alarm going off. I forgot to cancel it again.
Mind you it can all be very annoying for others, annoying that is that I want to leave so much time that had I been Beethoven I could have written a symphony or Shakespeare a play.
I can't ever remember missing a connection although twice we went close when our sons were small. Once was in 1986 when we were driving to an airport (I don't recall which one) and I missed the turning on a motorway and had to go to the next junction and turn back. I remember running through the airport which wasn't easy with a two year old and a four year old. I know it was 1986 as it was our youngest son's second birthday whilst we were away.
"You can have anything you would like to eat," we said to him on his actual birthday.
He replied with just one word "chips."
I also had a problem on another occasion thanks to my lack of direction. We were at an airport (once again can't remember which one) early and this time our tickets included an airport lounge, something we enjoyed greatly.
I decided to go out of the lounge to check flight times which was a stupid thing to do when the times were announced in the lounge.
I checked the times, went to return and somehow took the wrong turning and ended up the wrong side of security with no passport. I can't remember how I got back in time but I did.
One day soon I will tell you about the day we and a group of others ran through customs in Switzerland without passports.