One of the biggest adjustments in college is getting yourself to class. This is especially challenging when classes are early in the morning. One of the surest ways to fail a class is to not attend. This is why it’s so important to learn how to wake up for class. Outlined below are some guidelines that you might find useful in getting awake in the morning.

• Develop a consistent sleep pattern. Very few people can adjust to a sleep pattern that varies by more than an hour or two from day to day. This includes the weekend. You need at least seven hours of sleep every night. If you have an 8 o’clock class, you should be asleep by midnight to get to class on time the next day and still have time to get ready and eat something.
• Get ready for classes the night before. Your bookbag should be filled with books you’ll need. Your homework should be in a folder. Clothes should be set out.
• Check on your alarm clock. Make sure the alarm is on and set for the right time, especially set on AM not PM. Make sure the alarm itself is set on loud. Place the alarm clock away from the bed so you will have to get up to turn it off. If one alarm clock doesn’t work, buy several and set them to go off in 10 minute increments.
• When you do wake up, put on bright lights. This will help you become more alert. If your roommate is still asleep, put on a bright light in the bathroom.
• Work out an arrangement with your roommate regarding sleep schedules. It’s reasonable to expect a quiet time agreement and a standard practice for wake up (see the topic Dealing with Roommates).
• Don’t pull an all-nighter studying for a test. This won’t lead to a better test grade and it will just mess you up in all of your classes.

Waking up for class is mostly a discipline issue. A lot of college students start off with a cavalier attitude about class attendance. They rationalize about not going to class. This attitude and approach goes away after the first round of bad grades..