I never need an alarm clock to wake up but my absolute max I can sleep is 8 hours on a weekend. It is very common for me to get 6.5 - 7 or 7.5 hrs each night these days. I "give" my body the opportunity to rest 8 hours always. It doesn't seem to want that more than half the time. I don't walk around exhausted but I wonder if I should be doing more to sleep better.
I am in my early 30's with a wife and a kid. I recently starting trying to attack some of my all-time PRs. I work a demanding job with a longer commute than I would like.
My runs, as you might have guessed, are early in the morning. Recently with work being so busy and the extra stress, I have been waking up to pee at about 4:30am and I can't go back to sleep. I go back to the bed and sometimes lay there for another 75 min unsure if I went back to sleep or not. A good night of sleep during the week is going to bed at 9:45pm and waking up at 5:30am. Recently I have been wide awake around 4:15 - 4:30am after hitting the sack around 9:45pm. I feel ready to hit the ground but don't because I know it is too early.
My first 6 hours of sleep I am totally out - no exceptions. After that I usually wake up at least once and if I am lucky enough to go back to sleep the next hour to 90 min is so "light" that I get up often wondering if I even fell back asleep at all.
My schedule is the same on the weekends - always to bed around 10pm because I have found that I always wake up the exact same time no matter what. No alarm needed.
I only feel a little tired if I ran 8-10 miles harder the day before a "bad" night of sleep. If it was an easy run the day prior and I wake up really early unable to fall back asleep, I do not feel tired the next day.
So, does the statement about not needing an alarm to wake up necessarily indicate that one is sleeping enough?