Determine the time you need to wake up. Give yourself enough time to wake up, take a few deep breaths, contemplate your goals for the day, eat some breakfast, take a shower, stretch a little, make your bed, plan your to do list, get your head together, and get your personal things ready for the day.

Establish a preferred bedtime. At first, assume you need about the average 8 hours of sleep.  Eight hours of sleep will give you enough time to complete 5 full sleep cycles, each cycle composed of 5 Sleep Stages (Stages 1 and 2 provide you light but restful sleep.  Stages 3 and 4 help to restore your body.  Stage 5 or REM sleep restores your mind).  Count backwards 8 hours from the time you need to wake up.  Assume you need 20-30 minutes to fall asleep.  This is your preferred bedtime. 

Now, this preferred bedtime is an experiment.  Not everyone needs 8 hours of sleep, and some actually need more.  After a week, you will begin to see a pattern.  Either you’ll wake up feeling tired and groggy, or you’ll find yourself waking up too early.  After about a week, re-assess your sleeping needs and adjust your bedtime accordingly by either moving your bedtime up or back by one 1/2 hour.  Repeat this process each week until you either wake up just before your alarm goes off, or you at least wake up to your alarm feeling well-rested and refreshed.