I've spent the last year not being able to sleep - I was very happy if I was able to get more than 2-3 hours of sleep a night.

Now I'm sleeping more, but I'm running into a new problem. I haven't noticed it anywhere else on here, so I thought I'd throw it out there and see if anyone has any ideas.

I still have difficulties getting to sleep, though I now sleep about 5-6 hours a night (which I'm thrilled about!). Prior to my injury, I often slept 10-12 hours a night if I didn't have to wake up at a particular time.

The problem is, I'm having issues with the waking up process.

My alarm clock rings, and it wakes me up. It just doesn't "register". I can hear my alarm, but it can take forever for me to actually realize that my alarm is going off... then it takes longer for me to realize that I need to get up... then it takes longer for me to realize that getting up is URGENT and not an option.

My current scenario is this - My first alarm goes off at 5. My second alarm starts at 6. My third alarm starts at 6:30. I am lucky to struggle out of bed a few minutes after 7. I need to be out the door at 7:30.

My alarms are loud. I choose "obnoxious" ringtones for the alarms on my phone. I don't hit snooze. My dog tries to wake me up - even jumping on me at times!

I know that all of this chaos is happening, but nothing "registers" for quite some time - that's the best I can do at explaining it. It isn't AT ALL like my college days of - ugh! there goes the alarm again... maybe I can ignore it for a few more minutes.

Once I reach a state of realization, I'm fine and I function "normally".

Anyone else experience this? Any ideas for how to handle this?