For as long as I can remember, I’ve had difficulty waking up on my own at a regular time. Even an alarm clock is not a fail-safe.

I have gone so far as to, while drifting in and out of consciousness as the alarm-clock radio blares away, concoct elaborate rationales to explain to myself why it’s OK to oversleep.

• The exam has been postponed
• The prof said it was OK to miss one class a week
• Class has been canceled; they just forgot to call me
• I’ll probably get sick if I wake up too early, so I’d just have to call in sick anyway

And so on.