Alarm Clock Etiquette

A huge part of living in sin is sharing a bedroom.  The BF and I live in a one bedroom apartment.  In NYC space is a huge issue, and our one bedroom apartment is no exception.  A lot of issues arise from sharing this important room: closet space is an issue, making the bed is an issue, and the alarm clock is an issue.  The alarm clock is actually a BIG issue.  Inevitably, one of us always has to get up earlier than the other, and, also inevitably, the other person always ends up waking up as well.  Is there a way this can be avoided?  What should we do- what are the rules?  The the alarm clock rules- what is proper alarm clock etiquette?

When I get up early, I set my alarm for the ACTUAL time I am going to get up.  If I need to be up by 6, I set the alarm for 6, and when the alarm starts beeping, I turn off the alarm (right away of course) and actually get out of bed- as quietly and quickly as possible.  The BF on the other hand is a snoozer.  I think we all can guess what that means, but I will paint the picture in case there is a reader that does not.  FIRST The alarm goes off at 6…. and continues to go off for at least a minute.  Finally, (usually after I cry out, “You seriously don’t hear that?”) he fumbles around and presses a button… the snooze button. Then again at 6:15 the alarm goes off again… for another minute, and then there is a replay of the previous situation described above.  Fumbling and pressing the same button,  the snooze button.  Then a third time, now at 6:30 the alarm goes off-  I don’t know what happens after this because by now I am completely awake. I’ve gotten up to take a shower, even if I have nowhere to go, because there is no way that I can go back to sleep.  Now, you may be thinking, “Isn’t he going to be late?”  The answer is no… because The BF, for some reason I don’t believe I will ever understand, sets his alarm at least two hours earlier than he needs to.  Now, maybe I’m not being fair, but this routine is clearly not working for me.  I end up waking up much earlier than I need to, I’m tired, and I can’t go back to sleep.

So, now back to the original question what is the proper alarm clock etiquette?  The adult way is probably to talk about it and decide together what to do when one person needs to get up earlier than the other, but early in the morning, when you are bleary eyed and groggy, these conversations tend to be forgotten.  It’s a conundrum-but it’s a problem that NEEDS to be solved… immediately if possible, does anyone have a clue what to do?