I have always found getting out of bed early to an alarm painful, and would often snooze my alarm long enough to skip morning classes in college.

Now I work with no fixed schedule, and I don't set an alarm at all. I find that I naturally wake up early and feel well rested. My theory is that waking up for an alarm would often wake me up in the middle of a sleep cycle, whereas waking up naturally I get up after a cycle ends.