> 1. Apparently everyone in Santa Cruz goes to bed early and gets up early.

Probably some selection bias at work here. It's possible the type of person who's buying and wearing personal fitness monitors is also the type of person who gets up early.

> Maybe I'm the only one that sets my alarm on the hour

Probably my OCD coming out but I only set my alarm with minutes beginning 0-4 and ending with 8. I'm sure everyone has their own habits. On the hour seems so numerically boring!