Q: How can I retrain my body's natural clock to wake up earlier?  I feel like I have become actually softer as I age and, though I know it would fix so many things wrong in my life, I still sleep in as late as possible before racing to the shower then out the front door off to work…

A: Our need for sleep is based on a number of factors, including our level of mental activity. Our brains use up a crazy percentage of our daily expenditures of calories, given how little it jogs and how few pushups and crunches it does.

You wake up earlier by going to bed earlier, or by some other strategy for satisfying your body's need for recuperation by the time you want to wake up. An afternoon nap the day before, a set time for Ahhh!: a time to gear down and reduce the brain's need to constantly process, process, process.

It sounds like you may be staying in bed partly because you aren't excited about starting your day. If you're not in a job that satisfies and excites you most of the time, is it possible either to find a different job, or re-think the meaning of the job you have so it's more fun? To learn how to do the re-thinking, I recommend The Inner Game of Work, by Timothy Gallwey.

Napping at work is always a tricky business, because many workplaces actually expect you to be awake and busy during the day. Also, snoring often annoys your co-workers as they try to concentrate on their solitaire games and match.com chats. So we need a different strategy to recharge the brain and reduce the need for night-time sleep.

Researchers at the University of Kentucky may have found such a strategy. They report that meditation improves brain function better than napping, exercise or caffeine. Subjects either meditated or napped or exercised or drank coffee for 40 minutes in the mid-afternoon, and then were given a computer test that measures awakeness (the  "Psychomotor Vigilance Test," which has nothing to do with Anthony Perkins or Herbie the Love Bug). Meditators did better on the test than the other groups. The nappers did the worst, as anyone who's ever found themselves drooling over a final exam will appreciate.

Some studies suggest that meditators need less sleep than the average person, which may also help you in your quest to wake up earlier.

Also, if your body isn't moving during the day, that's not natural. Make sure you get at least 10 minutes of physical activity each day so when you lay down in bed, your body isn't primed for a game of pickup basketball.

So here's my prescription for waking up earlier:

• Go to bed earlier.
• Set an alarm clock to go off 5 minutes earlier each morning, until you reach your target wake-up time. But don't rely on an alarm clock long-term. If you can't wake up without external stimulation, you're sleep-deprived.
• Set up your life so you look forward to getting out of bed.
• Get physical exercise during the day.
• Meditate or otherwise gear down for 10-20 minutes during the day.

For a very accessible introduction to meditation, I recommend the PeaceWeavers' Guide to Meditation 2-CD set. Learn more about it here.

Good luck!