What I never told my parents until I was an adult is that the entire reason I still had a night light at 12 years old was because it was just bright enough to play with my favorite toys in the dark. I thought I was so sneaky. However, while I almost never missed school as a child, the most common cause of doing so was exhaustion. Too many late nights and I'd pay for it, badly, sleep in until 1pm and then feel like I could win a war single-handedly.

So somewhere between keeping me from getting sick and just appreciating that as long as I pretended to be asleep they could get 2 hours of peace before bedtime, I would get spot-checked inconsistently. Got really good at listening for footsteps in the hallway.

Getting up early because of kids or dogs isn't a 'fix' for insomnia, btw. It's a coping mechanism. If you are too tired at 10 because the dog thinks breakfast is to be served sharply at 6:30 even though it's been 7:30 since they were puppies, you're not gonna stay up trying to invent a new compression algorithm. You're gonna collapse like a sad sack and make the most of tomorrow.