The Shulchan Aruch and Rama begin with what looks like some words of encouragement for getting going in the morning:
יתגבר כארי לעמוד בבוקר לעבודת בוראו, שיהא הוא מעורר השחר הגה: ועכ"פ לא יאחר זמן התפלה שהצבור מתפללין
At first glance this looks like a pep talk of sorts to encourage getting up early in the morning as well as a reminder from the Rama that you need to at least get up to daven with the community (I know this is not an exact translation of the Rama - but we'll leave it at this for the time being) . There is nothing in this short formulation of the Shulchan Aruch that makes us think that there is an actual obligation to wake up early in the morning.
The Tur however elaborates and gives us a different impression:
When reading this Tur, I get the strong impression that getting up early is actually a full-fledged obligation. At the beginning of his comments the Tur clearly adds the word "tzarich" - "one must” work hard to get up in the morning.
Also at the end of his comments, the Tur introduces a parable for emphasis – “One should think in is heart that if he was serving a king of flesh and blood who commanded him to wake up early in the morning to begin his service, one would be careful to do so… How much more so with regards to the service of Hashem”.
Also at the end of his comments, the Tur introduces a parable for emphasis – “One should think in is heart that if he was serving a king of flesh and blood who commanded him to wake up early in the morning to begin his service, one would be careful to do so… How much more so with regards to the service of Hashem”.
It is difficult to understand this mashal of the Tur unless we say that just as this human king is commanding his subjects to wake up early, so too Hashem is commanding us to do so – the lesson being that we must be at least as careful with the commandments of Hashem as we would be with the commandments of a mortal king.
The question then is, what is the source of this obligation to get up? How does the Tur know that we must wake up so early in the morning?
Maybe the Tur answers this question himself in his continuation where he quotes support for this idea from the passuk/Gemara about David HaMelech:
עורה כבודי עורה הנבל וכנור אעירה שחר - אני מעיר השחר ואין השחר מעיר אותי
David HaMelech set a precedent of waking up early in order to serve Hashem. It is this precedent that obligates us to wake up early to serve Hashem as well.
I found what sounds like a second answer in the Prisha (in his commentary to the Tur here). The Prisha suggests that since the obligation to say shema and daven begins and sunrise, a person must obviously wake up before then and be prepared (the Prisha then ties this into the reference to David HaMelech – take a look inside there).
Regardless of how you understand it, it seems clear from the Tur that a Jew is expected to wake up as early as he can (ideally before sunrise) to start his service of Hashem.
Regardless of how you understand it, it seems clear from the Tur that a Jew is expected to wake up as early as he can (ideally before sunrise) to start his service of Hashem.
One final point worth mentioning is that in general we assume “zereizin makdimin l’mitzvot” – One should hurry to perform a mitzvah at the earliest possible time. It seems that the Prisha is starting to go in this direction with regards to getting up early to get ready for tefilla, but I have not found anyone of the major poskim apply this principle anywhere in this context.
This last question not withstanding, the bottom line seems to point to an obligation (on some level) to get out of bed and start your day as early as possible.
[After posting, I found support for this idea (that there is an actual obligation to wake up early) in other sources as well. The Biur HaGr"a here quotes several sources discouraging sleeping during the morning hours. One of those sources is a Mishna in Pirkei Avot that says that sleeping during the day is one of the things that removes a person from this world.
While most mefarshim explain this to be referring to one who sleeps past the time for kriat shema and tefilla, the Sefat Emet (in his commentary to Gemara Sukka 26b) seems to explain that the Mishna is prohibiting sleep in the morning since there is an obligation to recite Shema and Tefilla right away, similar to the approach of the Prisha discussed above].
