What is the difference between “se réveiller” and “se lever”?

French keeps the same useful split learners need in morning routines: se réveiller = wake up, the eyes open, the sleep ends; se lever = get up, actually leaving the bed. So je me réveille à six heures quarante-cinq, mais je me lève à sept heures describes a real fifteen minutes of lying there awake. Picking the wrong verb is the difference between being conscious and being upright.

Both drop the reflexive pronoun when you do it to someone or something else: réveille-moi à sept heures (“wake me at seven”), lève la main (“put your hand up”). And se lever reaches well beyond bed — it covers standing up from a chair, and the sun coming up: le soleil se lève à sept heures.