I've had those exact symptoms before and it's been because I woke up at the wrong time in my sleep cycle. I feel "alert", as in awake but not really all there, like I can't think deep thoughts. I feel like alert but like there's still a fog in my head.
Anyway, when we sleep, we have five "stages" of sleep and we cycle through those five stages a few times. Stage 1 (very light sleep), Stage 2 (slightly deeper), Stage 3 & 4 (very deep sleep), REM (dreaming mostly happens here). You might feel like that if you're woken up in stages 2 to 4 and sometimes even in REM.
Anyhoo, there's a pattern for everyone, and a typical sleep cycle is between 90 minutes and 100 minutes. Try varying your waking or sleeping time by around 15 minutes. Try a new setting for a few days and see if that changes things. Assuming a 90 minute sleep cycle, that would put you at 7.5 horus of sleep, or 9 hours--not 7 hours, which is what you seem to be trying for. So vary things by about 15 minutes (or even half an hour) and see if that does anything.
Another thing to try, instead of going to bed at 12 every night, try going to bed when you feel sleepy. When do you start to feel sleepy? I think Steve's article talked about setting a waking time and going to sleep when you feel sleepy.
Hope this helps.
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