.....I used to be the snooze king, catnapping for about an hour each morning, cursing and hitting the button every ten minutes. This is kind of like drug-dependency, where one develops a tolerance. After a while, I was able to shut the thing off without ever waking up, which was an employment disaster in the making, to be sure!

.....The best thing to do is a get a loud alarm that is located across the room. That way, you have to get up and walk across the cold, hardwood floor to shut it off. And don't get back in bed. NEVER get back into bed... That way, you can set it when you actually NEED to get up, and you get uninterrupted, good sleep, instead of an hour of jarring catnaps.

I have the Progression Wake Up Clock by Hammacher Schlemmer that I got as a gift last Christmas. It's seriously *ugly as sin* and not something I would have purchased myself, based upon its looks. I almost sold it on Ebay (sorry Grandma!) but I decided to at least try it. It does indeed wake you up very gradually and gently. First with lights and aromatherapy followed by gentle sounds (something like 6 to choose from) and then if all else fails a loud buzzing. I skip the stinky genuine faux aromatherapy beads that came with it (they smell like chemicals) and use mine own along with the gentle sounds of birds. It does the trick almost every time and I find that I am gently awake long before the buzzing starts. All and all it's a much more pleasant way to start the day.