I was shopping for a new alarm clock recently and as I'm the gadget loving sort of gal, I considered this Hammacher Schlemmer Progression Alarm Clock. In the end I decided it was a little too Rube Goldberg for me. It involves progressively brighter lighting, the heat of which sets off the aromatherapy unit (which includes a "coffee" scent!), eventually starts emitting your choice of nature sounds and then culminates in a buzzer if all the other elements don't get you up by the desired time.

I ended up getting a regular CD alarm clock. The buzzer sound is OK, and wakes me up without being too jarring/traumatic, but I'm getting a little bored. So I've been looking for good sound effects to make into a good wakeup CD, and am getting my radio producer friend to raid his SFX collection as well as the SFX library at work. It would be nice and positive to wake up to a cheering crowd, or maybe a symphony of layered morning sounds...eggs cracking, bacon frying, a whistling teakettle, an old fashioned coffee percolator...basically Virtual Mom.