I've had my current little unit since junior high, in the late 80s, and it's still working. I've always used the radio alarm: the unit's BEEP BEEP BEEP alarm scares me. (In college I had a smaller alarm with a less assertive beep beep beep. Good idea with roommates.) And for a long time I've gone to sleep with music -- oo, sounds intimate -- whether it was WAVA Top 40 in the late 80s or Northwest Public Radio's end-of-the-day music programming when I lived in Hermiston, Oregon in the late 90s. Nowadays it's KINK 101.9 that takes me to sleep and wakes me up.
But I don't use the snooze button. It's just 10 minutes' reprieve; then the music starts again, and you're 10 minutes closer to the time when you HAVE TO be put together and out the door. Not that I don't sometimes linger in bed -- the warm, warm bed -- trust me, I do, but I just let the music play while I try to gather my mind into a recognizable shape. Maybe the music helps. I like having music around.
(By the way, one odd thing I've noticed is that when I'm really having trouble waking up, everything coming from the radio sounds the tiniest touch sped up. It's like my processing speed is a little slow at those times.)
Especially nowadays, once I'm awake, I have trouble getting back to sleep. After my unexpectedly early night's sleep Saturday night -- in bed in the 6 o'clock hour to get some rest before dinner, drifting off sometime between then and 8, waking up at midnight -- led to what was looking to be a fairly long night of not sleeping. But I seemed to be awake enough. I wasn't tired. I did some reading and some online stuff and, 'round 4, felt awake enough to watch more Farscape, with some stretching out in bed at times in between all that. Never managed to fall back asleep, but I rested. And yesterday's walking around was part of my cunning plan to be ready to sleep Sunday night. Which I was. And I slept. And I feel better now. Solid six hours, which is what I tend to get lately.
I have plenty to think about right now, so once I'm awake and thinking about said stuff, that's probably part of the not-getting-back-to-sleep thing. The snooze button wouldn't help there. You wouldn't want it to help, either. Press a button and not think about stuff? Doesn't work hat way.
That's some of where my mind is this morning.