It works! I’ve been able to get myself fairly painlessly out of bed every morning – and please note that I did say morning – for over a month now, thanks to Perry Como.

Credit also goes to my new CD clock radio with the “Gentle Wake” feature, which starts playing at zero volume, then gradually increases over a minute or so till it reaches a pre-selectable volume. I’ve set up the clock in the closet, which mutes any sound that the mechanism itself might make.

Now, a person naturally repeats a cycle of deep sleep followed by light sleep about every ninety minutes over the course of the night. So when I bought this thing, I figured that I would notice the music – eventually – during the light-sleep phase of a cycle. Well, it’s working much better than that. I actually hear the first track on the CD every morning unless the air conditioning happens to have come on, and sometimes even then. But the gradual start-up doesn’t jolt me at all, and the songs on the CD are so cheerful that I wake up in a good mood. This is so much better than my college roommate’s old clock radio!

I had always thought, by the way, that my main problem was getting to bed on time. But now that I’m reliably getting up at a good hour, it’s amazing how easy it is to get into bed!