(For those of you interested in exploring sleep-inducing soundtracks, give a listen to the albums from at the iTunes Store.)

Get up!

The iPod giveth and the iPod taketh away, so up and at 'em sleepy-head!

An iPod can wake you in a couple of ways. Clickwheel iPods can wake you with an electronic beep played through their tiny internal speakers or by playing a playlist of your choosing. Regrettably, the iPhone and iPod touch can't play music tracks as alarm sounds. If you use the iPhone or iPod touch all by itself, you're stuck with the on-board sounds and any ringtones you add with GarageBand, iTunes, or an application such as Ambrosia Software's $15 . However, some iPhone/iPod touch-compatible clock radios will let you use the contents of a playlist on the device as an alarm.

To awaken with a recent clickwheel iPod, go to Main -> Extras -> Alarms -> Create Alarm. In the Alarms screen select Sound, press Center, and choose Tones or Playlists. When you select Playlists you'll see a list of all the playlists synced with your iPod. Choose one and then press the Menu button to return to the main Alarms screen. Here choose Time, press Center, and in the screen that appears, choose the hour and minute you wish to hear the alarm. Back up one screen and you can choose whether to hear the alarm every day, weekdays, weekends, every week, every month, or every year. You can turn the alarm on or off using the Alarm command at the top of the Alarms screen.