Pro tip: Get a outlet timer and put a bright lamp on it. The lights in my bedroom click on at the same time each morning and make it much nicer to wake up.

Edit: I use this one: http://amzn.com/B000NBCEM8

I have one of the Philips wake-up lights[0] which gradually brightens its lamp over 30 minutes before playing some optional bird-chirping. The gradual light-up feature gives it an edge over the sharp turn-on of a lamp plugged into a timer, but I'm often lying on my side with my back to the lamp, in which case the bird-chirping wakes me instead of the light. I'm thinking of running a cord from the Philips's bulb socket to the bulb in a floor lamp which I can position above my head (instead of to one side, like the Philips).

[0] http://amzn.com/B003XN4RIC

I've recently connected my bedside lights (on each side of my bed) to a dimmable X10 socket. Using the programmable controller, they gradually brighten over 20 mins when all lights in the room turn on and my alarm goes off.

Felt it was more fun, less intrusive, and as cheap (ish) to roll my own solution.

It's a long way from the old days of a radio on full-volume static or alarm clock thrown under the middle of my bed!

Wouldn't work for me. Sunlight does, but unfortunately I can't set the time for sunrise ;)

If you really want to get crazy, buy 3 or more cheap alarm clocks. Place each one in a different room and freak yourself out when you wake up each morning as your rush to each room to turn off the alarms. ;-)

I already have that installed in the form of two roommates who have annoying alarm clocks.

When I was living in the dorms at school, I had a nasty habit of turning off my roommate's alarm and going back to sleep.

Full disclosure - I helped with the project but I'm also one of those people who on some days CANT get out of bed.

You can put the panel pretty far. If your bathroom is a hallway away, this might make the difference. You cant put a regular alarm that far, you wouldnt hear it. For me, physically getting up isn't enough because you can do that half asleep. Thats where having to punch in the date helps, I think this part fires a few more synapses and gets the engine running. It certainly solved it for me.

Or get an alarm clock which has no snooze :)

Seriously, it helps. For years now, my alarm has been this simple function in my zshrc:

  function alarm()
  {
        sleep $1 && mplayer /path/to/mp3 -loop 0
  }

It's much harder to snooze this way (unlock screen, switch to terminal, exit mplayer, enter new duration).

You can then just turn of it off and go right back to bed. At least that what I would do

You'd be surprised how fast that alarm clock would stop working ... I'd just forget to plug it in at night :P