Abstract: A device and method of awaking a sleeper includes an alarm clock coupled to a control circuit for controlling the power provided to a lamp. After the alarm clock wake-up signal is provided, the light intensity emitted by the lamp slowly, smoothly and gradually increased. The time interval over which the light intensity increases is selectable by the user but will usually be in the range of thirty minutes to an hour. The circuit for increasing the light intensity is designed to ensure that the intensity increase is smooth, especially at the beginning of the wake-up cycle. The circuit may be either analog or digital. In each embodiment, an optocoupler is controlled to lower the firing angle of a triac to gradually increase the intensity of the light. The circuit causes the firing angle to change more slowly when the light is very dim then when the light intensity is bright because the human eye is more sensitive to light intensity variations when the background light level is low than when it is high.