I had a tropical fish tank, kinda large few metres long. I can sleep quite soundly to the sound of running water, intact I find it relaxing. I have bad tinitus from being in rocks bands and concerts when I was younger, so they water masks the ringing.
Anyway I decided to black out my room similar to the article, took everything out, replaced my curtains so no light got in my room at all. I then created an artificial sunrise.
At 6:30am every morning the sun would rise in my room, over the course of 30 minutes it would get brighter and brighter. The sun of cause was the UV lights on the fish tank, but instead of just switching on I set them to slowly increase in brightness over 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes a room lamp came on, and then music started playing on my radio, 15 minutes later the dreaded alarm went off.
Before I set this up I couldn't wake unto even to my alarm, I would literally sleep through it. After I set up the artificial sun rise I started waking before the radio started playing.