Here's an interesting article from Medical News Today: article. The gist of it is that a mother's voice, calling the child's name, got a faster reaction from more children than the usual smoke alarm noise. I don't know, but it makes sense. I can tell you that in my house mother's voice always got a better and faster response than the alarm clock - sadly.

By Dawnk777 on Monday, October 2, 2006 - 10:10 pm:

Yeah, why is that? Both of my children have alarm clocks, but they like the visit from the dog and me, better than the alarm clock.

By Bellajoe on Tuesday, October 3, 2006 - 03:32 pm:

lol, my kids wake ME up!