From Ical I have written a script to open itunes and play playlist “wake up”.
The alarm doesn’t seem to be working until I go to my computer and move the mouse and it “wakes up” and plays the music.
I am just above idiot status- so any responders should assume I know nothing.
You’re pretty far past idiot status.
Apple Menu>System Preferences>Energy Saver lets you set startup/shutdown times, sleep intervals, etc.
Thanks for the response
Is there no way for the alarm to work without the computer making noise waking up?
Are there settings you would recommend?
It is for my son in the morning and after his nap- he stays in bed until the computer makes music.
Carolyn
Set it up so the computer goes to sleep = “Never”. You should be able to let the screen and hard drive sleep, though.
…might be a lot less frustrating to get a clock radio with a cd player and burn the playlist to a CD. 
To avoid the startup chime, it might also be worth trying to schedule the computer to “Sleep” (rather than to “Shut Down”) at bedtime (or whenever) - and to “Start up or wake” a couple of minutes or so before the iCal schedule kicks in.
Ah… bless. 
Thanks for the help everyone.
I have set the computer to sleep at midnight and start up 5 mins before the alarm. Hopefullly the sound from the “start up” won’t defeat the purpose. The computer can be so loud on start up (aside from the chime I mean).
I installed a freeware program to mute the chime-
Tomorrow is the test drive- we will see!