Many clock radios today let you dock your iPod to hear your favorite tunes through the speakers, plus they recharge the media player at the same time. Many, in fact, claim you can wake up to an individual song if you prefer, but the instructions are often vague on how to go about it.

So we contacted iHome Audio, the makers of the popular iHome products, to find out how to wake up to music of your choice. There are two ways to do it with iHome clock radios:

1. Leave it be To wake to a particular song, leave the iPod docked in the evening. Set the radio to wake to iPod.  Leave your iPod on the song to which you want to be awakened, and it will automatically wake you to it.

2. Make a playlist To wake to a custom playlist, make a playlist in iTunes and title it “iHome.” Then, before you go to sleep, dock your iPod into your iHome and set the wake-to source to “Playlist.” When your alarm goes off, your iHome will play the music from your custom playlist.

A word of advice: To ensure your exact iPod or iPhone model will work with one of these clock radio docking stations, read the list of supported models on the docking station box (or manufacturer’s Web site). Not all iPod versions are compatible with all iPod clock radios.