> use ear plugs

They just fall out !

not true! you need to go to snorestore on line and buy proper ones, they are in various sizes and you have to get the right size for your ear and they are made of foam and you twirl them into a tube and put them in and they inflate and do not fall out

But then you cannot hear your alarm clock and are late for work!

I have industrial ear plugs (I used to work as Health and Safety Manager before I became a Stay at home mum) they allow you to hear normal conversation but block out noise at other irritating frequencies. They have saved me from countless sleepless nights when hotels were next to busy roads etc and still let me hear the alarm clock. They are specially made for you - they take a cast of your ear to make sure it fits and they have something in them that cuts some noise but not others. You select what you want cut out - mine were up to helicopter level!

"My neighbour had new double glazing fitted today by the council..hubby works nights, he got in at 0500 and was up out of bed by 10 having had 2 hrs sleep and is back out driving a tanker full of liquid cyanide tonight!!!"

See if that were me a note would have gone through your door in warning, at least then you might have been able to 'borrow' a friends spare bed for the day whilst at work, I found friends very accomodating when I had notice of drains work and asked to kip in their spare room for the day.

Ahh, I used my work ones - designed to reduce pretty much all noise by a good 30Db so rendering the alarm clock useless! I didn't realise you could get ones to only cut out certain frequencies - I'll have a dig round for those, could you pm me a link?

I am profoundly deaf and once I have taken my hearing aids out for bed I cannot hear anything at all.
I have a 'Shake-awake' alarm clock which goes under the pillow and vibrates, there is a noise as well but I never activate it. It is really effective

i can still hear ther alarm clock with my ear plugs in, i just make sure its extra loud

If you look on some of the sites that advertise items for motorcyclists you can usually find adverts for suppliers of earplugs as they are often worn by them. You can get a trial bag from some places which include different types of earplugs so you can find the one that works for you.

This site sells earplugs for all occasions
http://www.enhancedlistening.co.uk/prodtype.asp?strPageHistory=category&numSearchStartRecord=0&strParents=320&CAT_ID=320

ETA - just noticed that they sell ear muffs for dogs :-O