I use Alexa routines for the volume changes. It doesn’t affect the alarm because I want it to gently rise. Only takes me 1-2 minutes to be awakened. And 2 minutes later (with a static time setting because Alexa doesn’t have SaA as a skill yet), it starts the custom “Good Morning” routine. And the lights are changed by Hue to max brightness at that time with a touch of blue to stop the melatonin.
The only thing I would want out of this is Alexa integration so when I change the alarm, which I do frequently, I have to manually change the Alexa and Hue routines. I wish it could come from inside the app instead.
Hue is a special case because it’s already integrated but at brightness and color palette set by SaA. Sure wish I could attach a Hue routine “after alarm dismiss” just as I’d like Alexa to do. Alexa will set your volume to any level you choose. I would like the trigger to be “after alarm dismiss.”
Hmm. If you wanted to raise or lower your alarm volume while it’s still on, I suppose you could set up a routine to do just that as long as you know the exact time you want it to fire. It’s not integrated . . . yet, so you’ll have to manually set the time or just tell it to raise the volume. If your alarm fires at 7 AM, pick a time when you want it to go to max volume and it will do it for you. I hope it will be integrated at some point.
One caveat about Alexa: after it plays a song for however long it is, the routine is over. So it says “good morning” to me no matter what time I dismiss the alarm, and then plays the song of my choice at full volume. After music, that’s it. You then have to set up a follow-up routine. That’s okay with me because I don’t want to hear the traffic, news and weather immediately upon awakening. I want some time to get into the shower and connect my phone to a water resistant Bluetooth speaker. Old little Sony thing: works great!
I just tell the Alexa app “Play Morning Information” and it does it! I put the speaker right outside the shower. It gets misted but not immersed.
You do not need a separate Alexa stand-alone device. It’s inside my phone, my TV, etc. They put it everything they make and have a phone app. It turns the downstairs TV on remotely! I just tell it to do it.
Hope maybe this helps for now. If Alexa was integrated, it would be so easy to set up the routine based on a SaA trigger! I have to get up much earlier tomorrow for a meeting, so I have to set everything to that time. And then put it back manually.
This is right out of “The Jetsons” cartoon. 
Have a great day. I think it’s day there.
Best,
Robin