So when your alarm goes off in the morning... (Or why do we only get to snooze for nine minutes?)

[CloudOnMyTongue 0]

So anybody know why we only get nine minutes?

Just wondering what other people think about this.

[flyangel2 2]

No snooze for me.

I have my coffee on an automatic clock, and once my dogs smell that, they jump off and on my bed till I get up.

May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds. - Edward Abbey

[eeneR 3]

My alarm clock lets me set my snooze. And each time in a row i hit it...adds that much more on. I learned do not get made at my alarm, and hit it 10 times...it will go off again an hour and a half later....

She is not a "Dumb Blonde" - She is a "Light-Haired Detour Off The Information Superhighway."
eeneR
TF#72, FB#4130, Incauto

[Peej 0]

I read a really interesting article in a local Men's Health the other day (no laughing i was on a plane with nothing else to read!) and it said that snoozing is the worst thing you can do to yourself in the morning as it puts you right back into REM sleep and then you keep abruptly coming out of it and going back in.

Advertisio Rodriguez / Sky

[Maxx 1]

No snoozing for me.. If the alarm goes off I have to walk to the other side of the room (or wherever I put my mobile) and then I'm awake..

[skymama 37]

I usually wake up before my alarm goes off. I'm the worst sleeper in the world. On the days it actually does wake me up, I never hit the snooze. Once I'm awake, I'm up!

She is Da Man, and you better not mess with Da Man,
because she will lay some keepdown on you faster than, well, really fast. ~Billvon

[CSpenceFLY 1]

I have asked this question many times.

[DeepThought 0]

My alarm snoozes for 7minutes... mind you I am in the UK, perhaps another imperial/metric thing....

But then again it is a Sony, and that is Japanise...

I always did think that 7 mins was a strange amount.

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You only have one life, make the most of it.

[lisamariewillbe 1]

Found it on a website , so it must be true
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a991126.html

We consulted with numerous clock manufacturers, clock engineers, and clock buffs and amassed the following theories:

(1) Focus groups found that people preferred a snooze delay of eight to twelve minutes. OK, but then why not a ten-minute interval?

(2) Engineers believe their bosses come to check on them every ten minutes. Ho ho!

(3) Physiologists have found that a sleeper who doesn't want to get up will fall back into a deep sleep if left for longer than nine minutes. Yeah, right.

(4) Five minutes seems too short and ten minutes seems too long. Nine minutes may seem better than ten while not being significantly different. My reaction: Bah. Nine minutes does not seem better; it seems stupid.

(5) On LED (the old red display) clocks, the snooze function will work for only 60 minutes, so you want to fit the greatest possible number of snooze periods into that time. Nine minutes gives you six snooze periods with a minute's leeway each time for pressing the snooze bar. "Nonsense," one engineer commented. No argument here.

(6) "I figured it was actually 512 seconds (29)," one informant speculated. "Or maybe, since the clock is counting (typically) the power cycles from the wall socket, it's because nine minutes is 32,400 cycles, very close to 215 (32,768)." Engineer's comment: Nice try, bub, but clocks don't count that way.

(7) General Instruments, one of the first designers of the chip used in LED clocks in the late 60s, set the chip logic to allow a nine-minute delay. Others continue to use this chip or copied the idea without changing the interval (e.g., National Semiconductor's type MM5370 digital alarm-clock chip--I tell ya, do we research this stuff or what?). Fine, but why nine?

(8) On a digital clock, nine is the greatest interval obtainable by advancing some sort of "snooze counter" on the ones column. But why mess with the ones column? Why not put the snooze counter on the tens column and advance that by one?

(9) In the days of dial clocks, the snooze interval was originally intended to be ten minutes max, but precision was unimportant and engineers were content if they could make the interval nine minutes and change. When the industry switched to digital, clock designers figured the standard snooze interval was nine minutes; "and change" went out the window.

Now we're getting somewhere. Partial confirmation of this view comes from Jay "Pappy" Kennan, a clock collector who took apart an old GE electromechanical clock with one of the earliest snooze buttons. (Pappy helpfully posted photos of the clock's innards on his Web site; see the links at the bottom of www.ma.ultranet.com/~jayman.) The clock's snooze-gear mechanism was not precise; the snooze interval could be anywhere from nine to nine and a half minutes. Pappy's opinion, seconded by a clock engineer, was that the original, none-too-ambitious designers wanted a clock with a snooze interval in the nine-to-ten-minute range.

Sudsy Fist: i don't think i'd ever say this
Sudsy Fist: but you're looking damn sudsydoable in this

[wishintobe 0]

I think mine is seven minutes too. Typically I don't use an alram clock at all. I just look at the time when I get in bed and then tell myslef what time I need to get up. So far hasn't failed me. I do however use a alarm when I have to get the kids off to school. For some reason the mind trick doesn't work on that. I hit the alarm 2 times usually. That extra 14 minutes always seem to make me more tired yet I continue to do it.

I have always wondered why use a odd number.

[psipike02 0]

My clock lets me set it for every 10 min, which is nice. On the other hand, thats probably why I'm late for class because I end up hitting it like 8 times...... I am not a morning person at all.....

Puttin' some stank on it.

----Hellfish #707----

[tigra 0]

I've often wondered about it! I'm not a morning person and I'm a notorious snoozer! The thing is I can toss and turn all night and once that alarm goes off, it takes NOTHING for me to fall asleep!

Right now, the alarm isn't even in my bedroom, and I still get up, hit snooze and climb back into bed at least once!

[kingbunky 3]

mine is adjustable, don't know the range but i put it on 10 minutes. i really want a clocky. one snooze, then you have to play hide and seek.

"Hang on a sec, the young'uns are throwin' beer cans at a golf cart."
MB4252 TDS699
killing threads since 2001

[SpeedRacer 1]

I have a ZEN alarm clock. At the appointed time it makes a single tone. After some time, it sounds the tone again. The notes get closer and closer together as time goes on (they are timed according to the Fibonacci sequence)

The advantage of this (as opposed to one loud blaring alarm) is that you can finish up whatever you're dreaming and awaken naturally. http://www.thstore.com/thstore/ProductInfo2_2.asp?ID=H-NAZ-7569-A&GroupID=18

Speed Racer
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[kingbunky 3]

i've heard of those, do they really work as advertised?

"Hang on a sec, the young'uns are throwin' beer cans at a golf cart."
MB4252 TDS699
killing threads since 2001

[tigra 0]

Mine is also supposed to wake you more naturally, starting with a soft light that gets brighter and bird sounds (which annoy me so that part is turned way down) all starting about 20 minutes before the alarm actually goes off. You can even put these aroma therapy beads in the slot above the light bulb. Good theory, but it doesn't help me get out of bed any quicker!

[monkycndo 0]

My old red LED is 9 minutes. I only use it as a back up when I have to get up earlier then normal. Even then I tend to wake up a few minutes before it goes off. My internal clock works pretty good for anytime before 4am. I think I have hit the snooze once and that was by accident. Once the eyes open, I have a hard time going back to sleep. Get to see a lot more sun rises that way.

50 donations so far. Give it a try.

You know you want to spank it
Jump an Infinity

[DeepThought 0]

And another thing that is very anoying about my alamclock is... the off button... It is right next to the snooze button.

I have in the past pressed off, then gone back to sleep.
Big mistake

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You only have one life, make the most of it.

[vt1977 0]

Quote

once my dogs smell that, they jump off and on my bed till I get up.

That's one of the things I miss about not having dogs... they were the best alarm clock in the world!
Vicki

[flyangel2 2]

Except when I want to sleep in

May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds. - Edward Abbey