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Editor’s Note: A reader recently wrote to ask why snooze buttons on alarm clocks only give you nine more minutes of sleep. Our own Sandy Wood has tackled that topic, so I’m re-posting his explanation today.
By the time the snooze feature was added in the 1950s, the innards of alarm clocks had long been standardized. This meant that the teeth on the snooze gear had to mesh with the existing gear configuration, leaving engineers with a single choice: They could set the snooze for either a little more than nine minutes, or a little more than 10 minutes. But because reports indicated that 10 minutes was too long, allowing people to fall back into a “deep” sleep, clock makers decided on the nine-minute gear, believing people would wake up easier and happier after a shorter snooze. We’d tend to disagree with that logic, but, then, we must be in the lazy minority. Although today’s digital clocks can be programmed to have a snooze of any length, most stick with nine minutes because that’s what consumers expect.
Comments (36)
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Mine is 4 minutes (digital) and it drives me crazy. If course, you would think that I would just set the alarms for later and get more real sleep rather than playing “snooze tag,” but nooooo, every morning I hit that button 5 or 6 times.
posted by Jack on 4-30-2008 at 8:30 am
The snooze timer on my phone’s alarm is five minutes and cannot be changed. I can’t stand it.
posted by Ira on 4-30-2008 at 8:37 am
I cannot hit the snooze buttone – I dont know what it is. I feel horrible if I even lay back down after my alarm goes off; I am groggy all day.
posted by Sarah on 4-30-2008 at 8:56 am
I bought a 10 dollar digital clock at KMart and the snooze alarm is set unchangeably to a “why bother?” 3 minutes.
posted by Bucko on 4-30-2008 at 8:59 am
My alarm clock is 7 minutes and I have not taken the time to figure out how to change it.
In college, I had a roommate who would purposely set his alarm approx. 1 hour ahead of when he needed to be up and would just hit snooze 10 times. He said made it easier to get up when he actually had to be up. That drove me crazy.
posted by Justin on 4-30-2008 at 10:13 am
My snooze button can be set for ten, twenty, or thirty minutes…Bliss! I adore the little machine, not only for this feature, but also the assortment of odd little white noises it can produce, all pleasant and soothing -except- the creepy heartbeat. That’s just plain weird.
posted by natlynn on 4-30-2008 at 10:31 am
The snooze alarm in my life works like this: my husband sets his alarm for at least an hour before he has to get up. The alarm goes off, wakes me up, I listen to him snoring for at least sixty seconds, kick him, kick him again (harder), he hits the snooze button and is snoring again by the next breath. I close my eyes and try to fall back to sleep for about 8-1/2 minutes, finally start to doze, then ….
posted by B on 4-30-2008 at 11:17 am
Mine is 6 minutes, but I wish I could break the habit of using it. I set it early because I know I’m going to walk across the room and hit the button at least 3 or 4 times. What I need is a really good wake-up song. Not so jolting that I’m scared awake, not so mellow that it can’t pull me from a dream.
posted by Mel on 4-30-2008 at 12:30 pm
I just discovered yesterday, actually, that my snooze button is nine minutes. I was really concerned, but now I feel so much better!
posted by Lisa on 4-30-2008 at 3:27 pm
I can’t actually use the snooze button. I manually reset my alarm for 5 or 10 or whatever minutes. This usually happens multiple times a morning. Why I trust a sleepy me more than the snooze button, I don’t know. But, I have never let me down, so I guess it works!
posted by kate on 4-30-2008 at 4:53 pm
Having had a 9 min snooze setting for years it is odd the things you can notice between deperately hitting the button and sliding back to sleep.
that the 9 times table;s results are a palindrome to the first 10 steps.
09,18,27,36,45,54,63,72,81,90
posted by Pol x on 5-1-2008 at 7:44 am
Pol x: That palindrome just made my day.
posted by steven on 5-2-2008 at 8:30 pm
@Pol x: That’s just beautiful.
The snooze on my watch is 1 min. Ridiculous. Who wants to snooze for 1 minute?
posted by Lupis on 9-14-2009 at 5:02 pm
I have a weird habit of setting my alarm for 30-60 minutes BEFORE I want to wake up and then hitting snooze for how many minutes I feel is appropriate after that first wake-up. You can adjust the snooze time on my alarm and adds on the same amount each time you hit the button, so I have mine set at ten minutes and hit it 3-6 times. It’s kind of strange but I can’t live without this routine anymore
posted by Kenna on 9-14-2009 at 5:04 pm
I hate snooze buttons and wish clocks would stop coming equipped with them. I get up when my alarm goes off-simple as that! Worst clock feature ever!
Sorry, just my biggest pet peeve…
posted by Rochelle on 9-14-2009 at 5:21 pm
I knew someone in college that set a second alarm an hour before he had to get up because he loved the feeling of lying back down with the knowledge that he had another hour to sleep.
posted by Steve M. on 9-14-2009 at 5:53 pm
@ Justin – I had a roommate in college who used to do the same thing. She would immediately fall back asleep but I was not so lucky. Almost everytime I would fall back asleep the next round of snooze would go off. I hated it. In fact, I lost it one morning and yanked the clock out of the wall and threw out the second story into the snow. It stayed there until spring, when she politely asked me to purchase her a new clock. I think steam came out of my head that day
posted by Izzi on 9-14-2009 at 6:24 pm
Steve M: that person is me!! i don’t do it anymore now that i’ve finished uni and actually have to get up for work, but trust me, the feeling of “mmm, another hour” is awesome..
posted by johnson on 9-14-2009 at 6:54 pm
I’m really sad…I have an alarm clock that talks to me (nine funny sayings like “when the alarm won’t quit, up you must get”). But despite being digital, it’s still a 9 minute – no fail alarm. Well, that won’t do for me. So when that goes off, I turn it off. Thirty minutes later, my cell phone will start to play “Who Needs Sleep” by the BareNaked Ladies and we’ll go through about 3-4 repetitions THEN of the 9 minute snooze. A morning person I am not.
posted by Hastings on 9-14-2009 at 6:55 pm
People who hate snooze buttons obviously don’t require them. I am an absolutely abominable person in the morning, and if I had to wake up as soon as my alarm went of I would kill somebody. I set mine for about an hour or so before I have to get up.
posted by Brooke on 9-14-2009 at 7:05 pm
I have a really kickass Boston Acoustics alarm clock, and every time you tap the clock (it’s got a sensor around the frame of it) it allows you to snooze for 5 more minutes BUT you can tap it 6 times in rapid succession when the alarm initially goes off, and snooze for a half hour.
posted by Anaximander on 9-14-2009 at 7:20 pm
My snooze only allows 8 minute(digital). It’s not so bad, but would like to know that logic. The logic of the innards of the alarm clock was interesting.
posted by Christine on 9-14-2009 at 7:37 pm
I have never used the snooze feature on my alarm clock either. I think it’s hilarious that people don’t just set their alarm for the time they really do have to get up. Better quality sleep for sure.
posted by Ranger J on 9-15-2009 at 7:21 am
We are a mixed couple. That is, I wake up before the alarm even goes off (that is my snooze time). When it goes off, I get up and hit the snooze for my husband. I don’t need a snooze button. I don’t even need an alarm most days. But he is definitely a 9 more minutes kind of guy.
posted by Hyacinth on 9-15-2009 at 9:47 am
I have a super alarm clock that lets me put the snooze in for any length of time I want. It’s amazing!!!
But…I tend to stick right around 9-12 minutes. I’m always up the first time it goes off anyway.
posted by Tiffany on 9-15-2009 at 9:49 am
funny semi-snooze button story:
i used to have a clock-radio which woke me up by blaring the a.m. dj’s from a local classic rock station. every morning for a month i woke up this way, and at some point my body got used to the timing; i would actually hear the “click” when the radio switched on before i truly woke up.
one morning, i heard the “click” of the radio in my helf-sleep but didn’t hear anything else for about 5 seconds… then, i heard the creepiest voice say “… i see dead people… ”
needless to say, i sprang out of bed and have not used the clock-radio feature since.
posted by casual_observer on 9-15-2009 at 11:42 am
I hate the nine-minute restriction, and greatly prefer shorter snoozes. I used to have one that went off in five-minute increments, and I could’ve sworn it came that way — but maybe I’m just misremembering.
9 minutes is just too long for me. Five minutes is about right for getting past that awkward woke-up-in-the-middle-of-a-dream state. At nine minutes, I am at risk of falling into a new dream, creating a vicious snooze cycle.
Worst of all, though, with 9 minute snoozes, I can only get the satisfaction of hitting that damn button a couple of times before I’ve overslept significantly. Grrrr….
posted by Calli Arcale on 9-15-2009 at 12:39 pm
I am one of those who uses multiple alarms…first alarm is the clock radio, the second I set to beep 15 minutes later. Then my phone is set to ring the most annoying, chipper “Good morning…” song possible. Possibly the least efficient wake up routine ever, apart from that of Mr. Bean!
posted by Diana on 9-15-2009 at 1:03 pm
When I was in college my husband’s alarm clock had a tape deck. His alarm was an old Circle Jerks tape–played at full volume, of course. I used to wake up to the click of the tape deck engaging, and I would have about 3-5 seconds of leader tape to get my head under the pillow and start shaking him to get up and turn the alarm clock off.
I’m pretty sure I would have beaten him if he used the snooze function.
This went on for three months while I lived in his apartment before getting my own. It was at least a year before I stoped twitching when the tape deck engaged, and to this day I flinch at loud noises!
posted by Ailsa on 9-15-2009 at 2:44 pm
Now that I think about it, I used the same trick a few years later when I had to be at work at 5am. I would blast “Every Morning” by Sugar Ray.
It never bothered my husband because he didn’t sleep over when I had to work in the morning. I’m sure my neighbors hated me, but they never said anything. Maybe it wasn’t as offensive (to me)because I liked the song?
posted by Ailsa on 9-15-2009 at 2:48 pm
I always wake up one minute before my alarm goes off. My wife’s is set for 15 minutes later: hers goes off and she hits the snooze. 8 minutes into that 9-minute interval, I deploy the dogs on her. Ever been licked awake by a Rottweiler? Heh-heh-heh.
posted by Jon on 9-15-2009 at 2:57 pm
I simply can’t wake up between 7 am and 9 am. If I try I’m a mess. If the alarm goes off before 6:59 I jump out of bed. If it goes off at 7 I’ll hit the snooze for 2 hours if I can. I despise mornings. The guy who invented snooze alarms must have been a distant relative of mine.
posted by Keith on 9-15-2009 at 3:54 pm
I want an alarm clock that wiould wake me to the strains of ‘I Got You Babe’. The fear of it being GD would get me up in a hurry!
posted by JaneM on 9-15-2009 at 4:31 pm
I used my TV’s “turn on at this time” feature as an alarm clock freshman year of college. My roommate reports/ed that on T/Th when he had class an hour after me (MWF he was gone by my wakeup), if he was awake already he would be consistently treated to the sight of my eyes popping open, hand shooting for the remote, and the power button being hit all in the time between the click of power on and first noise of TV program. We timed it once, it was less than 2 seconds.
posted by Jeff K. on 9-15-2009 at 7:45 pm
I used to set my clock 20 minutes ahead, then set the alarm 25 minutes before I needed to get up (based on the wrong clock setting) allowing me to hit the snooze button 5 times before I had to get up. I finally decided that much morning math (trying to remember how many times I’d hit the snooze button) was tiring me out more than just sleeping.
posted by Fran on 9-17-2009 at 1:16 pm
I have my clock set 20ish minutes fast as well. When I’m fully awake I remember that it’s fast and do the quick math. When I’m half asleep, I don’t always remember it’s ahead and “scare” myself into waking up :)
posted by Alex on 9-18-2009 at 1:38 pm