Are there any actual alarm clocks that function as well as the smartphone apps do? I’m mainly looking for the ability to set the alarm to go off at a different time or not at all each day. My phone does this perfectly, but if I forget to plug it in at my bedside or forget that I left it on vibrate then I’m screwed. Setting a standard alarm clock for the earliest time that I have to get up results in me hitting snooze so much that I get too used to doing it. Everything I’m finding is ridiculously expensive and/or discontinued by the manufacturer. Any help?
And if you want more control, you can get a regular radio and use it in conjunction with a programmable digital timer. They’re normally meant to control things like Christmas lights or home lights that make it look like you’re home, etc., but you could also easily use it to make your own radio alarm clock with very specific slots. The Leviton I have, for example, lets me turn on a device at a certain time, off at a certain time (approximating snooze), on again, off again, up to 50 times a day, different each day, for the whole week.
I think that timer could work. I need one time for Mon, Tues, Wed and another time for Thurs, Sun and another time for Fri with nothing on Sat. It seems odd to me that there isn’t an alarm clock that does the same thing as the phone apps. Apparently somebody knows that it’s useful.
Well, why not an alarm clock app running on an old smartphone, tablet, or ipod touch? Should be able to pick up something used for cheap and just leave it plugged in on the night stand.
Yeah–you can even find new tablets for under $30. They’re unbelievably crappy but for something that only runs the alarm clock and remains plugged in they should be fine.
I’ve never managed to get to my phone upgrade with a still functioning unit…but wow! I had no idea cheap tablets were that cheap. That’s crazy. That’s probably going to be the easiest thing to do.
Couldn’t you just use the simple expedient of placing your alarm clock out of reach of your bed, so you are not able to hit the snooze button without actually getting out of bed? There are lots and lots of alarms and radio alarms on the market that I am sure provide all sorts of options for programming of the alarm time. So far as I can tell, from the OP, your only real problem with alarm clocks is that you are given to hitting the snooze button repeatedly.
What’s wrong with wanting to get up at different times each day?
why is it that you repeatedly hit the snooze of a clock, but not of a phone?
Because hitting snooze of a clock is so very easy. They make it a giant button right on top so that almost any random thwack of the noise-making-thing means “snooze”. With your phone you have to at least open your eyes to find the button.
The big thing smartphones have over alarm clocks is the ability to have a complex UI, which allows you to set complex alarm patterns. Regular alarm clocks only have about half a dozen buttons – hard to specify anything.
I repeatedly hit snooze on a clock because I end up setting it for the earliest time I get up all week, then hit snooze until it’s the time that I need to get up on that particular day.
Nothing. What has that got to do with my post? Standalone alarm clocks can have their wake time reset, just the same as alarm apps on phones or pads can.
Well, that strategy is the source of your problem. Set your alarm clock, each night, to the time you want to get up the following morning, and put it out of reach of your bed.
I would just buy three alarm clocks, set them to different alarm times and label them for the days to which they apply.
Resetting the alarm time is a pain in the neck for most digital clocks - they certainly don’t seem like they are designed to be changed every night.
And for analogue clocks, I’ve usually found that they need a little fine tuning to get them to sound at the right time - i.e. you set the alarm hand to (what looks like) 6AM, but it actually goes off at 5:50 or something, so you have to tweak it a bit for the next night - if you’re continually changing the alarm time, you won’t have a finely tuned setting.
Is it possible you’re misunderstanding what the OP is trying to do? Your posts are confusing.
On an app, you can say:
MWF: 7am
TTh: 9:30am
Sat, Sun: 11am
You set it once and then it’s all automatic. You don’t have to touch it again unless your schedule changes.
What the OP does now, snoozing from 7am to whenever, is just disturbing his REM cycles. It’s preferable to actually wake up later than to nap in short 10-minute segments after 7am. So replacing snooze with custom wake-up times would be more ideal.
To do that with regular alarm clocks, setting them differently every night would be a huge pain in the ass. And if you forget to do so one night, the next morning you’re late for work or whatever. The smartphone solution works much better… what’s wrong with wanting to use it? That’s what I don’t understand. His problem isn’t the snooze button per se, but that remembering to set the alarm differently every night is a hassle.
Why is it that when alarm clocks activate, we commonly say that they go “off” instead of ON? My alarm clocks remain off most of the time and only go ON at the appointed time.
English is such a complex language, and western hemisphere English-speakers haven’t helped the situation much at all.
My 20 year old alarm clock radio has never failed to go off at the set time and it has 2 alarm settings. Sure it’s not able to have 20 different alarm settings, but it’s generally not that hard to actually set it.
My Tablet or Smartphone however decide sometimes to do things like updates and forget to actually play sound during the alarm – it’s rare, but it does happen.
So my recommendation would be: a combination of traditional alarm clock and smartphone.
‘Go’ is one of the most multi-purpose words in the English language.
I suggest in this case, it’s related to the sense in which the commencement of an activity is sometimes described as ‘off’ (i.e. “we *set off *on a journey” or “they’re off!” at the beginning of a race).