Alarm clocks. Anyone here use the snooze button?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Why?

For the last two weeks one of my neighbors has been setting his/her alarm clock to go off at 7:00 AM sharp. For the last two weeks now, said schmuck has been hitting the snooze button whenever it goes off and waiting until 8:00 AM to finally wake up and shut the fuc… :: ahem :: shut the alarm completely off.

Whoever it is has ruined what was once a completely refreshing experience for me. I used to be able to wake up whenever I wanted, on my own and free from an alarm clock (I’m one of those weirdos’s who can wake up any time they want simply by thinking about it the night before. Without fail, I always wake up before the alarm kicks off). So mornings to me are refreshing and comfortable. It borders on enjoyable because I’m usually awake long before the alarm clock would ever go off.

There are rare times that I know an alarm clock is a must. When I know that I can’t trust myself to fully wake up on my own. Then I’ll set the alarm to go off at whatever time is the latest that I can sleep in, but also allow enough time to be able to get ready.

To me, it’s a no brainer. Need to be downtown at 9:00 AM? Set the alarm for 7:30 AM. That’ll allow me enough time to wake up, shower, dress, have a coffee, and make it to wherever it is downtown on time. If I need to be on the other side of town, I’ll set the thing for 7:00 AM to allow for traffic.

The key is that I figure out the night before, when I’m thinking clearly and smartly.

But this neighbor. What the hell is he/she thinking? They’ve essentially decided that 8:00 AM is the latest they can sleep in and still make it to wherever on time, but they still set the alarm for 7:00 AM, an hour before that cut-off time.

Are these people some kind of masochists? Do they enjoy the five-minute intervals of sleep, spread out over an hour? How in the world is this refreshing or even healthy? And why can’t they buy a friggen’ alarm clock that doesn’t broadcast itself across our entire apartments courtyard? Because I’m now sitting here, wide awake, listening to this some-bitches alarm clock go off every five minutes…. for the next twenty minutes, at least.

Why people? Why abuse an alarm clock like that? Why set it an hour earlier than you need? You’ve never woken up and turned the thing off before 8:00 before, what makes you think it’ll happen now? Set it for 8:00 AM and be done with it. Sleep that extra hour and enjoy it. And, more importantly, let me enjoy that hour too! I don’t need to be up until 9:00 AM.

And while my general rant and question is best aimed at whoever lives next to me that is ruining my sleep, it also applies to anyone who has used, or uses, the snooze button.

Why?

If you truly prepare yourself and actually think it out, the alarm should go off at the latest possible time that a person could sleep in but still make it to wherever it is they have to be on time. The snooze button is thus rendered useless, as using it would make you late regardless.

2

Simple, really.

Often I can hit the snooze button and not wake up, if I have to do it 4 or 5 times in a half hour then I am sure to wake up.

3

I’m up before the alarm goes off. If the alarm does wake me up, there is no way I’m going back to sleep. My brain is grinding and I’m up. I pop on the TV to get my eyes and brain up to speed.

4

That’s not simple! That’s crazy.

Why not set if for a half-hour later and actually WAKE UP when it goes off?

Masochist.

5

My name is lno, and I use the snooze button.

I have my alarm set for 7 am, and I get up at either 7:16 or 7:24, depending on how many times I hit snooze. I do this despite the fact that I wake up naturally between 6 and 6:45, because I like the feeling I have of waking up very gradually.

I can stretch, curl up under the blankets, contemplate how warm and snug I am, yawn, roll over, stretch again, and have a really weird half-awake half-asleep dream in the time it takes for the alarm to go off again. I also don’t have an alarm loud enough to wake the dead across the street, so I’m not too concerned about this.

(You don’t happen to live in Minnetonka, do you? If you’re talking about my alarm, honest, I’ll change!)

6

I do not consciously say, “I’ll hit the snooze button and go back to sleep!” I can do it while I am asleep and not wake up. Why not just wake up? Tell me how and I’ll stop using the snooze button.
Until then, give your neighbor a high-five from his snoozin’ buddy mouth. :slight_smile:

7

Boy, I would love to be able to wake up with my alarm. Unfortunately, I often hit the snooze alarm in my sleep – sometimes three or four times before I finally wake up. Even tricks like placing my alarm clock across the room don’t work because I can walk over and shut off the alarm without ever waking up. In the dorms in college I even managed to climb down off my loft bed, turn off my alarm and climb back into bed, all without waking. I actually wake up better when I’m exhausted than when I’m well-rested. Frustrating.

8

If you are having a hard time waking up to the alarm, just move it far enough away so that you have to get up to shut it off. That way you will wake up enough not to drift back to sleep.

Snooze features only encourage me to be lazy, so I don’t use them.

9

My alarm rings the first time at 4:45 a.m. and then every 9 minutes after that, depending on how many times I bonk it to shut it up.

10

I too use the snooze button. Religiously. It first beeps at 5:30, and then again every 10 minutes if I fall back to sleep. But often I’m just in a semi-doze and I’ll hit it right before it’s scheduled to beep again and I’ll get another 10 minutes from then.

I like waking up gradually. And my alarm is so quiet that it doesn’t even wake up my wife.

11

I generally wake up before the alarm goes off. However, I loved using the snooe alarm, because then I could pretend to be going back to sleep. I also only let the alarm go off for a half second or so. I would have my hand precariously over the snooze button when it was just about to go off. In a family of firefighters used to waking up to the pagers and alarms blasting through the house, my alarm clock never woke anyone up.

12

Why snooze? I know it doesn’t make sense; I should just set the time I actually intend to get up, and be done with it.

But I love the luxury of crawling back under the covers (I live in a cold climate) with the knowledge that I have 9 blessed more minutes to sleep (with an option for 9 more after that).

I suppose it would be less fun if I weren’t able to fall back asleep so quickly, but I swear that last 9 minutes on “snooze” is the most restful sleep of the night!

13

Every night when I go to bed, I set may alarm clock in a slightly different location, always far enough away from the bed that I have to stand up to reach it. I place it in different positions (on it’s side, upside down) each night.

My alarm clock is set for 7:20. My first conscious thought of the day today was at around 8:10.

If you can teach me how to be a morning person, so I can bounce out of bed and start my day with pep and energy, I’ll take it. As it is, you’re having a much more pleasant start to your day than I am, even if my alarm clock should happen to be audible to you.

14

See? SEE? That’s just what I’m talking about.

Shouldn’t it be set to the last possible time it could be set for you to be on time and out the door? Why set it so early if you really don’t need to be awake by then?

Baffling.

Nope. Uptown.

We don’t have the money to buy those fancy things you guys use out there in the 'burbs.

Ours sound like shit. Cheap shit. Loud obnoxious cheap shit.

His, or hers (I haven’t quite figured out who it is yet, but I’m working on it), is this nasty ‘Wrawmp. Wrawmp. Wrawmp’ thing. You can actually hear the plastic rattling around in there whenever it goes off. ‘Wrawmp… tink. Wrawmp… tink. tink.’ I know why the plastic’s rattling around in there because I’ve heard the person smack the bejesus out it before. ‘Yea! More plastic bits!’

How it’s working is anyone’s guess.

Mine, on the other hand, is nice and mellow. It’s still a Target cheapy, but it’s just enough of an irritation that it gets me up, while remaining mildy pleasant. I don’t need to have an horn next to my ear to wake up.

And I don’t need it to happen ten times over an hour for it to work, either.

People.

15

Perhaps for some people, but I’ve had to get out of a top bunk, walk across a room and dig behind a dresser - and still, able to fall right back to sleep no problem. For me the snooze alarm is one of the best inventions ever.

I am not a morning person. Not at all. I have stared at the strange glowing numbers on the clock and not been able to figure out what they mean (sometimes, I do math problems with them, then fall back asleep. sometimes they do little dances in my head). I have listened to the loud beeping sound and been unable to connect it to any purpose at all. There are mornings where it’s taken me 4 or 5 minutes to figure out how to turn it off (hit the really, really, really big button - I have a 50% chance of hitting it accidentally and I can’t always do it intentionally.) because I don’t have the higher brain function upon first waking up. Each iteration of the snooze brings me closer to consciousness. Until finally, the words and the numbers make sense and I realize that these strange signs are telling me to get out of bed.

One alarm is not enough to do it. It takes several spread out over time to wake me up. If I set the alarm for the last possible time needed to get out of bed, I’d not get out of bed. If I did somehow pull that off, I couldn’t function. It’s just not there.

I have no idea how people “just wake up” in the morning. That’s bizarre.

16

I used to use a snooze alarm, but now, I really can’t, though sometimes I will pretend to listen to the radio for an hour.

Mr. Dude uses the snooze alarm, I now find it traumatic.

17

I have to admit I’m a snoozer too. I HATE mornings. HATE. It takes at LEAST 30 minutes from the first ring of the alarm before I can even begin to wake up. I swear those 9 minutes between the snoozes are the best sleep of the night! :slight_smile: We’ve had this discussion at work and it seems like there are a lot of women who do it and a lot of men who are puzzled by it.

18

I don’t do mornings. Half the reason I got married was because I couldn’t afford more alarm clocks. No kidding, before marriage I had 3 alarm clocks placed as far apart as possible and set to go off 2-3 minutes apart. Each was set loudly enough to wake everyone else in the house. Didn’t work. I can get up, walk across the room, hit the snooze, get back in bed and never wake up. Rinse and repeat every 3 minutes up to 10 times. This morning the phone was ringing and I vaguely remember wondering why the snooze alarm wasn’t working. My wife finally answered the phone. Once, before marriage, I somehow must have gotten tangled up in a electrical cord while sleeping and pulled an alarm clock down off the shelf onto my face. I woke up with the alarm merrily blaring beside my head and blood covering my face and pillow. I have slept through a tornado. Like amarinth, I, too struggle with the mystery of the numbers and sound in the morning.

I have been this way all of my life. My natural body clock works best when I can stay up until 4:00AM and sleep until noon. It’s still not perfect and I would need an alarm to ensure I woke up precisely at noon, but I’m wouldn’t be as prone to use the snooze alarm. Society is just no set up for my kind. Sorry, Chris, but not everyone can be a morning person. OTOH, when you’re hitting that wall at night, I’m just kicking into gear.

19

So the perp’s a woman?

Figures.

You people are the bane to all that is right in this world.

20

I use it daily. I set my alarm for 6:30, and get up between 7 and 7:30. If I didn’t use the snooze, I would surely go back to sleep. I am physically incapable of accepting that it’s time for me to get up. Hitting the snooze makes me feel like I get a bonus.