# Why a 9 minute snooze on alarm clocks?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-a-9-minute-snooze-on-alarm-clocks/28486>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 7, 2000, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-a-9-minute-snooze-on-alarm-clocks/28486 "2000-08-07T23:37:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Mad\_Dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@Mad\_Dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mad_Dog)\
**Post date:** [August 7, 2000, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-a-9-minute-snooze-on-alarm-clocks/28486/1 "2000-08-07T23:37:49Z")

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Just wondering why alarm clocks have a 9 minute snooze time?

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**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\
**Post date:** [August 7, 2000, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-a-9-minute-snooze-on-alarm-clocks/28486/2 "2000-08-07T23:43:08Z")

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That’s been covered [here.](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/991126.html)

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**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\
**Post date:** [August 7, 2000, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-a-9-minute-snooze-on-alarm-clocks/28486/3 "2000-08-07T23:45:16Z")

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Welcome to SDMB Mad Dog, I didn’t see how new you were. A lot of questions have been answered in Cecil’s columns or in previous threads. There is a good search engine for the threads as well as an archive of all Cecil’s previous columns.

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**Author:** ![Dystopos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e79b87/32.png) [@Dystopos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dystopos)\
**Post date:** [August 8, 2000, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-a-9-minute-snooze-on-alarm-clocks/28486/4 "2000-08-08T04:18:47Z")

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Cecil didn’t go for the theory that 10 minutes sounds like too much time to indulge in extra sleep much like paying $1.99 for something is more palatable than $2

That’s my theory, even in the face of overwhelming evidence of inertial maintencance of an imprecise historical condition.

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**Author:** ![Mad\_Dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@Mad\_Dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mad_Dog)\
**Post date:** [August 8, 2000, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-a-9-minute-snooze-on-alarm-clocks/28486/5 "2000-08-08T13:57:11Z")

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Thanks Padeye for link. I am leaning towards Dystopos. To me it appears to be the fact that 10 minutes was just too long! to be sleeping in.