Snoooooooooooooooooze

[Lorns]

That is terrible. I feel for your other half having to wake up with you two hours earlier everyday.

[cwathen]

I've not actually used a proper alarm clock since September, just using my phone alarm instead. My phone is annoying in that only 1 alarm can use snooze, the others can only be cancelled once, the snooze delay is fixed at 5 minutes (which IMO is too short) and can only be activated about 4 times before going off a final time in which the 'snooze' option is missing. I've had to set another alarm event for the latest possible time I can get up just in case I fall asleep again after the final snooze opportunity.

Mine is the strangest of all - it's a NINE minute gap. I set my alarm a full TWO hours before I need to get up.

Although 9 mins is a very odd length of time, it also appears to be a very common snooze delay for alarm clocks. Being that seemingly hundreds of alarm clarks made by different companies all seem to have the same alarm sound and the same controls, I'd say there's probably a fully integrated 'Alarm Clock' IC available off the shelf which many manufacturers use.

The snooze button probably invokes a counter to count on by a given number of minutes until the alarm goes off again - this may well be only a single-digit counter (to save space on the chip) therefore waiting 10 minutes is impossible, so 9 is the next best thing. ISTR that another similar counter is employed to record the number of times the snooze button has been activated - you can only press snooze 9 times before the alarm will reset.

I also once found out (by going out before the alarm went off then returning home to find it silent, but being assured by my housemates that it was going off for over an hour) that the alarm on some (well, my) '9 minute snooze' clocks will eventually reset even if nothing is pressed. I've never worked out how long this will be, but I've got a feeling that it might be 81 minutes - 9x9.

This actually makes a lot of sense, being that the clock only uses simple logic with no real processing power, it's very easy to be able to use both counters being zeroed as a flag to reset the alarm for the next day - either the counters will eventually zero out if nothing is pressed, or the snooze button will advance them more quickly, or the 'alarm off' button (on more fancy clocks to cancel the alarm without disabling it) immediately zeroes them. The clock therefore doesn't have to be able to process these different events, it merely needs to know that both counters on zero means 'reset the alarm', and logic in place decides how these counters advance based on which buttons or not are pressed.

[/geek mode]

[Alexia]

That is terrible. I feel for your other half having to wake up with you two hours earlier everyday.

Actually she wakes up about 4 hours before me - she works early morning to mid afternoon and I work mid-afternoon to evening shifts.

Her lunchtime is my breakfast.

[cdd]

This is interesting - a closer inspection of my alarm clock reveals that its snooze feature is in fact 9 minutes too. I'm being cheated out of a minute each time!

[rob]

I gave my alarm clock to charity... I get up when I want to get up, as I only work in the evenings.

[Ebeneezer Scrooge]

The snooze button probably invokes a counter to count on by a given number of minutes until the alarm goes off again - this may well be only a single-digit counter (to save space on the chip) therefore waiting 10 minutes is impossible, so 9 is the next best thing. ISTR that another similar counter is employed to record the number of times the snooze button has been activated - you can only press snooze 9 times before the alarm will reset.

Except of course that single digit (decimal) electronic counters begin at 0, so there are in fact 10 cycles available.

My phone has a 9 minute snooze, but it cancels after 6 alarms - just before an hour after it first went off.

[rob]

Was The Narcoleptics' Society shop appreciative of your donation?

lol... it was just the local hospice shop.

[Stuart*]

Mine is the strangest of all - it's a NINE minute gap. I set my alarm a full TWO hours before I need to get up.

That is terrible. I feel for your other half having to wake up with you two hours earlier everyday.

A saucer of milk for the ladies in each corner!
Miaeow!!!!!

[Ebeneezer Scrooge]

re:9 minute snoozes.
If left on it's own to ring for a whole cycle, you may find your alarm cancels itself and re-snoozes after a minute, therefore, the next time the alarm will ring is 10 minutes after it's initial alarm. If left on its own (at least on SE phones), the alarm will ring every 10 minutes, with it's last ring on the hour after it started.
So when you press snooze, you are just skipping the first minute of ten, and leaving the snooze to wait the following 9. I suppose it makes sense really!

[Lorns]

This is how my body clock works. 7.15am, bloke who lives at the back of my house, starts up his motorbike and revs it for a few seconds the last i hear of it is at about 7.20 after he's zoomed down the hill and joined A20. At 7.45am neighbour starts his diesel van up. 8.00 am School bus turns up outside my house. 8'15am kids and mums nattering past house on way to school. Thats my final alarm call before i dash in and out shower, dressed made up and ready to rock and roll to be at work for 9.30 at the latest.

[Gavin Scott]

Alarm goes off at 7, snooze til 20 past, get up, orange juice banana and cigarette, bus at 8.02 to arrive at 8.25 to start work at 9am.

I like going in half an hour early. It means I can enjoy a guilt free ciggy break a couple of times through the morning