Ever wonder why your alarm clock, or even your phone, gives you exactly nine extra minutes when you hit snooze? It feels a bit random, doesn’t it?
Well, the mystery takes us back to 1956, when the very first alarm clock with a snooze function, the “Snooz-Alarm” by General Electric-Telechron, was introduced.
The primary reason for the nine-minute interval was actually a mechanical one. Early alarm clocks used intricate gear systems, and it was technically challenging to make the gears align perfectly for an exact ten-minute snooze. Designers found it simpler and more practical to set it for roughly nine minutes.
There’s also a secondary theory related to our sleep cycles. A quick nine-minute rest is often just enough to feel slightly more awake without allowing your body to fall back into a deep sleep, which would make waking up even harder and more unpleasant.
Once that nine-minute standard was set by the popular early models, it simply stuck. Even with today’s advanced digital clocks and smartphones, many manufacturers, including Apple, continue this tradition, often out of nostalgia or just because it’s the accepted norm.
So, the next time you hit that snooze button, remember you’re not just buying a few extra minutes of sleep, you’re also partaking in a little piece of mechanical history and a widely adopted standard!