Monday, May 4, 2015

Preemptive Snooze

Here's my idea for what should be a standard feature on all alarm clocks. We are modern people living in modern times and we need this.

My radio alarm is set for 7:00 AM. When it goes off, I press snooze once. When the snooze alarm goes off, I get up and go wake one of my kids. The other is already up - no idea why. Lately, I've been waking up at 6:55. Then I lie there half asleep, hit the snooze at 7:00, continue to lie there dazed or maybe catch a few more minutes of sleep until the snooze alarm goes off at 7:09.

I want a preemptive snooze button. At 6:55, I no longer need the 7:00 alarm. I want to press a button that bypasses the 7:00 alarm but goes off at 7:09 when that first snooze would have gone off. It's probably easy to program. Something like double tap the snooze button would work.

I actually remember buying the clock that is on the night table next to my bed. It was late August in 1989. I got it at a Caldors while gathering stuff to bring to college in Boston. It's a pretty basic clock but it has served me well. I can set it in my sleep, but if I could get a preemptive snooze button I'd ditch it tonight.

Why don't we have this?