For what reason is the snooze timer set to 9 minutes instead of 10?
In: Technology
Original mechanical alarm clocks had already been standardized by the time the snooze feature was invented, so gearmakers had to mesh the gears with the existing clock mechanism. It worked out that they could best fit a gear set up of about 9-10 minutes, but the opinion at the time was that 10+ minutes was long enough for people to properly fall back asleep, so the nine minute gear configuration was chosen.
Then digital alarm clocks came around; while easily altered to whatever snooze length is desired, they had to compete with mechanical ones and most people already expected a nine minute snooze. That was what stuck.
>By the time the snooze feature was added in the 1950s, the innards of alarm clocks had long been standardized. This meant that the teeth on the snooze gear had to mesh with the existing gear configuration, leaving engineers with a single choice: They could set the snooze for either a little more than nine minutes, or a little more than 10 minutes. But because early reports indicated that 10 minutes was too long, allowing people to fall back into a “deep” sleep, clock makers decided on the nine-minute gear, believing people would wake up easier and happier after a shorter snooze.
>https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/22761/why-does-snooze-button-give-you-only-9-more-minutes-sleep
Latest Answers