brainSILT


Just 9 more minutes





One of those annoying little questions I spend my life wondering about is "Why do alarm clocks set the snooze for 9 minutes?"


But now that I am a fully-fledged investigative journalist* I need not lie awake pondering these important matters anymore!


9 minutes always seemed like a really odd amount, just plucked from the air, it also must play havoc for those with OCD. However, it seems there is a genuine reason for this apparently random figure.


In my extensive research, I found quite an interesting page on the history of alarm clocks through the years.





The issue was including the correct gears inside the clock mechanism as it had to fit into what was already there and worked very well.


However whilst it tells me who to 'blame' for the snooze button it did not explain where the 9-minute rule came from.


I did find another article that looks a little deeper into the issue here.



Originally in 1956 the good people at General Electric-Telechron created the Model 7H241 as seen in the picture below and kindly used with permission of the very knowledgeable Pappy from www.telechron.net. It had the first-ever "snooze" button.


This new button gave us about 10 minutes of snooze time.


However, it is obvious that 'about 10 minutes' would never be accurate enough and a study made at the time suggested that more than ten minutes was enough to fall into a deep sleep.


Luckily the mechanics already in place did allow for an accurate 9 minutes, so the nine-minute snooze was born.





This may explain why the old wind up alarm clocks gave us the 9 minutes, but it is now more than 60 years later and we live in a digital age with some remarkable modern alarm clocks so why do we still have this strange number of minutes?


The best answer that I have found is that it is mostly for nostalgic reasons or just what consumers have come to expect - That is it.....!


This may end my sleepless nights, but I am sure it has ruined my snooze time for ever.




*Whilst I may be playing fast and loose with the wording of this phrase I feel this only further adds weight to my sketchy qualifications..........