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Why Do Alarms Snooze For Nine Minutes?

by Terrence O'Brien on July 9, 2007 at 05:23 PM

Why Do Alarms Snooze For Nine Minutes?
There are many mysteries in this world, like 'What the heck happened to Britney Spears?' for example. Or, 'Why does it seem like every alarm clock I've ever owned snoozes for nine minutes?' Thankfully Mental Floss, the brain teaser and trivia magazine, has an explanation for the latter (we may never get an answer about Britney).

When the first alarm clocks were built, the snooze gear needed to fit around the cogs already in the time piece. Because of the space constraints, there were basically two options: slightly over nine minutes or slightly over 10. It was believed that 10 minutes was too long and would allow a person to slip into a deeper sleep, so nine minutes became the standard. While most digital alarms today can be programmed to have a snooze of any length, nine minutes is still the standard and default on most of them.

From Mental Floss

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Tags: alarm, clock, snooze, trivia

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