Product: Alarm Clock: Snooze
Idiot Proof Snooze Button   (+7)  [vote for, against]
Keep yourself from accidentally turning off the alarm.

I'm not sure anyone else has this problem, but stay with me. Has anyone here ever been woken up from a deep sleep by the obnoxious alarm, and wanted to sleep the extra ten minutes that the "snooze button" permits, but instead turn off the alarm and sleep for another hour? I propose a separate button that must held down for a longer amount of time to turn the alarm off. That way, the shut off for the alarm will not be used in lieu of the snooze button. I always do this and go back to sleep for an extra half an hour.
-- ishotpac, Apr 09 2002

Drivers' eye movements measured to test tiredness http://www.ananova....?menu=news.quirkies
[FloridaManatee, Oct 04 2004]

Alarm clock on wheels http://reuters.exci...IENCE-CLOCK-DC.html
"Clocky" [Klaatu, Mar 23 2005]

I also have this problem.

We can get through this together.
-- nedroid, Apr 09 2002


The solution is to set the alarm for ten minutes later - and then GET UP when it rings.

Going to sleep early helps.
-- neelandan, Apr 09 2002


Ten minutes later? I usually go for at least 30. It also helps if the alarm clock is some unknown number of minutes ahead of real-world time...
-- ickle me, Apr 09 2002


Hitting the snooze button is something I will probably do even if I set the alarm ten minutes later. It's more of a habit that I have adapted in order to let me have some time to wake up in the morning.

I like this idea, as I experience this problem frequently.
-- Pseudonym #3, Apr 09 2002


Snooze buttons should be outlawed, if you ask me. The real problem is that alarm clocks are too easy to turn off. There should be a much more complex mechanism for shutting off the noise - something that requires you to be fully awake and at attention (perhaps something like one of those sliding squares puzzles).
-- DrBob, Apr 09 2002


When I was a younger lad, I was adept at shutting off the alarm clock without waking up the slightest.

The solution is simple. Place the clock across the room, so that you have to get out of bed to shut it off. And close your bedroom door if you sleep in the buff.
-- waugsqueke, Apr 09 2002


Baked : My alarm clock has a large snooze button on the top, which is easy to hit, and a much smaller one on the front which can't be succesfully switched off through hitting. The only way to switch the alarm off is to phisycally hold the clock in your hand when you put the alarm off.
-- [ sctld ], Apr 09 2002


waugs, to take your idea a step further, put the alarm clock further away yet, at your neighbors house, and have them call you when it goes off.
-- bristolz, Apr 09 2002


[sctld] do you mean physically or psychically ?
-- lubbit, Apr 09 2002


Bris, after I wrote that, I saw your annotation in "alarm clock on wheels" - ironic.
-- waugsqueke, Apr 09 2002


I'm like waugs -- had that ability in teen years to turn off alarms without waking up. Also found solution was to put alarm clocks across the room -- or even in the next room. If you like the 10 to 30 minute "sleep" period, then get a dual-alarm clock or use 2 alarm clocks, with the alarm times an appropriate period apart from each other.

In the years since the teen ones, I've trained myself so well with using multiple alarm clocks and differing times that I now will usually wake up about a minute or two before the first alarm goes off. But I still can't get to sleep comfortably without knowing that 2 or more alarms are set.

One final note: "idiot proof" is a worthy design intent, but is never really achievable. No matter how simple or foolproof something is, there's always at least one person dumb enough to muck it up. And, idiot-proofing is pursued too far, then usability may actually diminish for the majority of potential consumers.
-- quarterbaker, Apr 09 2002


//alarm clock on wheels//

Seems to have been baked <link>. It never ceases to amaze my how many of the ideas found here become baked.
-- Klaatu, Mar 23 2005


My alarm clock has a HUGE snooze button, and turning it off is fiddly. Baked.
-- moomintroll, Mar 23 2005



random, halfbakery