Probably one of the greatest inventions is the snooze alarm. It’s not a very complex device. It’s not helping end world hunger, not stopping global warming. It’s not trying to cure diseases, helping people lose weight, prevent balding, balance the budget or trying to help establish world peace. None of that!
But when I’m in a state of blissful sleep and am suddenly signaled it’s time to wake up by hearing the music or buzzing coming from my alarm clock, it’s comforting to know I can just hit that button and get nine more minutes of sleep. In that moment, I wouldn’t trade that snooze button for anything!
I love my sleep. When I’m in a deep slumber nothing seems important enough to disturb me from that trance. If my bed was on fire….yeah ok I would get up. I wouldn’t be happy about it. I would be less pissed if didn’t need to wake up to avoid getting burned and just be forced to buy a new mattress later that day.
So when that alarm clock goes off and I groggily realize it’s wake up time, my first instinct isn’t to pull the covers off me and sit up. Nope. I go for that snooze alarm! I’ve become well trained to hit that button. Sometimes I do it so fast I don’t even know if that was a song, a news report or that annoying as hell buzzer from my clock radio. Did that noise even come from my clock? Maybe it came from outside. Doesn’t matter. If I hear anything – that button is getting pushed! It’s become an unconscious reaction. Like when the doctor hits your knee and you kick.
I hate when I’m having a really cool dream and the alarm enters it. That’s one of the worst ways to wake up. I’m so into my dream and I’m in such a deep sleep, my alarm has to intrude itself into my dream to get me to realize it’s going off.
Like I’ll be dreaming I’m breaking into an enemies castle to save the beautiful princess from certain doom. I’ve fought an army of bad guys thru the maze of hallways and finally killed their evil leader with a precise karate chop to his head. I’ve unlocked the door where the princess is awaiting execution. I see her. As I run towards her and I’m about to get my well deserved hero’s embrace, she starts singing “Manic Monday”. What the hell???? Oh for God’s sake!!! Quick hit that snooze button!!!!
At that moment the temptation of having nine more minutes of doze time is just too good an offer to pass up. Of course, the downside is those extra nine minutes are never as good as the original sleep that got interrupted. But when I’m in that current state of mind – I don’t care.
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