Topic: Technology / History
Have you ever wondered why pressing snooze on your phone gives you exactly 9 minutes of extra sleep instead of a nice, clean 10? Turns out it’s not some modern trick designed by Apple or Google—it’s actually a random leftover from the 1950s.
When clockmakers first added a snooze button to mechanical alarm clocks back in 1956, they had to hook the snooze lever directly into the clock’s existing gear system. Because of how the gear teeth were spaced out, making it an exact 10 minutes physically wasn’t an option. They had to choose between roughly 9 minutes or a bit over 10.
Engineers worried that anything over 10 minutes would let people fall into a deep sleep cycle and miss their alarm entirely, so they went with 9. Modern smartphones just keep the standard around as a cool piece of retro tech trivia.
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