Your reflexes are never faster than when your morning alarm goes off - *Beep beep* - *Smash* - just nine more minutes please.
That nine minutes then passes in one single blink so you hit it again and then you're late for work.
The extra sleep was worth it.
But why nine minutes on every single alarm (except Android which is sometimes 10), whether it's an iPhone or an analogue or digital clock?
The answer dates back to before digital conquered the world (and you could adjust the snooze time on modern digital devices) and the snooze button was invented back in the 1950s, according to TED .
TED writes that back then 'mechanical clocks were all the same on the inside. Hence the teeth of the new snooze gear had to be able to connect with already existing gears in the mechanics. The choice was to either set the snooze to 9 minutes and a few seconds or a little more than 10 minutes. Back then it was said that a snooze time of 10 minutes would be too long because people would be able to drift back into sleep.'
Naturally the clock makers went for nine minutes as they thought that if people fell asleep for 10 minutes they'd wake up groggier and grumpier and as a result would nullify the purpose of the snooze option.
Fast forward to today and the default snooze option on the iPhone is still nine minutes because it was Apple's way of paying homage to the history of the analogue clock.
You can now change the length of 'snooze' but be warned, the longer you extend that time the more miserable - and late - you are likely to be.
