Can I Ask You Something? Who Invented the Snooze Button, and Why Did We Agree This Was a Good Idea?

Sometimes the biggest argument you’ll have all day is with the person you were last night.

I have a question, and I would really appreciate an explanation. Who invented the snooze button, and why did the rest of us agree that this was a good idea? Somewhere along the way, somebody decided that the best way to wake up in the morning was to have a machine make an irritating noise, silence it temporarily, and then invite it to come back and irritate us again nine minutes later. Somehow, this became a standard feature of modern life, and nobody seems particularly concerned about it. We have accepted the idea that repeatedly interrupting our sleep is a perfectly reasonable way to begin the day.

Think about what actually happens when you set an alarm. Before going to bed, you look at the clock, consider your responsibilities, and decide that you absolutely must wake up at 6:00 the next morning. You aren’t guessing, and nobody is forcing you to make that decision. You know what time you need to leave, how long it takes to get ready, and what you hope to accomplish before the day begins. You make a responsible decision, set the alarm, and go to sleep feeling like a person who has his life together.

Then 6:00 arrives, and apparently, there’s been a change in management. The person who made that decision the night before is nowhere to be found. In his place is somebody who is confused, irritated, and deeply offended that anyone would expect him to get out of bed at such an unreasonable hour. He doesn’t care about the plans, the responsibilities, or the enthusiastic promises made just a few hours earlier. In fact, he would like to speak to whoever decided that waking up at 6:00 was necessary, because clearly that person wasn’t thinking straight. Unfortunately, the person responsible is lying in the same bed, under the same covers, trying to negotiate nine more minutes of sleep.

And that brings me to another question. Why nine minutes? Who decided that nine minutes was the appropriate amount of time to reconsider your entire morning? Not five minutes, not ten minutes, but nine. That sounds like the kind of decision a committee would make after six meetings and a disagreement over the budget. Somebody probably suggested ten minutes, but another person insisted that ten would encourage laziness, so they compromised on nine and congratulated themselves on solving the problem. Meanwhile, the rest of us have spent years participating in a negotiation that never seems to accomplish anything.

What exactly are we expecting to happen during those nine minutes? Are we going to complete some miraculous sleep cycle, recover all the energy we’ve lost, and wake up as entirely different people? Of course not. We’re going to close our eyes, experience what feels like four seconds of peace, and then hear that same alarm making that same noise all over again. This time, however, we’re even angrier because the machine has interrupted us twice. Brother, the alarm is doing exactly what you hired it to do, and you’re treating it like an employee who has deliberately ruined your morning. If alarm clocks could file workplace complaints, some of us would have serious problems.

And let’s talk about the people who set multiple alarms, because that’s a level of commitment I don’t completely understand. Some people have an alarm for 6:00, another for 6:10, another for 6:20, and an emergency alarm for 6:30. By the time that last alarm sounds, the phone has practically become a frustrated parent standing in the doorway. It has already warned you three times, given you several opportunities to comply, and is now preparing to use your full government name. You keep telling it that you’re getting up, and it keeps returning because your previous statements have proven unreliable. At that point, you’re not really sleeping anymore. You’re taking a series of very short naps with commercial interruptions.

Here’s what troubles me most about this entire arrangement. If you already know that you aren’t getting out of bed until 6:45, why did you set the alarm for 6:00? You could have enjoyed forty-five minutes of uninterrupted sleep, but instead you decided to wake up repeatedly just to experience the disappointment of Monday morning five or six different times. You’ve turned a perfectly good night’s sleep into a series of unsuccessful negotiations with yourself. By the time you finally get out of bed, you’re exhausted, irritated, and convinced that the morning has somehow mistreated you.

The alarm clock, meanwhile, has an excellent attendance record. It arrived on time, followed instructions, and completed every assignment without complaint. If only the person who programmed it had demonstrated that same level of dependability.

When Our Intentions Meet Reality

The more I think about the snooze button, the more I realize that the funniest part isn’t really the alarm clock. It’s the strange relationship we have with our own decisions. We can be wonderfully confident about what we’re going to do when the time to do it is somewhere in the future. Tomorrow, we’re going to get up early, exercise, eat healthier, organize the house, and finally address all those things we’ve been putting off. Tomorrow’s version of ourselves is disciplined, energetic, and apparently capable of accomplishing more before breakfast than the rest of us can accomplish all week. Unfortunately, tomorrow has a habit of becoming today. 

That same struggle shows up in other areas of life, and some of our explanations are just as entertaining. We decide to eat healthier until somebody brings a box of doughnuts to work, and suddenly we’re explaining that there’s nothing wrong with enjoying the blessings of life. We make a commitment to exercise, but when the time arrives, we discover that our knees have apparently hired an attorney and are threatening legal action. We promise ourselves that we’re going to spend less money, only to discover a sale so extraordinary that we somehow convince ourselves that spending seventy-five dollars to save twenty is an act of financial responsibility. We’re remarkably persuasive when we’re trying to talk ourselves out of something we previously decided was important.

Interestingly enough, the Bible recognized something about our tendency to remain comfortable long before anybody invented an alarm clock. Proverbs 26:14 says, “As a door turns on its hinges, so a sluggard turns on his bed” (NIV). I have to admit that the picture makes me laugh because I can imagine somebody rolling from one side of the bed to the other while convincing himself that he’s making progress. A door can swing back and forth all day long without actually going anywhere, and that’s the point of Solomon’s comparison. Movement isn’t necessarily progress, especially when we keep returning to the same place.

Now, before anybody starts feeling convicted about needing another hour of sleep, we should be clear about something. Being tired doesn’t make someone lazy, and needing rest isn’t a spiritual failure. Plenty of people are working long hours, caring for children, attending to family members, or carrying responsibilities that make adequate sleep difficult. God created us with a genuine need for rest, and wisdom sometimes means recognizing that we’ve been expecting more from ourselves than our bodies can reasonably give. Proverbs is addressing an unwillingness to act, not condemning people who are exhausted and need to recover.

Still, there’s a difference between genuinely needing rest and repeatedly avoiding something we’ve already decided matters. That reaches far beyond our morning routines, especially when we begin thinking about our spiritual lives. We can intend to pray more consistently, spend time in Scripture, repair a damaged relationship, or serve someone who needs our help. Those intentions may be sincere, but sincerity alone doesn’t turn them into action. James 1:22 reminds believers not merely to listen to God’s Word but to do what it says, because hearing without responding can become a way of deceiving ourselves.

Of course, missing an alarm isn’t the same thing as disobeying God, and not every uncompleted plan represents a spiritual problem. The larger point is that good intentions are only the beginning of faithful living. Sometimes we need to stop making impressive promises about everything we’re going to accomplish and start being more honest about what we’re actually prepared to do. That may require better planning, more realistic expectations, a little self-discipline, or simply admitting that something needs to change. Following through on a small commitment can accomplish more than repeatedly announcing a grand plan that never gets started.

Maybe We Need a Different Conversation

Perhaps the most useful question isn’t why we keep hitting the snooze button, but why we keep making agreements with ourselves that we already suspect we aren’t going to honor. Maybe we need to get to bed earlier instead of expecting an alarm clock to compensate for four hours of sleep. Maybe we need to stop filling tomorrow with more responsibilities than one person can reasonably handle. And perhaps, in the areas that truly matter, we need to spend less time talking about what we’re going to do someday and begin taking one faithful step today.

I don’t expect anybody to throw away their alarm clock after reading this, and I certainly don’t intend to start a movement against snooze buttons. There are enough serious problems in the world without organizing a protest against a feature on our phones. But I do think there’s something valuable about recognizing our own contradictions and being willing to laugh at them. Sometimes a little laughter helps us admit what we would otherwise spend an impressive amount of energy trying to explain away.

As for me, I’m going to make a few changes. I’m going to be more realistic about my schedule, think carefully about how much sleep I actually need, and stop making promises that depend on waking up with a completely different personality. I’m going to remember that the person who sets the alarm and the person who hears it are supposed to be working toward the same goal. With a little planning, some reasonable expectations, and perhaps a little more discipline, I believe those two individuals can finally learn to get along.

In fact, I’m feeling so encouraged that I think I’ll start tomorrow morning.

I’m going to set my alarm for 5:00.

Of course, the person who will be waking up at 5:00 hasn’t been consulted about this decision, and based on our previous disagreements, I suspect he’ll have something to say about it.

Can I ask you something? How many times did you hit the snooze button this morning? And please, tell the truth. Some of us already know what that fourth alarm means.

Think You and Tomorrow-Me Need to Have a Conversation?

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