The Score

Thursday is my second day off work during the week. (I have Sundays and Thursday off. I explained that some time ago, didn't I?) Anyway, it's the one day of the week I look forward to getting more than four to six hours of sleep. And sleep I do, like a baby.

Well, a baby that snores like a chainsaw on steroids, but yeah, you get the idea.

Which brings me to today's item. Why are the snooze alarms on most alarm clocks set for a nine-minute interval?

The folks at Mental Floss have suggested the following answer: When the first snooze alarm was added to your bedside clock - circa the 1950s - the engineering of the clock mechanism was already a standardized set of gears. The gear that was added for the snooze alarm could have been sized for roughly nine minutes, or roughly ten minutes.

Physiological sleep studies of the period reported that sleeping for ten minutes was just long enough to fall back into a deep sleep, so the powers that be decided nine minutes it was. Because who wants to wake up from a sound sleep more than once a day?

When the industry converted to digital clocks, the nine-minute interval was so ingrained into the consumer psyche that it was simply carried over.

I am reminded, however, of an old Irish proverb: "A good laugh and a long sleep are the two best cures."

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After staying up far too late one night watching football, my husband fell asleep in his chair in front of the television. He looked so comfortable I couldn't bear to wake him and just let him spend the night there.

In the morning, I shook him awake and said, "Get up, it's twenty to seven."

Without missing a beat, he said, "Which team has twenty?"

[Pastor Tim's Clean Laugh]

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WISDOM for YOUR WEEK: "My son, preserve sound judgment and discernment, do not let them out of your sight; they will be life for you, an ornament to grace your neck. Then you will go on your way in safety, and your foot will not stumble; when you lie down, you will not be afraid; when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet." (Proverbs 3:21-24)

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