The Snooze

I am writing this to you today, well this should have been my Tuesday post, so you will get two lovely postings today to makeup for me not doing anything yesterday.

No the snooze is not some ultra cool person that everyone should know. Although it is an ultra cool something that everyone does know. I am sure that every person at some time in their life has hit the snooze button, again, and again, and again, unless you don't own an alarm clock, or were somehow blessed with some waking up ability that I am not. The snooze seems like a necessary evil that no one really wants to have as intimate relationship with, and yet ultimately we do.

I have read a few different articles concerning this snooze button and whether or not we should use it. Like my water article there is no real good answer. Physically I know that it does us no good. Getting that 9 minutes or however long your snooze is set for, is probably more detrimental than helpful. Psychologically however the snooze button can be a god send. It gives us that little chance for hope that our day is going to be that much better or we will somehow be that much better by preserving our present state of comfort and mostly unconscious state.

I hit the snooze button way more than I should. Lately, and by lately I mean the last three days, I have been doing a better job. I know that isn't very long, but at least its a start, and like all good things it has to start somewhere.

I have also read some tips on the snooze button. Namely for me the ones I like are having a reason to get up in the morning and getting enough sleep at night. I have been getting up at five in the morning to go workout. I lay in bed and I want to hit the snooze button, i truly do, but I do not hit it because I know that I need to get up and go workout.

A viable alternative to the snooze is using two alarm clocks. The first thing you do is find out when you should get up. You can figure this out by using this general rule. Your body goes in sleep cycles lasting approximately an hour and a half. So with that in mind you plan accordingly. I need to get up at 5 a.m.. I want about eight or so hours of sleep. So if I go to bed about 9 p.m., I would set my first alarm for about 4:30 a.m. which would be in the seven and a half hour range of sleep. I set this alarm really quiet in the hope that at that time I will be ready to wake up and the little noise from the alarm will be enough to wake me up. The second alarm you setup farther away from you at the absolute last time you can get up and use this as your last resort. This system is supposed to help you wake up naturally and allow a safeguard to make sure you get up in time for your day.

One last thing that I saw that intrigued me. I am not sure how effective it works but it is an alarm clock that has wheels on it. Named, Clocky, it is literally an alarm clock with wheels. It allows you to set the length of your snooze from 0 to 9 minutes. If it is set for 0 you have no snooze and it just will get off your table and start cruising around your room. Again, I am not sure how well it will wheel around, but the notion that you have to get out of bed to chase this alarm clock sounds comical at least.

The snooze is great, but for us here at 365 Fit it needs to be done away with. I will leave you with this thought taken from an interview over at ESPN with Tiger Woods. He was asked how he is able to have done so many great things but doesn't feel like hitting the proverbial snooze button and take a break or a day off. His response was, the way I look at life is: the greatest things about tomorrow is that I will be better than I am today. That is some powerful words and if that doesn't motivate you to be 365 Fit, I don't know what will. Good things.