The default snooze time on iPhone alarms is nine minutes. It’s an old-school tradition that calls back to the era of analog clocks.
You can work around this limitation by setting multiple alarms with different snooze times, or use a third-party app to customize your alarms’ snooze times.
Sleep Cycle
Changing your iPhone snooze time is an easy way to customize your alarm settings. You can choose from a variety of snooze lengths, as well as disable the feature altogether.
The default snooze time on your iPhone is nine minutes. While this may seem a bit excessive, there is actually a good reason for it.
Many old-school mechanical alarm clocks used a snooze time of nine minutes to prevent people from getting frustrated and waking up early in the morning. This is because if people were to fall asleep for 10 minutes, they would wake up groggier and more tired than when they originally went to sleep, which would defeat the point of having the snooze option in the first place.
Apple hasn’t provided a clear explanation for why it decided to set this as the default, but some unofficial sources claim that it was a way to pay homage to the history of analogue clocks. However, this snooze time has a biological reason as well, since it’s the optimum amount of time for people to fall back to sleep without waking up again.
If you are someone who frequently sleeps deeply, it might be best to change the snooze time to a longer period. You can do this by switching your iPhone’s sound to a song of greater than nine minutes in length.
To do this, open your Clock app and tap edit. Once you’ve selected the alarm you want to alter, you can select “Sound” from the options at the bottom of the screen.
This will bring up a list of all your music and allow you to select which one you’d like to use as the snooze sound. You can even switch to a different song by tapping “Music.”
In addition to changing your snooze time, you can also change the alarm’s tone from its typical, muffled alarm sounds. This is a great option if you find that your phone’s default alarm is too loud to sleep through and isn’t the most pleasant sound to wake up to in the morning.
Clock App
If you’re tired of the iPhone’s default 9-minute snooze time, there are a couple of workarounds to get you around it. The first is to set multiple alarms with longer time gaps in between. This will automatically increase your snooze time to whatever interval you like.
You can also use a third-party app to change the snooze time on your iPhone. There are several free alarm apps that allow you to set custom snooze times.
One of the most popular is Sleep Cycle, which uses patented sound technology to track your sleep and let you adjust your snooze time to fit your needs. Another is Tweak, which lets you alter your iPhone’s snooze time to suit your personal preferences.
Changing your snooze time is an excellent way to get more rest without overdoing it and negatively impacting your quality of sleep. Plus, it helps you wake up refreshed and ready for the day.
The snooze time on your alarm isn’t the only thing that can help you fall asleep more quickly, but it certainly plays a role in it. Research has shown that hitting the snooze button before your alarm goes off can have a negative impact on your sleep patterns, so it’s best to avoid doing it.
To change the snooze time on your alarm, open up your Clock app and switch to the Alarm tab. Next, tap the Plus (+) icon to add a new alarm.
Once you’ve made your alarm, toggle off the Snooze option and save it. Repeat this process to create additional alarms at whatever interval you like.
If you’d rather not spend the extra effort to set up a dozen alarms, then there’s a simpler option: simply change your alarm tone to music instead. This option isn’t suitable for everyone, but it can be a great option if you’re someone who likes to drift off into a deep sleep when the initial alarm goes off.
Then, when you’re ready to get up in the morning, simply set your original alarm and turn on your music-based snooze timer. This will give you a break from Apple’s generic alarm tones and provide a more relaxing way to wake up in the morning.
Third-Party Apps
If you’re a heavy sleeper or you typically need a little extra time in the morning to wake up, changing the snooze time on your iPhone can be a great way to get more quality sleep. But the standard snooze time on Apple’s alarm clocks is nine minutes, which can be hard to get used to.
Luckily, there are some workarounds you can try to change the snooze time on your iPhone without jailbreaking your device. The simplest one is to set multiple alarms that all come with a longer gap between their wake-up sounds.
First, you’ll need to find a suitable app that supports multiple alarms. There are a few options available to choose from, including the free ad-supported Alarm Clock HD and the succinctly named Alarm Clock for Me.
With these apps, you can change your snooze time to intervals between 1 and 60 minutes. Moreover, they come with many unique features that make it easier for you to get out of bed.
For example, Alarmy has a lot of different missions that you can complete in order to wake up, like taking a photo of your room or solving a few math problems. However, you have to remember that these missions will be triggered every time your alarm goes off.
Another option is to use a third-party app that lets you customize the snooze time for each individual alarm. You can find these apps in the App Store and are a great way to get a longer snooze time on your iPhone.
To use the app, open it on your iPhone and tap the plus sign at the bottom right corner to create a new alarm. You may have to go through some setup screens but once you get to the main screen, you’ll be able to set your alarm and choose your preferred snooze time.
If you want to be able to change your snooze time for all of your alarms, the Alarm Clock for Me app is an excellent choice. It’s free to download and has a number of useful features. In addition to the usual snooze interval settings, it also allows you to customize your music, snooze mode, and add a note.
Workarounds
While the standard nine-minute snooze time is often too short for most people to get up, it doesn’t have to be. In fact, there are several workarounds you can use to extend or shorten the snooze time on your iPhone.
The first way to extend or shorten your iPhone snooze time is by setting multiple alarms with longer gap times in between them. This works well if you’re trying to wake up early and don’t mind the extra time to be in bed before your first alarm goes off, but it can also be useful for those who are just looking to reduce their overall snooze intervals for better sleep.
Despite this, there aren’t many options for changing your iPhone snooze time directly in the Clock app itself. Instead, you’ll have to either set numerous alarms or use third-party apps.
As for the reasons why Apple has set its default snooze time to nine minutes, there are plenty of theories. Apparently, this was a technical choice that was made back in the days when mechanical gear clocks were all the rage. Aligning the gear teeth to allow for a ten-minute snooze period was incredibly difficult, and so engineers picked nine minutes as a compromise.
Another theory is that a nine-minute snooze was the most convenient number of minutes for those using a traditional alarm clock. This was because it made it easy for engineers to program the alarm without having to worry about adjusting the gear teeth, which would have required a lot of work.
Finally, some people believe that the nine-minute snooze was chosen to give the impression that you had a headstart over someone who slept two minutes late. That may be true, but it’s hard to know for sure.
Regardless of the reasoning, it’s no wonder why so many people find the nine-minute snooze time on their iPhones frustrating. Snoozing can seriously disrupt one’s morning routine, and it’s a good idea to try to reduce or eliminate your use of this feature.