Banpresto DangerBomb Alarm Clock Makes Each Morning Your Last
Audiocubes is selling this "DangerBomb Clock" from Banpresto which flashes one of three differently colored lights that correspond to three wires. When your alarm goes off in the morning, you have to disconnect the correct wire, selected at random, or face the harsh fate of more alarm. It's just enough problem solving to kick your brain into something resembling actual wakefulness, I'd imagine.
It's whimsical is just the right way and I'd think about picking one up, despite its wildly inflated price of $60, but I actually have a personal phobia of shrill alarm clocks. I think there's something unhealthy about starting each day with a shrieking terror klaxon. Can't be good for the heart.
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I agree with the shrieking alarm thing - not how I want to woken up! I use a radio alarm, set to KBNO AM - Que Bueno! It's nearly impossible to stay in bed with all that upbeat accordion going on.
There's something to be said for shocking yourself awake though - I had an old amazing loud alarm clock once. I generated such a fear of that thing, that my brain would wake me up in time to slap the button about 10 seconds before it actually went off. I was certainly wide awake after that.
Why would I buy a product I was just going to smash to pieces the first time I used it? Nothing like a flash fire of pure rage to get you started on a beautiful day.
I personally never use an alarm clock. But if I was going to get this one it would have to wake me up to the theme from Mission Impossible. The TV show version of course...
Just don't pack this in your luggage for your next airplane trip...
Wow, I need this. I have a bad habit of hitting the off button on the alarm when I intend to hit the snooze button. But I think I'd just forget to reconnect the wires before I went to bed instead.
And just FYI, my alarm clock starts out quiet and gets louder to avoid shocking it's user. It just replaces quiet dread with blind panic.
Err, I meant blind panic with quiet dread. Damn you dyslexia!
After a few weeks I would be able to do this without fully waking up. If this ran through some kind of "Simon" game that I had to remember multiple colors, yes I would have to be awake.
With my current clock I've reset my alarm for a later time without much thought. It was also one of those clocks that didn't have a separate button for changing the hour and minutes and moved slowly. So on several occasions I stood up and pushed several buttons for upwards of a minute to get just 30-60 minutes more, then was able to fall right back to sleep.
I really want a clock that won't let me snooze or change the alarm within an hour of just going off.
Or maybe some damned willpower, ya that would be even better.
That'd be worth bringing through a TSA checkpoint just to watch them shit themselves in glee at actually finding a 'bomb'.
I use two alarm clocks. The first one is this Peaceful Progression Wake-Up Clock from Hammacher Schlemmer. It gradually lightens up the room for 30 minutes before the sound alarm starts going off. It also starts birds chirping (you can pick other sounds) about 15 minutes before wake up time. There are better light alarms than this one, but I found it for $12 on ebay so I went with it. It is so much nicer in the winter to have a bit of light in my room when I wake up instead of having it be pitch black.
But I don't like the alarm sound that it makes and the birds chirping is too loud when I have the alarm volume high enough, so I have the volume pretty much all the way down. It doesn't actually wake me up, but I think it subconsciously registers that it is morning in my brain. Since it isn't loud enough to actually wake me, I leave it on all the time, even when I don't have to wake up. That way I don't have to remember to turn it back on.
Because it doesn't wake me, I have a second alarm for the wake-up part. I hate the shrill of 'alarm' sounds as well, so I have it set to wake me up to NPR. It goes off right around the time they are doing the hourly news update and the local news, so I can just lay in bed for a few minutes gradually waking up and getting accustomed to the low light of my alarm clock, and then I eventually turn on the real light and put on my glasses and get up. It is a much nicer way to wake up. I also like this alarm because it knows the days of the week so I don't have to turn it off on the weekends, and then forget to turn it on again for Monday. It is actually supposed to automatically adjust to daylight savings time as well, but I bought it before the gubment decided to screw with the timing of that, so now I actually have to reset the time 4 times a year instead of 2, because it resets it on the old daylight savings days, which I then have to switch back, and then I have to manually switch it on the actual day. So make sure you buy a newer one if you get it!