I was thinking about my alarm clock a few days ago. It’s a simple clock. You set a time, choose whether you want the radio or an alarm to play, and go to bed. You wake up at four in the morning and the numbers are staring, bright as they were when you went to bed. Then you’re swearing to yourself that it’s four in the morning and fiddlesticks, you have to be up in a few hours. Why can’t you go back to sleep?
People who study the art of sleeping well suggest hiding the clock display while sleeping, but I find that impractical. How am I supposed to tell the time upon waking up? With this in mind, I have a proposal. Such a clock may already exist, but a few quick searches turned up nothing.
Build a clock where the display fades after a certain time that the user selects. Ideally the display will return when the alarm goes off, when the clock detects other sources of natural light, or at another designated time chosen by the user. This way the user can sleep without clock interference and still tell the time in the morning.
Clockmakers of the world, get on this.
One reply on “Things that (probably) don’t exist but should, part two”
I fixed this by having a wall clock that doesn’t light up and using my phone alarm instead of a digital clock. Works for me!