If you’re like me you wake to the alarm on your cell phone. Long ago are the days of having a clock sitting next to your bed whose only role in this world is to wake you up in the morning and tell you the time before you go to bed. These days we all walk around with, talk and text on and do everything else digital with our alarm clocks these days and they’re rarely out of reach. That changed fast, didn’t it?

But even though the death of the alarm clock removed it from our bedside it still left behind it’s most feared, hated and loved functionality – the snooze button. For some crazy reason the snooze button has leaped it’s way the digital age and is still a major component of any of today’s alarm clocks that now live inside of our cell phones.

Just like most of you I use the snooze button and I use it a lot. Another ten minutes here, ten minutes there and before you know it I find myself literally jumping out of bed, showering twice as fast and sprinting to just barely catch the train. I know I can’t blame everything on the snooze but using it became my drug of choice in the morning and man was I addicted. As we all know, the additional sleep isn’t good sleep but it’s the feeling of getting to go back asleep that get’s us high.

A couple of weeks ago I felt like my struggle with the snooze was getting so ridiculous I did the only think I felt I could — I went cold turkey and removed it. I didn’t even know it was possible but for some reason I was looking through my phone settings and noticed that there was a way to completely shut off the snooze. Without even thinking about it I changed the option and instantly the opportunity to snooze was completely removed from my life.

It was a good feeling although I did feel a sense of fear when I did it. Would I be able to handle this in the mornings? What would happen to me if I didn’t hit snooze a couple of times? I can’t remember the last time I didn’t have access to snooze and wasn’t sure what it was going to be like. The one thing I did know is that it was going to make me get up or there would be some serious consequences, which I actually liked. There’s nothing like forcing a habit.

Now that it’s been a couple of weeks without the snooze I can honestly say that it’s one of the best things I’ve ever done. I’m still not hopping out of bed full of energy and positivity when I hear the alarm but once I shut it off I know that’s it. There’s no going back to sleep or who knows when I’ll wake up again. I like the feeling of having to get up and not having a choice. It’s forcing a good habit on myself and so far, so good. I haven’t overslept yet and it’s only getting easier to get up.

If you’re addicted to the snooze you might want to go cold turkey, too. I’m not sure there’s any other way to make sure it doesn’t creep into your mornings anymore. If you give this a shot, please let me know and good luck, the snooze-less world isn’t for everyone.

 
image credit: fashionablygeek.com