For those of you unfamiliar with alarm clocks, they are a reliable source for waking yourself up before facing the cold world. Although staying under the covers is usually ideal, these devices bring you back to reality once you have spent enough time in dreamland.

Most alarm clocks will have the handy dandy snooze button. Some people use this button countless times in the morning, while others have never used this feature. Whether the alarm is on your phone, or not, the snooze is an option.

Unless you are being woken up by someone else, you own an alarm clock of some sort. Some people may use their alarm multiple times in the same morning, while others never hit the snooze button.

According to the sleep review, there have been studies done by the French tech company, Withings, regarding the snooze button. From their studies, they concluded that 57 percent of Americans hit the snooze button on their alarm clocks.

There are many opinions surrounding the usage of the alarm clocks. People have negative opinions because of their own personal experiences.

“I set an alarm clock to get up for school, but I get up before my alarm clock gets the chance to go off,” said Gianna Cabral. ¨What is the point of having one if I’m already waking up on my own?”

Although alarm clocks may not work for everyone, they do allow you to sleep at ease knowing they won’t oversleep. For some people, though, the alarm clock they have may not be loud enough to wake them from their deep slumber.

“I set eight alarm clocks in the morning starting at 4 am,” said senior Rosie Favazza. ¨I still have a friend call me and my mother yell at me to wake up because I sleep through them.¨

According to electric alarm clock, time-keeping has been important to people for over 2,000 years. The first time keeping device, the sundial, was used during ancient times. This clock was kept outside and away from anything obstructing its vision of the sun. The sun would cast a shadow as the day went on. Although this was probably the most accurate clock that did not need programming, it was not capable of waking anyone up.

The next big breakthrough in time-keeping was the hourglass, a new clock relying entirely on gravity. This was more like a stopwatch that was only capable of measuring one specific amount of time. Again, this one does not have the ability to wake people up, so what’s the point?

Flash forward and an alarm clock was finally born. Levi Hutchins made a personal alarm clock that went off everyday at four in the morning. By 1787, his wondrous creation would alarm him every morning and soon the rest of the world.

About half of a century later, Antoine Redier patented the first adjustable alarm clock. This gave the user the option of picking the hour they would like to wake up. This led to the modern alarm clock, in both digital or analog styles.

Alarm clocks are an invention that changes the way we begin our day, keeping us on schedule one rude awakening at a time.