By the Rise team · Updated 27 October 2026.
Accounts differ on why snooze is often nine minutes. A Hardware Age clipping from 2 February 1956, on telechron.net, advertises the General Electric-Telechron Snooz-Alarm with about 15 minutes of quiet. That site says GE-Telechron later settled on an around-nine-minute gear. A note there ties the length to nine teeth. Newsweek quotes Jim Katz of Timex calling this an age-old question, and says there is no definitive answer.
In short
The clock in the clipping is the General Electric-Telechron Snooz-Alarm, model 7H241. The telechron.net page for that model reproduces a Hardware Age advertisement from 2 February 1956. Press the Snooz-Alarm button, the clipping says, and the alarm stops for about 15 minutes of quiet. Press it again and the clipping describes one further period of 15 minutes.
The same page says the earliest examples snoozed for about 15 minutes. The author timed one to 16 to 17 minutes, and writes that GE-Telechron later settled on an around-nine-minute gear. That later gear is the nine-minute account. It is not the interval in the 1956 clipping.
A separate note on telechron.net, signed Pappy, describes the gear. Alarm-clock gears of the period were standardised, so the snooze gear had to mesh with the time-set gear. The caption says the snooze gear has nine teeth, and that the buzzer can sound again once the time-set gear passes the ninth tooth. One more tooth, the note says, would have increased the time to over ten minutes. With nine teeth, the snooze would last at least nine minutes and not more than ten. The author is sure the engineers chose nine teeth rather than ten so the snooze would not run past ten minutes. That certainty is his. The note cites no company record of the choice.
Newsweek's Ask Tip Sheet quotes Jim Katz of Timex, who calls the nine-minute snooze an "age-old question". The article then says there is no definitive answer. It offers one theory: a 1956 GE snooze alarm took its nine-minute timing from its gears. Jay Kennan of telechron.net, Newsweek says, describes creators modifying an existing clock and adding a gear that could be set for just over or just under 10 minutes. The article says they figured it was better to undersleep than oversleep. It also says nine minutes is still common, and that many clocks come with five-, seven- or 10-minute intervals.
The gear account is the note above. Newsweek adds a line the note does not use: they figured it was better to undersleep than oversleep.
Reader's Digest gives a second account. A double-digit snooze would have been harder to program than a single-digit one, it says, so designers figured the less complicated design was the way to go. It also says the 1956 Snooz-Alarm lasted nine minutes, and that the iPhone's nine-minute snooze comes from that clock. That nine-minute reading of 1956 is the magazine's retelling. The Hardware Age clipping says about 15 minutes of quiet instead.
Whether snoozing affects your sleep is a separate question. The studies are on is snoozing bad for you.
The lengths below are the ones these sources state. Where a source gives no figure, this page does not add one.
Google's Clock alarm help says that to delay an alarm for 10 minutes, you tap Snooze, and that you can change your snooze time. The settings page says to open the Clock app, tap More, then Settings, and under Alarms tap Snooze length. The help covers the Clock app on an Android device, a Pixel phone, or a Pixel Tablet. It gives no length for other phone makers.
Reader's Digest, updated on 30 November 2021, says the iPhone snooze lasted nine minutes and could not be changed in the Clock app. It traces those nine minutes to the 1956 GE-Telechron clock. Apple's iOS 26 feature list (September 2025) adds Custom Snooze: change how long you can snooze an alarm, from 1 minute to 15 minutes. Apple's alarm guide says you can adjust how long the snooze lasts, and it names Snooze Duration: choose how long to pause the alarm. The guide does not print the 1-to-15 range. That range is in the feature list.
Newsweek says nine minutes is still common, and that many clocks come with five-, seven- or 10-minute intervals. It does not say whether a given clock lets you change the interval.
| Device | Length in these sources | Can you change it? |
|---|---|---|
| Google's Clock app | 10 minutes when you tap Snooze | Yes, under Snooze length |
| iPhone | Nine minutes in Reader's Digest, 2021. iOS 26: 1 to 15 minutes | Yes since iOS 26, under Snooze Duration |
| Alarm clocks | Nine still common; or five, seven or 10 | Not stated in these sources |
The homepage asks what nine more minutes will cost tomorrow.
Rise is an Android alarm, and iOS is coming soon. Snooze length is adjustable, and the default is 9 minutes. You set a snooze price per alarm, and the price is locked once the alarm rings. Pay to Snooze can be switched off per alarm. At a zero token balance, snooze falls back to free.
Tokens come in packs of 10 for £0.89, 50 for £3.49, and 200 for £8.99. No card is charged automatically.
How Pay to Snooze works. See also how to stop hitting snooze, how to wake up on the first alarm, and why you keep snoozing.
Get Rise on Google PlayOn telechron.net, the snooze gear has nine teeth and had to mesh with standardised gears. One more tooth would go over ten minutes. Nine teeth would last at least nine minutes and not more than ten. The author is sure the engineers chose nine teeth to stay under ten. Newsweek says there is no definitive answer.
Google's Clock help says that tapping Snooze delays an alarm for 10 minutes, and that you can change the snooze time. Open the Clock app, tap More, then Settings, and under Alarms tap Snooze length. The help covers an Android device, a Pixel phone, or a Pixel Tablet, and it gives no length for other makers' clock apps.
Reader's Digest, updated in November 2021, says the iPhone snooze was nine minutes and could not be changed, and traces it to the 1956 clock. Apple's September 2025 iOS 26 feature list adds Custom Snooze, from 1 minute to 15 minutes. The iPhone alarm guide names Snooze Duration and says you can adjust how long snooze lasts.
Yes in Google's Clock app, under Snooze length. On iPhone, the iOS 26 feature list says Custom Snooze runs from 1 minute to 15 minutes, and the alarm guide names Snooze Duration. In Rise, snooze length is adjustable, and the default is 9 minutes. Newsweek says nine minutes is still common, and that many clocks offer five, seven or ten.
Snooze length is adjustable, and the default is 9 minutes. You set the snooze price per alarm, and it is locked once the alarm rings. Pay to Snooze can be switched off per alarm. At zero tokens, snooze falls back to free. Packs are 10 for £0.89, 50 for £3.49, and 200 for £8.99. No card is charged automatically.
Checked 27 October 2026.