Warning! What I’m about to spew out is not backed by science. This is just another opinion on why you’re the asshole and I’m not.
Early in life I was hard on people who were always late. I’d call them out, tell them they’re self-centered, rude, and it drove me crazy but as I’ve aged, I lightened up a bit on the person who’s chronically late.
I still think it’s a matter of being self-centered, but I also believe ignorance is involved. I’m not excusing it 100% because if you cared enough that you were always late, you could think deeply on why it happens and at least try to fix the problem, but it’s a problem where some of the blame goes towards something you may not be fully seeing.
1st, do you even want to change your behavior? Because if you don’t, there’s no point going on, but if you do move on, you need to change one thing that’s extremely hard for some. Especially if you’ve been doing it your entire life.
Whenever I suggest this, it's usually met with horror, reluctance and completely blown off because they think it’s impossible, but it’s not! All you have to do is…
STOP USING THE SNOOZE BUTTON!!!
Can you do that? Before you say no, let me share what I suspect the snooze button does to you. It's not your friend. Not only that, if you sleep with someone who doesn’t use the snooze button, it’s not their friend either.
One of the biggest arguments I’ve ever had in a relationship was with my 1st wife. She was an avid user of the snooze button, and coincidentally, chronically late for EVERYTHING.
At the time I just made the transition from hosting an afternoon radio show and was moved to morning radio. Morning radio hours are brutal. You’re up anywhere between 2am - 3am and the weekends are the only time you get to sleep in, but my ex-wife had banker hours. Which meant she worked Saturdays.
After about 6 months of her rudely using the snooze button for over an hour every Saturday morning when I was trying to sleep, I literally smashed her alarm clock. Yes, my behavior was unacceptable and childish, but I couldn’t take it anymore. That incident lead to a huge argument which lasted for days, but I won. She stopped using the snooze button, and what do ya know!? She started showing up to work on time.
That’s when I realized how evil the snooze button is.
I had no idea! I was a teen in the 1980’s and smart phones were decades from existing. Most people woke up with alarm clocks. Somewhere along the line, designers began creating alarm clocks with the snooze button, and before you knew it, all alarm clocks came with one, but my alarm clock was on my stereo. A stereo that was located on the other side of the room. I was forced to get up and shut it off, and luckily for me, there was no snooze button. I didn’t have a choice but to get up and get the day going. That started a lifelong habit where the snooze button has never been a part of my routine and oddly enough, I'm usually always on time. If not 15 minutes early.
OK…STOP THE ALARM!
After that last paragraph I decided to do some actual research on this instead of just shitting out something I’m not 100% sure about, and it looks like…
Science backs me up!
As it turns out, sleep science suggests that hitting the snooze button can not only disrupt healthy sleep patterns but leaves you feeling drowsy all day. A complete sleep cycle takes an average of 90 to 110 minutes, with each stage lasting between 5 to 15 minutes. Once you wake up, that’s it. You’re not doing yourself any favors by falling back to sleep. As a matter of fact, you’re making things worse. When you try to fall back to sleep, you trick yourself in thinking your sleeping, when you’re putting your body into a foggy coma that takes hours to shake.
Sleep researchers believe that use of the snooze button trains your brain to think “just a few more minutes” rather than “time to wake up” when it hears the alarm and doing it regularly will likely make it harder to break the habit.
Now back to my opinion.
Actually, my opinion is more logic. If hitting the snooze button leaves you feeling drowsy all day, then doesn’t it make sense that you’re constantly late? And doesn’t it feel good to know that maybe after all these years, it wasn’t all your fault? Ignorance has been bliss, but it’s time to change.
Now what?
It’s going to be a hard habit to break, but sleep researches suggest types of alarms that gradually wake you up with rising music, light or both.
Like the Philips Hf3470 Wake-up Light, Best of all, it’s at the low, low price of ONLY…. $500! Yikes. Click here to see it.
If $500 seems a bit extreme and unrealistic (as it should) you could go with this Wake Up Light for a more reasonable price of $37.99, and with close to 400 glowing reviews, it’s rated perfectly with 5 stars on Amazon. Click here to see it.
For those of you suffering from chronic lateness, maybe it’s time to take seriously the idea that the problem isn’t all you, it’s your snooze button.