Before researching your answer, we would have thought it's because nine minutes is the approximate length of time it takes to fall back asleep before being roused by the piercing beep of the infernal alarm clock.Posted by yirga at November 13, 2004 06:43 PMBut as it turns out, it's really all a matter of mechanics. Back in 1956 when the snooze button was first introduced, alarm clocks had standardized gears. The snooze gear had to mesh with the teeth of the other gears. Due to the configuration of the gears, a nice, round 10-minute snooze cycle was out of the question, so the engineers had to choose between nine minutes or 10-plus minutes. As we all know, punctuality is a virtue, so the engineers went with nine minutes.
Various attempts have been made to change the nine-minute snooze cycle -- manufacturers have tried five, seven, and ten minutes, but a nine-minute snooze has become the unofficial standard.