If you’re trying to change your iPhone’s snooze time from the default nine minutes — that’s right, it’s always nine minutes from the time you press snooze until the alarm starts going again — but can’t work out how to do it, it’s because there’s a very good reason. You can’t.
Apple has always stuck to the traditional nine-minute snooze time with all its iOS iterations. This is not helpful if you want a longer time period to wake up in the morning, but worry not: We’ve come up with three cunning workarounds that let you buy yourself more time when your dreaded alarm goes off.
But wait: Why is the iPhone’s snooze time nine minutes?
We’ve previously looked into why the default snooze time around the world is nine minutes. TL;DR: The main theory behind why the snooze period was set to nine minutes is a technical one. The snooze function had to be worked in around the existing gearing of a small alarm clock, and keeping the time period as high as it could go while remaining in single digits is said to have presented a more logical technical solution.
The secondary reason, which may be due more to user experience, is that nine minutes is a satisfactory time for a brief rest. If you get past the 10-minute mark, your body may start to fall into a deep sleep, making waking up again more unpleasant.
In a completely programmable digital era, the fact that snooze is set to a default (and in the case of the iPhone, an unchangeable default) nine minutes is what is described as a “nostalgic artificial standard.”
In other words, it’s either an homage to how things have traditionally been done, or an if-it-ain’t-broke-then-don’t-try-to-fix-it type scenario. If that reasoning isn’t good enough for you and you still want longer than nine minutes of respite, read on for our three workaround solutions.
Workaround one: Set multiple iPhone alarms
The simplest way to give yourself a longer snooze time is to set multiple iPhone alarms. In our scenario, we need to get up at 7 a.m. but want a warning alarm to sound at 6:45 a.m. to give us a chance to come round before we have to actually physically get up.
Set your first iPhone alarm to 6:45 a.m., making sure snooze is toggled off.
Image: screengrab: amy-mae turner
Set a second iPhone alarm to 7 a.m. Again, ensure snooze is not activated.
Image: Screengrab: Amy-mae turner
This means you get two alarms, one at 6:45 a.m. to give you a warning that it’s nearly time to get up, and one at 7 a.m. indicating you have to shake that booty out of bed.
Workaround two: Use a long song as your alarm tone
This won’t work for everyone, and certainly isn’t suited to people who can easily fall back into a deep sleep after their alarm goes off, but if you’re the type that just dozes when your initial alarm sounds, you could change your alarm tone to a long song. This way, when the music stops, you’ll know it’s time to get up. Here are 10 songs from a variety of genres that are all longer than nine minutes.
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The Stone Roses, “Fool’s Gold” (9:53)
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Lynyrd Skynyrd, “Free Bird” (10:07)
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The Doors, “The End” (11:43)
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Orbital, “Chime” (12:46)
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Flowered Up, “Weekender” (12:53)
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Pink Floyd, “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” (13:22)
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Gillian Welch, “I Dream a Highway” (14:14)
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Jimi Hendrix, “Voodoo Chile” (15:00)
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The Velvet Underground, “Sister Ray” (17:28)
Once you’ve purchased your chosen song and downloaded it to your iPhone in the usual way, you simply need to set your alarm to play that song. To do this, go into your Clock app and tap edit, then tap on the alarm you want to change from a tone to music.
Halfway down the screen, you’ll see the option to change the alarm’s “Sound.” Tap this. In the next screen, tap the “Pick a song” option.
Image: Screengrab: amy-mae turner
Your iPhone will now bring up all your music options. Simply tap through to find and select the song you want to wake to. Ensure you have snooze toggled to off for this option.
Workaround three: Use a free iPhone alarm clock app that is customizable
Your final option is to simply bypass your iPhone’s clock app and download a free, third-party alarm clock app, of which there are loads to choose from.
We’ve opted to go for the free, ad-supported, succinctly named Alarm Clock app. Its user interface is very similar to your iPhone’s Clock app.
Once you’ve downloaded the app and are in the process of setting your alarm, look for the “Advanced” option toward the bottom of your screen. Tap this. In the next screen, tap on “Snooze Interval.”
Image: screengrab: amy-mae turner
Tap this, then select how many minutes you’d like your iPhone snooze time to be. Sweet dreams!