Figure 1 The First Alarm Clock in the World “Clepsydra”
The familiar alarm clock for us was developed in the 19th century in Japan. Figure 2 shows the first mechanical alarm clock. According to Center of the History of Japanese Industrial Technology, Japanese company Seiko developed it.
Figure 2 The First Alarm Clock in Japan
After that, an alarm clock was developed. And now, many people usually use an alarm to
wake up in the morning. Especially using smartphones are popular. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications of Japan (2016), the rate of spread of smartphone reached to 72.0 % in 2015. Now, many people set alarm on smartphone. People must have overcome oversleeping.
However, there are some people who feel it is difficult to wake up in the morning in spite of setting their alarm. They say “I can’t wake up whatever sound for alarm sound”, In this paper, I state the reason why they cannot wake up and the effect of changing alarm sound.
In the first chapter, I will state my challenge. In the second chapter, I will state the way of doing my challenge. In the third chapter, I will state the result of my challenge. And finally, I will state my conclusion.
1. Current Situation and My Challenge
The reason we cannot wake up is because our brain and body are still sleeping. It is caused because the effect of alarm sound is not perfect. According to Ono, M (2004), the effect of alarm sound continues only 1 minute. Getting up in 1 minute is important. However, we cannot do it. It causes oversleeping and nervous feeling. So, I decided to solve this problem.
How do our brains get up? Of course, it relates to the sound of the alarm. The loudness of sound, the discomfort of sound, the easiness to notice as alarm relate to easiness to wake our brain up.
This time, I focused the easiness to notice the alarm. It varies from sound to sound. There are many kind of sounds for alarm in our smartphones or alarm clock or alarm application. Studying the difference of sound, I can find the effect of sound.
So, my challenge is to find the best alarm sound to wake everyone up.
Then I write the way of my challenge. In the first, I set my alarm in testing sound. I change sound once a week for 8 weeks. In the second, I checked my physical condition before sleeping and after waking up and recorded it. And finally, I did an easy puzzle game and check whether my brain
woke up or not. On each stage, I evaluated the result and added a point.
There are many kinds of sounds. High pitch sound, low pitch sound, comfortable sound, or not comfortable sound. I did a questionnaire for 51 people and 23 people of them answered that they wanted alarm sounds be easy to notice as alarm sound. So, in many kind of sound, I can find the best kind of sound easy to notice as alarm.
2. The Result of my Challenge and Consideration
Table 1 shows the result of my challenge. The sound is evaluated in 5 stages. Then I chose the best sound and the second one, sound 3 and sound 5. These two sounds can be said to be the effective sound.
Table 1 The Score of 8 Sounds Sound
1
Sound 2
Sound 3
Sound 4
Sound 5
Sound 6
Sound 7
Sound 8 Physical
condition
4 3 5 3 4 3 3 2
Puzzle 1 2 4 3 4 2 3 5
Entirety 2.5 2.5 4.5 3.0 4.0 2.5 3.0 3.5
I considered that these two are familiar to me. I used Sound 3 for alarm sound and I recorded Sound 5 in my room. So, it can be said that the sound familiar to us is good for alarm sound.
In addition, it can be said that feeling danger also relates to effectiveness of alarm sound.
Sound 3 relates to the danger that oversleep may have for an appointment. And Sound 5 knocking on the door relates to the danger that the room may be invaded to the room.
So, it can be said that there are important points to choose alarm sounds, for example, be familiar or feeling of danger. However, they are different from person to person because it differs what feels familiar or feels danger.
Before doing this challenge, I thought that characteristics of the sound itself are related to the ease to notice the alarm sound. However, they did not relate so much in spite of its characteristics.
I found that it is important to feel danger than to notice sounds.
Conclusion
Then I found my result of my challenge. My challenge failed because my challenge was
“to find the best alarm sound for everyone to wake up”. One of the biggest reason was that I did not think that there is no relationship between the pitch of sound and ease to wake up. I could find one of the reasons for ease to wake up. However, I think there are other kind of sounds easy to notice and wake our brain up. So, in the next time, I will try the different kind of sound. I found a way to find the best alarm sound for an individual. It relates to feeling to be familiar and feeling of danger. Of course, their effect must decrease with each use. And there may be a sound that everyone feel it familiar and danger.
So, I will never give up doing my challenge until I find the best alarm sound for everyone someday.
What I thought in my challenge is to compare with many results is very difficult for me to find the best one. However, it can be said that there is certain the best sound for alarm to wake everyone up. I want to describe my opinion someday but this time, my challenge project for P2 failed.
References
Hellemans, Alexander; Bunch, Bryan H. (2004). The History of Science and Technology: A Browser's Guide to the Great Discoveries, Inventions, and the People Who Made Them, From the Dawn of Time to Today. Boston: en:Houghton Mifflin. pp. p. 65.
Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (2016). Information and communication white paper fiscal
2016, retrieved November 29, 2016, from
http://www.soumu.go.jp/johotsusintokei/whitepaper/ja/h28/html/nc252110.html
Ono, M. (2004). Mezamashi dokei shigeki ni yoru shinkekkannkei hannnou{Cardiovascular response by Stimulation of alarm}, J-STAGE electro-cardiogram Vol. 24 (2004) No. 3 P 143-148 http://doi.org/10.5105/jse.24.143
