Addiction

The time has come for me to admit something I am ashamed of: I've got an addiction. And a serious one at that. I indulge in it daily, sometimes to the detriment of my academic and social responsibilities. Without a fix, I find myself irritable and tired, a reluctant partipant in the hustle and bustle of the world.

I'm speaking, of course, about my addiction to hitting the snooze button, that little rectangle of sleep intoxication which sits within arms-reach of my bed. Every morning, I repeatedly call on its mystical powers to steal away 7 minutes of sleep at a time. Whether I actually fall asleep during that short time is unknown, but what is clear is that after each snooze period, nothing is more desirable than another. That's how I know I'm addicted. Each fix just makes me want more. This insatiable hunger can last for hours, which amounts to a ludicrious number of back-to-back 7-minute snoozes.

I've tried everything to quit. On multiple occasions, I moved the alarm clock to the other side of the room, thinking that the distance might lessen my dependency. But I still found myself getting up, walking over to it, hitting the button, and jumping back in bed without fully waking up. While getting out of bed may have cut down on one or two snoozes per wake-up session, it did not eliminate the act, so the alarm clock soon found its way back to its original position.

Thinking that getting rid of my alarm clock and going cold turkey might be the solution, I shopped around online for another means of waking up or, in the alternative, for an alarm clock with no snooze function. I could find neither. Seeing as how I am hopelessly addicted, though, my search may not have been as thorough as it could have been. The influence of pyschological addiction cannot be understated.

Sometimes, I try to overcome the urge to hit the snooze by sheer willpower alone. This, I assure you, is virtually impossible. My many failed attempts support this proposition well. The problem is that when I wake up early in the morning, the only thing on my mind is more sleep. I can barely remember that a few hours earlier, when I was getting in bed to fall asleep, I vowed to not hit snooze in the morning. That vow feels so distant in the morning that I cannot accord it the respect it deserves in order to come to fruition. Six or so snoozes later, I wake up and berate myself for not having the willpower to just get up out of bed the first time.

Am I doomed to be a slave to those 7 minutes of half-sleep for life? As far as I understand it, the first step in overcoming an addiction is recognizing you have a problem. I've made it this far, so perhaps there is hope against snooze after all.