Comment by Broken_Hippo | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Broken_Hippo | Hacker News Reader

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This is grossly oversimplified. You can have good sleep and have tech in the bedroom.

I've enjoyed not having to buy an alarm clock for many, many years. A phone allows me to change the noise I wake up to and set multiple alarms at random intervals. I now rarely sleep through the alarms - no more hoping that the alarm clock had a good noise and no more suddenly finding out I no longer wake to it (and yes, I sleep through them: They'd wake up others in the house. Yes, this is even with good sleep hygiene.)

Music comes from tech, too. This is especially helpful to cover up small noises in my house or the apartments around me: The small noises disturb me more when falling asleep than a radio/television going on. (The same has been true of studying: A quiet library is an experience of interruption. So. Many. Noises.)

I've lived more than one place where my tech had to be in my bedroom if I wanted any sort of privacy while using it.

Much better to be diligent about using it. It sucks that the poster seemed to be doing this, and I understand their complaint. It seems to me that it is a software oversight, but like they said, "disturb" is the norm, so we probably won't get real relief until standards change.

An Amazon Echo works great as an advanced alarm clock: the new editions have a visible clock that you can turn off at night, and you can listen to music or podcasts without having to reach to your phone.

Phones are noisy, and phones are distracting: how often do you need to quickly check the weather and instead you read your notifications? Keeping it in airplane mode at night is a big life improvement.

> Phones are noisy, and phones are distracting: how often do you need to quickly check the weather and instead you read your notifications? Keeping it in airplane mode at night is a big life improvement.

Agreed. Phones are noise and distracting. But those are not intrinsic qualities of phones. We have made phones that way, and we can made them any other way we want.

Other people talk about airplane mode. I kind of like it but I'd rather not be disturbed by default, so that wouldn't be necessary.

This is an example of differing wants and needs and personalities.

I have no desire for an echo, and I don't own visible clocks that aren't connected to devices (computer, tablet, phone, etc). Well, save one: An old alarm clock that runs backwards most of the time and has for years. My life only revolves around time when it improves my life - getting to places before they close, meeting with others, work.

I never really need to quickly check weather because it has little impact on my day. I only really need it to dress warm/cold enough when I'm out of the house. This time of year, there is snow, so I can just assume it is below freezing and not raining, and only need more than that if I plan on being outside more than my normal commutes.

I rarely check the time if I wake at night. I do tend to check when I wake up, but I rarely check notifications when I do. Little is so important that I can't check when I get around to it. If I need immediate action, someone will call. Most things aren't giving me notifications anyway because I make it so.

And besides, I can just turn it on silent if I don't want to hear the few notices I get.

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