ZEN TIME PIECE FULL

I usually set the clock to strike three minutes before I want to get up. Now & Zen uses an image of a nautilus shell on its clocks to illustrate this relationship.Įven with a peaceful summons to waking life, I still hedge my bets by placing the clock across the room so that I have to get out of bed to turn it off-there is no snooze button, so the danger exists of shutting the alarm off only to fall back asleep. An aspect of sacred geometry, this ratio is reflected in nature as a logarithmic spiral, such as that found in a chambered nautilus. Both offer the same progressive awakening feature, where the chiming advances according to the golden ratio*. My first was the original Zen Alarm Clock®, but I eventually upgraded to the digital version for its compact form and added features. It is available in a 7-inch case with a B tone chime, but I sprang for the slightly larger 9-inch version that emits an E tone. I have owned Now & Zen clocks since the late 1990s and I don’t know how I could have survived all these years without them. Over the course of 10 minutes, the gong strikes with increasing frequency until it reaches an interval of five seconds-the terminal cycle-when it will chime continuously until the alarm is turned off. When the alarm is triggered, a gong gently strikes the bowl or chime, causing a soothing tone to resonate. Their clocks feature either a brass bowl on a wooden base or an acoustic chime set within a hinged or triangular case. Now & Zen started producing their miraculous alarm clocks and timers 20 years ago “to make a real difference in people’s lives.” Judging by my personal experience, they have succeeded.

Fortunately, I discovered a clock that allows me to arrive at work on time while maintaining my Zen. Then he’d softly call to me and I’d assure him that I was awake…until I’d actually wake up five minutes before it was time to leave the house with no memory of our conversation, yelling at him as I ran out the door for falling down on the job.Īs a night owl who comes alive when the sun goes to sleep, I’ve managed to find employment at a number of jobs over the years where my workday begins in the late morning or early afternoon and ends in prime time, but I still need a gentle “reminder” to get up most days. He would come in my room to get me up after my alarm had either stopped on its own or I’d turned it off and promptly fallen back to sleep. In high school, it was my father’s duty to be my second line of defense. I pride myself on being punctual, but I’ve slept through my share of alarms.

Just this week, I heard about a woman who wore her Fitbit to bed and found that her resting heart rate of 60 beats per minute leapt to 102 when she was jolted awake by her alarm. In a case of Pavlovian conditioning, any time I hear a sound resembling that of an alarm clock, my heart begins to race and I feel a sense of panic.

ZEN TIME PIECE FULL

Rising to wakefulness-even after a full night of sleep-can often feel like clawing my way up from the abyss, so the blare of an alarm in the midst of deep slumber is particularly jarring.

I have written before about the fact that I’m not a morning person. The weekend is almost here, and for most people this means the chance to sleep in without being rudely awakened by an alarm clock.

Zen time piece