I love sleep. So much so, that if I have the opportunity, I would rather sleep than go to class. It’s not so much that I want to miss class, but it’s just way too easy to hit snooze and go right back to bed. I’ve tried the usual methods to make it harder to snooze: putting my alarm clock farther away, having more than one alarm at different times, yet it’s still easy enough to remove the alarm when half asleep. Finally, I may have found the solution to my problem, and that solution is “The Turing Alarm Clock.” Designed by Nick Johnson, this alarm clock forces the user to solve a complex, but simple enough math problem in order to turn off the alarm. That extra 20 seconds or so it takes to solve the problem, should be enough for someone like myself to adjust to being awake, instead of the routine of turning off the alarm, that I have become so good at while half asleep. Johnson offers a full tutorial of how to make your own clock and program it and even a video of it in action.

– Terrence Scoville