Until a couple of months ago, I lived alone. I have a bedside cabinet and an clock on it, because I hate the idea of having my phone wake me up. As soon as my girlfriend moved in, the first thing she did was remove the clock from the bedside. Because she did it without my knowledge, I almost overslept the next morning, but thankfully, my sleep schedule has been the same for the past couple of months, so I woke up on my own.
When I got up and went to work, she was still sleeping, and I didn’t want to wake her up and confront her about it, and I just figured I’d do it after work. When I did confront her about it, she said she couldn’t stand the tick-tock sounds and it was practically impossible for her to fall asleep like that. Once she told me that, things were never the same with regular clocks, as I started paying too much attention to them, and they started bothering me as well.
So, being the caring and loving boyfriend that I am, I decided to give silent clocks a try. I got a nice model from the London Clock company, and the first night I went to sleep I was pleasantly surprised by the complete silence. I was intrigued if this had any benefits so I decided to read up on silent clocks. I came across a few interesting facts which I hadn’t really put much thought into before:
Apparently, a ticking clock makes you feel like time is running out. And while I didn’t agree with the statement at first, I gave it a little thought, and I figured out that may be true to some degree, as I usually associate ticking with the ticking of a bomb, or that time is running out for something. And while the conscious mind tunes it out, subconsciously – you still hear every tick.
Moreover, it gets repetitive and boring. The monotonous sound of a ticking clock can make you feel like your life is just the same series of cycles, hour after hour, day after day. Some people apparently find that comforting and they don’t want to get out of that comfort zone. They enjoy the predictable and safe life. But is that really the right way to live? Probably not, as Benjamin Franklin once said: “Some people die at 25 and aren’t buried until 75”!
