• News
  • Film and TV
  • Music
  • Tech
  • Features
  • Celebrity
  • Politics
  • Weird
  • Community
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • LADbible
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • UNILAD Tech
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
Threads
TikTok
YouTube
Submit Your Content
This is why the iPhone alarm sound makes you feel like *that*

Home> Technology

Published 15:17 5 Sep 2024 GMT+1

This is why the iPhone alarm sound makes you feel like *that*

If the iPhone's default alarm noise triggers your anxiety, you're not alone

Niamh Shackleton

Niamh Shackleton

google discoverFollow us on Google Discover

If you're anything like me, you'll feel a wave of panic wash over you when you hear the soul-destroying sound of Apple's infamous 'Radar' alarm tone.

It might not even be your own ringtone that puts the fear of God into you, as thousands of iPhone users across the globe will all fall victim to keeping Apple's default alarm sound (yes, I see you lady on the train who forgot to turn off one of her multiple alarms and let it ring out for the whole of the carriage to hear).

But why do we hate it so much? Well, there are a few reasons...

Most people hate the sound of their alarms waking them up in the morning (Getty Stock)
Most people hate the sound of their alarms waking them up in the morning (Getty Stock)

The Pavlovian response

Also known as a conditioned response, this refers to a learned, automatic, and involuntary response elicited by a previously neutral stimulus through classical conditioning, explains Simply Psychology.

Advert

In this case, the learned response is waking up when hearing the sounds of 'Radar' blasting out from you bedside table. Unless you're one of the very, very few people in the world that like being woken up, then this sound will bring on the negative feelings for you as you'll associate it with having your sleep disturbed.

Radar's 'shrill tone'

I think we can all agree that the sound of 'Radar' is hardly the calming noise of washes crashing on the shore, but arguably this wouldn't wake us from our slumbers so we need something a bit more offensive to our ears to spark us to wake.

And 'Radar' is just that.

Tech expert and YouTuber Greg Wyatt Jr explained that the ringtone has a 'short, sharp rapidly occurring tonal sound and a short decay time which is at a frequency of 2-5KHz'.

Apple's 'Radar' tone is a noise that's sensitive to our ears (Getty Stock)
Apple's 'Radar' tone is a noise that's sensitive to our ears (Getty Stock)

Because of this, the sound is very sensitive to the human ear and can be categorized as 'shrill' that's also associated with things like the scratching of glass or nails on a chalkboard.

If you want a more pleasant alarm tone that will still do the trick, chief technical officer of Quiet Mark Toby Saville suggested people try Apple's 'Cosmic' tone which has 'more mid-frequency (circa 1 kHz) content, is generally broadband in its frequency content (even frequency distribution) and has a soft, long decay time'.

Your body block and alarm not being in sync

Unless you work horrendous shifts at your job, you'll probably have your body clock pretty fine tuned by now and more or less wake up and go to sleep around the same time each day and night.

For me, if I know I have to be up for 7am I will usually star stirring in bed an hour beforehand as my body knows I need to be up soon. Since I'm half awake when my alarm goes off, it's not quite as insulting - however, if your body clock is totally out sync with your routine that day, 7am might feel like 3am when you get up.

To fix this, try set up a sleep schedule so that your body becomes accustomed to getting up around the same time every day. That way you won't rely of the deafening tones of 'Radar' each morning to get you out of bed.

Featured Image Credit: Getty Stock Images

Topics: Apple, iPhone, Sleep, Life, Technology

Niamh Shackleton
Niamh Shackleton

Niamh Shackleton is an experienced journalist for UNILAD, specialising in topics including mental health and showbiz, as well as anything Henry Cavill and cat related. She has previously worked for OK! Magazine, Caters and Kennedy.

X

@niamhshackleton

Advert

Advert

Advert

Choose your content:

4 hours ago
a day ago
2 days ago
  • Getty Stock Images
    4 hours ago

    Reason why you're receiving so many scam calls and how you can spot them

    The FTC has detailed some of the red flags to be aware of

    Technology
  • Getty Stock Images
    a day ago

    All the Apple products that are now obsolete meaning owners are no longer eligible for support

    You're likely still holding onto a few...

    Technology
  • Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo / AFP via Getty Images
    2 days ago

    Jeff Bezos recalls wild first question Amazon investors asked him that would never happen today

    Bezos has described the investor meetings as the 'hardest of his life'

    Technology
  • NASA
    2 days ago

    Earth's 'space battery' that stops the Sun from destroying the planet as we know it

    Scientists studying NASA mission data made an interesting discovery earlier this year

    Technology
  • Reason why you should always include ‘Sent from my iPhone’ when emailing someone
  • All the Apple products that are now obsolete meaning owners are no longer eligible for support
  • Apple employee reveals surprising reason why you shouldn't close apps on your iPhone
  • There's a reason why your iPhone doesn't always have the option to decline calls