Handphones, it seems, have replaced the traditional alarm clock in our bedrooms. RIDZWAN A. RAHIM wakes up to this fact.

THIS morning, did you wake up to the sound of an alarm clock or your handphone?

I posed this question to 12 of my colleagues and 10 of them answered phone.

I'll bet if I were to ask 100 people, the impression would still be the same: that alarm clocks have become obsolete.

We live in an era of gadgets — too many gadgets, perhaps — and if we can consolidate some of them, we should.
Really, why add yet another gadget to the phone, MP3 player and laptop that we already have?

So for those two who did not answer phone, what were their answers?

One said she actually has both phone and alarm clock by her bedside.

Pressed further, she admitted that it is her handphone and not the alarm clock that is her preferred method of waking.

Another colleague said she uses neither phone nor clock. Instead, she sets her body clock to wake up naturally, a technique that she claims works all the time.

"For example, if I have an early morning flight, before I go to sleep, I just tell myself I want to wake up at say 5.30am and when the time comes, I'm up. Just like that," she said.

I think it was only about 15 or 20 years ago that the alarm clock was still a common fixture in our bedrooms. Many used to buy cheap made-in-China alarm clocks.

Remember those square-shaped clocks with dials and numbers in florescent green? The ones that went bust after just a few months, but people didn't seem to mind because they would just buy another one?

One common feature of alarm clocks is a huge ‘off’ button at the top. This, to me, is bad design. The whole idea of an alarm clock is to wake people up, so why make it easy for them to switch off the alarm?

Ideally, an alarm clock should have an ‘off’ button so obscure, you need to wake up, wash your face, find a screwdriver and open it up to locate the switch.

(But then, that particular clock would fly out the window the very next day.)

Today, the functions of an alarm clock can be found right on your phone. And you have one main button on the phone for 'off' and another one for 'snooze' for moments when you want an extra 10 minutes of sleep.

The fact that phones are digital also allows you to set the alarm even for a five-minute nap, something you couldn't do with the old alarm clock.

By the way, did you know that the alarm on your phone will go off even when the phone itself is switched off?