Alarming events

It's a weekday morning, and the sunlight pierces the curtains, lighting the bed. There you are, sleeping peacefully, drifting away as if floating on clouds.

The alarm clock hasn't gone off, so you still have time before you need to get up. Reaching out one sleeping hand, you grab the alarm clock and squint at its face in the morning light.

Suddenly you start up like you've been shocked. "The damn clock didn't work again!" As you desperately throw on clothes and scramble to get to work on time, unwashed and hungry, you wonder whether the clock really failed, or you whacked the clock off when it sounded without even realizing it.

Don't want this to happen again? Try one of the alarm clocks below. But be warned, some of them will make you pay a high price for lying in.  

1.Money or Sleep: Money Shredder Alarm Clock

This clock really makes you pay the price for sleeping in. It looks ordinary, a simple white box with a transparent plastic cover. But before you go to bed, you have to insert a genuine $100 bill to set the clock. No word on a cheaper 100 yuan version, alas. And once it goes off, if you don't turn it off in time, it will shred your money into strips.

2.Time to Explode: Defusable Alarm Clock

It might be hard to stay calm when you open your eyes and see a bomb on your end table. Designer Mike Krumpus made this look exactly like a real bomb.

Besides the regular functions of a usual clock, this one has a special additional mode: bomb disposal. The clock has four wires with different colors; one stops the alarm, two are useless, and the last sets off the bomb. Every morning the colors are different, and you only have 10 seconds to decide which to pull out. The wrong choice results in a gigantic "explosion" of sound that may bring angry neighbors knocking.

3.The Silent Lamb: Silence

As the name implies, alarm clocks are noisy! Sometimes the alarm doesn't wake up its owner, but instead starts innocent partners, neighbors or roommates from their sleep. Johan Brengesjo designed this "alarm clock," named Silence, to avoid this problem. Instead of using sound, it wakes you up through the sense of touch. The clock comes with a wireless bracelet that you wear on your wrist at bedtime. At the appointed time, it starts to constrict around your wrist. If you want to snooze a little longer, you have to shake your arm, but the longer you snooze, the more shakes it will take.

4.Run, Clock Run: Clocky

This may be the foxiest alarm clock in existence. It has two huge wheels surrounding it, and when it goes off, it runs off the table and seeks somewhere in the room to hide, ringing all the way. To stop its screech, you have to get up to find its hiding place. And don't expect to find it where it was yesterday, since Clocky knows to change places every time. There are similar versions that can fly or dangle higher and higher off the ceiling.  Maybe you need a ladder to catch them.

5.Start The Day Happy: Smile Alarm Clock

The purpose of this alarm clock is to "Start the day with a smile!" Sounds sweet, doesn't it? I suppose it is, as long as you are comfortable with grinning at a cold black screen, with your mind unclear and eyes half-closed. This alarm clock has a facial recognition function. This greedy clock won't stop demanding until you give it a beautiful smile, as wide as the software can recognize.

　　6.Genius Naps:  IQ Alarm Clock

This clock is as big as an iPad, with a touch screen that presents questions one by one when it begins to ring. The clock is more like an examiner than an alarm clock. It's no use shouting at it to make it shut up. In order to turn off its harsh noise, you'd have to answer three puzzlers posed by the clock correctly. Luckily, designer Oliver Sha was kind enough to leave some leeway, as you can set your own questions to replace those offered by the clock. If I were you, I would set only one question: Are you sleepy?

7.Clocking In The Gym: Shape Up!

The Shape Up! clock looks and works like a dumbbell. It'll force you into exercise whether you like it or not, since the only way to turn it off is to lift the dumbbell 30 times. It's a good way to get into the habit of exercising every morning, even if it does leave your arms aching.

8.The Power of the Public: Okite

This iPod app serves as an effective alarm clock, though its methods are sneaky. It doesn't shout loudly to wake up your neighbors or force you to answer quiz questions. No, it seems very quiet and conventional, save that if you don't turn it off in time, it posts shaming messages on your Twitter or Weibo account. Want to keep your good reputation? Better get up immediately. Fortunately, it's only available in Japanese at present, so unless your friends are skilled linguists, you're safe for now.