"I like cinnamon rolls. That's why I wish they made, like, a cinnamon roll incense. 'Cause I don't always have time to make a pan. Perhaps I'd rather light a stick, and have my roommates wake up with false hopes." - Mitch Hedberg
"I love the smell of napalm in the morning." - Lt. Col. William Kilgore, Apocalypse Now
I'm much more excited about waking up when there's some sort of anticipation; I was always the first one to wake up on Christmas morning. But unless someone is cooking your breakfast for you before you're even awake, there might not be much to anticipate in the early morning. I'm also pretty good at rationalizing why that report doesn't really need to be done until the afternoon, or how 10 more minutes of sleep is more important than breakfast.
I'll have a much harder time convincing myself of that, however, if the smell of cinnamon buns is wafting over from my alarm clock. If my alarm clock had a time-targeted scent that would go off maybe 10 minutes before my alarm was scheduled to go off, I'd wake up wanting to taste those cinnamon buns, maybe enough to even make some breakfast. Hopefully enough to not press the snooze button.
Morning Scent Alarm Clocks would work in kind of a Glade Plug-in fashion, with a disposable scent-pak. (Because maybe you can patent "scent-pak", but you probably can't patent "replaceable disposable scent package".) Different scents could be used: fresh grass with morning dew, a girlfriend's perfume, napalm- whatever is going to get you going. Even negative smells -- like a skunk, your grandmother's perfume, or napalm again -- could be used if you respond more to bad smells than to good ones. Or, a more deluxe model could have a good smell to wake you up, but a snooze alarm would let you sleep in scented bliss until the smell of a skunk hit you 9 minutes later. An even more deluxe model could have sounds that were associated with the smell, so that the smell of cinnamon buns could be accompanied by someone calling you to breakfast and reminding you that it's the most important meal of the day. If the scent starts to wear off, or you get accustomed to it, just buy a new scent-pak. Even without the scent-pak, you still have a perfectly good regular alarm clock. But I'd rather have the smell of cinnamon buns too.-- carpeliam, Apr 04 2006 If you put an electic light timer on this, it could work like an alarm clock. http://www.scentsan...m/yasppuelhoai.htmlI was sure they had cinnamon, but found this to be close. [xandram, Apr 05 2006] Halfbakery: Quarter Past Lemon Quarter_20Past_20LemonOne of my favorite titles. Wrist-watch version. [jutta, Apr 05 2006] US Patent 4,645,353 (1987) http://patft.uspto....45353&RS=PN/4645353"A scent clock alarm device is provided which awakens the user with a scent instead of a noise or a light." [jutta, Apr 05 2006] Wake n' Bacon (sic) http://www.mathlete...olio/wakeNbacon.phpSmell and sound of bacon being cooked using halogen lamps. [jutta, Apr 05 2006] Technovelgy: Scent alarm clock http://www.technove...News.asp?NewsNum=69Copied from "Quarter Past Lemon". [jutta, Apr 05 2006] Yep, nietsch is right - smells don't wake you up. http://www.scienced...05/040518075747.htmAlso copied from "Quarter Past Lemon". [jutta, Apr 05 2006] o.k. lets get serious. http://www.first-ai...monia-inhalants.htm [po, Apr 05 2006] PopSci Blog: CES '07: Coffee Scent clock http://popsci.typep...ctual_porn_and.htmlIn part 3 of their 4-part video diary, Coulton and FutureGirl visit the gadgets section. The last 15 seconds show the coffee scent alarm clock booth that the first ten seconds mention. [jutta, Jan 14 2007] Bacon-Scented Alarm Clock http://www.instruct...larm-Clock-Arduino/Baked, in another form. [Wrongfellow, Jun 15 2015] Plug any standard house-freshener into an anti-burglar outlet timer. Find the scent you like and pop it in the freshener. Wake to the smell of a rest-area men's room.-- baconbrain, Apr 04 2006 mmmmmmmm, coffee! +1-- po, Apr 04 2006 Sorry to shoot this down, but humans have no sense of smell while they sleep. That is why your own farts in bed don't smell (unless you are awake enough to be bothered by it). The smell of freshly baked bread does not wake me in the morning, the alarm beeping that the breadmaker finished does.-- nietsch, Apr 04 2006 right [nietsch], i'm not hoping to wake you up with the scent of freshly baked bread... the scent would start about 10 minutes before your alarm goes off, so that, by the time your alarm actually goes off and you wake up, the smell of fresh bread has permeated your room and you don't want to go back to sleep.-- carpeliam, Apr 04 2006 I disagree - I have no proof but I suspect that the smell of toast or coffee or bacon would wake me any morning...
we wake to the sense of light, noise, touch, why not smell?-- po, Apr 04 2006 carp liam? <sniff> fishy?-- po, Apr 04 2006 sorry, but this exists already. its expensive, but it exists. Baked.-- craziness, Apr 04 2006 I love the smell of coffee in the morning...... Smells like ...... Chicory.-- Zimmy, Apr 05 2006 //Sorry to shoot this down, but humans have no sense of smell while they sleep// Are you sure about that? The other night I woke in the small hours to the smell of the stock pot I'd forgotten to switch off. Mmmm, chicken soup...-- coprocephalous, Apr 05 2006 [po], i guess the intention was to seize the liam with some latin, but fishing the liam isn't half bad either. it all depends on where you put the spaces- "carp e-liam" might be a decent alternative.-- carpeliam, Apr 05 2006 [jutta] i guess i can't argue with that patent link- but they didn't call them "scent-paks" so there still might be some wiggle room for patentability.-- carpeliam, Apr 05 2006 wake up and cough the smelly !!-- xenzag, Jan 14 2007 //Wake to the smell of a rest-area men's room.// The last time I awoke to the smell of a rest area mens' room it was - - - you know what, nevermind.-- DIYMatt, Apr 20 2012 random, halfbakery