Waking up must be more of a problem among college students than we suspected. How else to explain the sudden rash of college students reinventing the alarm clock?

Exhibit A – Students at Brown University came up with an alarm clock that wakes you during the lightest phase of your sleep cycle so you’re more likely to start the day refreshed and alert. SleepSmart measures your sleep cycle by monitoring your brain waves. Yes, this means you get to sleep wearing a comfy, stylish headband covered with electrodes. You tell the alarm clock the latest time you want to get up and it wakes you during the last light phase of sleep. Should it miss that phase, it writes you an excuse and signs it with your mother’s name.

Exhibit B – Meanwhile at MIT, a graduate student came up with Clocky, a robotic alarm clock on wheels that rolls away and hides after you hit the snooze button so you have to get out of bed and find it before you can throw it against the wall to smash it. The inventor said when she designed Clocky she wanted it to remind users of a troublesome pet. Expect to see many of them tied up in burlap sacks and abandoned by the side of the road.