Facilitate me reading in bed!

February 15, 2010 10:34 AM

Lamp timer - the opposite of a snooze alarm?

I'm wondering if somebody makes kind of the opposite of a snooze alarm - a lamp timer with a "not snoozing" button for reading in bed. I'd like to be able to set a timer to leave my bedside lamp on for (say) 30 minutes and then then automatically turn off. OK, there are plenty of cheap timers that would do that, but I'd like one with a button I can just tap to turn it back on again for another (say) 30 minutes. I sleep better in the dark and I would prefer not to have the light on all night long when I fall asleep reading. Standard dial-and-pin timers are a bit inconvenient for this kind of use, especially when I'm a bit groggy. And, speaking of groggy, I'd like the power plug to be pretty far away from anything I'd be handling while still in bed. Every dial-and-pin timer I looked at had the lamp plugging directly into the box and the box plugging directly into an outlet. I'm in the US.

posted by lordrunningclam to media & arts (7 answers total)

You're looking for a programmable timer with remote. Several variations exist, likely at major outlet stores.
posted by Hiker at 10:46 AM on February 15, 2010

Did you know they have digital versions of the clunky dial-and-pin timers? I know you said you don't want the plug near you, so this may still not solve your problem, but they do have the "give me some more time" button aspect and they're closer than the terrible cheap timers. This is a decent looking option. There's also this sort of option where you can replace a wall-switch with something like that. Sort of a bigger deal installation wise, but super streamlined.
posted by jessamyn at 10:48 AM on February 15, 2010

My sunrise alarm clock has a sunset feature, and it is great for falling asleep while reading. Yes, very expensive.
posted by grouse at 11:07 AM on February 15, 2010 [1 favorite]

Build your own? Otherwise googling lamp sleep timer gave fairly relevant hits.
posted by Iteki at 11:08 AM on February 15, 2010

If your looking for a 'industrial' solution a timer relay is what you want.
This running in 'On-Delay' mode will do what you want, but you'll have to wire it all up by hand. If your not comfortable working with mains powered equipment I wouldn't recommend this.
posted by Confess, Fletch at 11:31 AM on February 15, 2010

I'm not sure about the snooze button, but if you want the power plug to be far away, you should be looking for 'table top lamp timer'. I've used this one pretty well.
posted by suedehead at 11:32 AM on February 15, 2010

A sufficiently fancy sunrise alarm clock will do this as well as the opposite thing.
posted by clavicle at 11:38 AM on February 16, 2010