Thanks, New Hampshire: The Alarm Clock Is Apparently Your Fault Too

There are mornings when my alarm goes off and I genuinely question every decision that has led me to that exact moment.

It’s dark outside. Most normal people are sleeping. Not me. This is literally a screen shot of my alarms

Credit: Garret Doll

And I’m getting up at **WTF o’clock** so I can somehow become a functioning human, get to work and be on the radio by 6 a.m.

Well, we have "a guy from New Hampshire to thank for that."

Meet Levi Hutchins... the man who ruined mornings

Okay, that might be a little unfair.

But in 1787, Levi Hutchins, a clockmaker from Concord, New Hampshire, built what is generally credited as the first mechanical alarm clock in America.

And why did Levi need an alarm clock?

Well, accordning to New Hampshire Magazine, Because he wanted to wake up at 4 a.m.

FOUR.

IN.

THE.

MORNING.

Levi, respectfully... what the hell were you doing?

Apparently Hutchins was a punctual guy who wanted to make sure he was awake early enough to get his day started. So he designed an alarm mechanism that would ring a bell at 4 a.m.

READ MORE: This Legendary New Hampshire Attraction Is Almost 100 Years Old

Here's the best part:

You couldn't change the time.

That thing went off at 4 a.m. because Levi Hutchins apparently looked at an hour that shouldn't legally exist and thought, "Yep. That's when I'll start my day."

More than 200 years later, I'm living in New Hampshire and somehow continuing the tradition Levi started, only earlier.

My first alarm goes off at 3:10am.

At an hour normally reserved for bakers and snowplow drivers.

Somewhere between "last call" and "normal people waking up."

Coffee is a survival strategy and the only place emotionally prepared to save me is the Dunkin' on Central Ave.

And while most of the Seacoast is still dead asleep, I'm making my way into work, putting on headphones, turning on a microphone and attempting to sound like a functioning human being by the time you're alarm goes off and your to me on the radio at 6 a.m.

Could this may be the most New Hampshire invention ever?

Some guy basically looked outside at 4 a.m., presumably during a freezing New England winter, and thought:

*Yeah. I should be awake for this.*

At that hour, the deer haven't even started standing in the middle of the road yet.

You know it's early when **Portsmouth still has parking spaces.**

To be fair, we can't blame New Hampshire for ALL of this

Alarm mechanisms existed in various forms long before Hutchins built his clock, so New Hampshire didn't actually invent the entire concept of waking people up against their will.

But Hutchins is widely credited with creating "America's first mechanical alarm clock" in 1787.

And he apparently wasn't trying to become some 18th-century alarm-clock tycoon. He didn't patent it or turn it into a giant business.

The man just needed something to wake him up at 4 a.m.

Which somehow makes this whole thing even more New Hampshire.

So... thanks, Levi

Every morning when my alarm goes off at "the crack of stupid" and I stare at the ceiling wondering why anyone would willingly be conscious at this hour, I'll now know exactly where to direct my thoughts.

Concord, New Hampshire. 1787. Levi Hutchins.

Thanks, buddy.

Credit: Getty Images

Side note... This one feels almost too ridiculous to be real. According to the U.S. Patent Office... In 1919, J.D. Humphrey patented an alarm clock that didn’t just make noise...it  actually smacked you awake. At the set time, the clock released a little swinging arm designed to give the sleeper a physical nudge. Apparently, hitting snooze was not an option in 1919.

That seems a bit aggressive.  I'll go with Levi's idea.