As the morning bleeping begins we all know that a valuable extra five-minutes slumber is only one press of the snooze button away.

But now the bedside clock is fighting back in the war on sleeping in - a new alarm called the CLOCKY will JUMP off your bedside table and look for somewhere to hide.

Described as ``kind of like a misbehaving pet'', you get one chance to get up before Clocky loses patience and sets off to wheel around your bedroom.

The little critter will then BEEP at you until you get out of bed and find him.

Boston-based designer Gauri Nanda, 27, came up with the idea after deciding she needed an alarm clock that would ``more actively force her out of bed''.

Her first prototype consisted of some Lego wheels and a circuit board, but Gauri has now developed the product for market.

``Clocky was, quite simply, the most obvious way I could think to get out of bed,'' says Gauri. ``As a student, I would hit the snooze bar repeatedly, never realising how late it was getting. I had friends who told me that they would put the alarm clock on the other side of the room, but because they knew where it was, they would just sleepwalk to it, turn it off and go right back to bed.''

The world of science has also given the idea its backing. "The Clocky requires you to do more than stick your arm out and tap something," said Dr. Todd Swick, a sleep specialist at the Houston Sleep Center in Texas. "It will recruit more of your senses - actually getting up, finding it and shutting it off - and convince you to start the day.''

Nanda said: ``The idea is hide-and-seek, to make things more playful.''

It's a neat idea in principle, but whether the cute clock would survive a week without being thrown out the window is another matter.

Luckily a function allows users to disable the wheels.

Clocky is now available in three colours - almond, aqua and mint - and sells for $50. It is currently available in the U.S. but should start bothering UK oversleepers this summer.

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Story by: Dean Murray