Alarm Clock Radios

Have you ever wondered why electronic alarm clocks have to go on for 59 minutes or even more when they go on?  Today I was pleasantly sleeping in a hotel in South America when at 5:10 in the morning the alarm clock in the empty room next door went on and it ruined my plans to sleep until late.  Yes, I had to call the front desk so that somebody come running to the ninth floor and disconnect the alarm clock from the wall outlet (if not, the same thing will happen next day again).
So, are these 59 minutes what the average person needs to wake up?  I'm puzzled because it takes me at the most five seconds to be fully awake and if I designed an alarm clock for my own use it will only emit a sound for three seconds and that would be it.
But well, I guess we are all different.