The band teacher at Mead High School in Spokane, Wash., could have woken a student sleeping in his class with a simple tap on the shoulder, but it would not have been nearly as fun.

Instead, the teacher gave the okay for one of his students to wake his classmate with a loud smash of the cymbals in his ear, proving that you should never, ever fall asleep in band class.

"Everybody in the class was laughing," said Bryson Roberts, the 16-year-old Mead High sophomore and tuba player who had the foresight to capture his classmate's loud wake-up call and post it to YouTube.

The sleepy student was David Remsen, also a tuba player, who, according to Roberts, fell asleep during their third period band class around 10:45 a.m. one day last month. Remsen, who could not be reached today by ABCNews.com, put his head down while the wind ensemble was rehearsing.

Next thing he knew, the wind ensemble was quiet, replaced by a chaotic bang.

"He was very surprised," Roberts said. "He often sets his head down, but nothing like that had been done before so he was surprised."

The idea came from the teacher, but it was another student who banged the cymbals after being told to "go for it," according to Roberts.

Remsen, for his part, kept a good humor about the whole thing and, contrary to concerned comments on YouTube, did not suffer any hearing damage.

"Not at all," said Roberts. "He thought it was pretty funny."

Remsen, though, is taking steps to make sure it doesn't happen again.

"He's been drinking caffeine before he comes to class," Roberts said.