That’s because sleep inertia-which is that drowsy just-woke-up feeling- sticks around longer when you wake up from a deeper sleep stage, like REM sleep, than it does when you wake up from a light sleep stage, says Dr. ![]() “This sleep fragmentation can leave you feeling worse than you would have if you hadn’t interrupted your sleep cycle with the snooze button in the first place.” “We experience more REM sleep as we approach the morning-meaning that if you snooze, you’re likely to fall back into a REM cycle but won’t have time to complete it before your alarm goes off again,” she says. “Sleep fragmentation can leave you feeling worse than you would have if you hadn’t interrupted your sleep cycle with the snooze button in the first place.” -Angela Holliday-Bell, MD, sleep physicianĪnd the second (and third and fourth…) time you wake up post-snoozing may be even tougher than the first, given that you’re more likely to be waking yourself up in the beginning or middle of a REM cycle, says Dr. The problem with snoozing, though, is that it puts your body through the ringer of awakening in this high-stress fashion not just once but multiple times. While this is not the best way to wake up (that would be waking up naturally or with a gentle no-sound alarm clock), the demands of life might require you to wake up this way, particularly if you have to be awake at a time that doesn’t align with your natural sleep chronotype. The rationale: Hitting the snooze button disrupts your partner’s sleep, causing stress in the relationship.The real-time negative effects of snoozing your alarmĪny noise-based alarm tends to activate your sympathetic nervous system: the fight-or-flight response that jolts you awake with a release of cortisol, which temporarily elevates your heart rate and blood pressure. It might not be a very scientific finding but one survey reported that the more one partner hits the snooze button, the lower the other’s relationship satisfaction. The reason: Rolling over and falling back asleep after the alarm puts you back into slow wave or deep sleep waking from that stage of sleep makes sleep inertia worse, according to a study published in the Journal of Sleep Research. Hitting the snooze button can extend that period of grogginess. During the time it takes to wake up, you experience grogginess and mental fog known as sleep inertia.įor some people, sleep inertia lasts a few minutes, for others it takes much longer - sometimes up to a few hours - to wear off. Quan compares waking up to revving the engine in a car: You don’t go from zero to 60 - or sound asleep to wide awake - right away. Research published in the journal Sleep Medicine found repeated sleep interruptions, which occur when you jolt awake and fall asleep each time the alarm goes off and the snooze button is hit, have the same negative impact on mood and attention span as getting no sleep at all. In fact, Terry Cralle, MS, RN, certified sleep educator for the Better Sleep Council, argues “The little bit of sleep you get in the time between alarms is fragmented, poor quality sleep that won’t make you feel any more well-rested than getting out of bed as soon as the alarm goes off.” “It’s most likely a lack of sleep causing you to hit the snooze button but it’s not a bad idea to rule out other causes,” he says.Įven if you manage to fall back to sleep after silencing the alarm clock, the nine minutes before the alarm sounds again is not enough time to overcome a sleep deficit. Less common disorders like narcolepsy or circadian rhythm issues could also be to blame. Obstructive sleep apnea is one of the most common reasons someone needs several alarms to wake up in the morning or has to hit the snooze button countless times before getting out of bed, according to Quan. ![]() Although a compulsive need to log just a little more time between the sheets after the alarm goes off could be a bad habit, the inability to rise and shine when the alarm goes off could also be a sign of a sleep disorder.
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