More than half of people who rely on an alarm clock use the snooze function. Researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Massachusetts have discovered why this practice is not advisable.
When the alarm blares in the morning, the temptation to hit the snooze button is often overwhelming. However, scientists assert that those extra few minutes of sleep after being jolted awake by the alarm do not help the body recover. In fact, interrupted sleep negatively impacts our overall health and diminishes our productivity.
The Temptation of Five More Minutes
On average, people spend 11 minutes each morning battling the urge to hit the snooze button. Most don’t realize just how harmful this resistance can be to their health. According to the researchers, repeatedly hitting the snooze button disrupts sleep cycles, leaving us feeling less refreshed throughout the day.
“Many of us hit the snooze button in the morning, hoping to catch a few more minutes of sleep. Until now, this common phenomenon has not received enough attention from sleep researchers,” noted lead author Rebecca Robbins.
Dr. Robbins explains that just before the scheduled wake-up time, a person is typically in the rapid eye movement (REM) sleep phase, which is arguably the most crucial stage of sleep.
The REM phase, which scientists refer to as restorative sleep, is vital for memory, cognitive functions, and emotional processing. However, when a person goes back to sleep after hitting the snooze button, they usually slip into light sleep rather than restorative sleep.
So, what’s the solution? Experts recommend setting the alarm for a later wake-up time right from the start and avoiding the snooze function altogether. This way, the REM phase won’t be interrupted, allowing the body to recover more effectively, as reported by the Daily Mail.
Therefore, it’s best to get out of bed as soon as the first (and only) alarm sounds, said Ms. Robbins.
What else did the researchers find?
During their extensive study, Dr. Robbins and her colleagues analyzed sleep data from over 21,000 people worldwide who used the Sleep Cycle smartphone app.
Over the six-month study period, the researchers evaluated more than three million individual sleep sessions. The results revealed that in more than half of the cases (55.6 percent), participants used the snooze button. A significant 45 percent of respondents were the most active in this regard, using the snooze function in 80 percent of their wake-ups, spending an average of 20 minutes each morning resisting the alarm.
Throughout a standard workweek from Monday to Friday, participants were more likely to use the snooze function. Conversely, they used it the least on Saturday and Sunday mornings, as well as the alarm itself.
The team also found that longer sleep durations (over nine hours) were more likely to end with the snooze button being pressed. Those who went to bed earlier were less likely to use this function, while night owls relied on it more frequently.
The snooze button was most commonly used by residents of the United States, Sweden, and Germany, while it was least used in Japan and Australia.
Additionally, researchers discovered that women were significantly more likely to use the snooze button than men.
The findings of the study were published in the journal Scientific Reports.