Why scientists say it’s not a BAD idea to hit the snooze button and treat yourself to an extra 30 minutes in bed in the morning
Snoozing doesn’t mean losing, because people who hit the snooze button regularly can be mentally sharper when they finally get up.
The most common reason people give for resetting their alarm clock and enjoying a nap is that they are too tired to wake up, according to a survey of more than 1,700 people.
Scientists conclude that a nap can therefore counteract ‘sleep inertia’: the sleepy struggle to get mentally started in the morning.
Evidence of this came from 31 people who were allowed to set an alarm half an hour before they actually needed to wake up and hit the snooze button three times.
They were tested on their memory, simple arithmetic and a confusing mental task after doing this – and after sleeping until the same time.
The most common reason people give for resetting their alarm clock and enjoying a nap is that they are too tired to wake up, according to a survey of more than 1,700 people. Scientists conclude that a nap can therefore combat ‘sleep inertia’ β the drowsy struggle to get mentally going in the morning
The volunteers, who were habitual snoozers, did better in three out of four tests after being allowed to snooze, suggesting that resetting their alarms made them mentally sharper.
Sleep trackers showed that a nap made people have to get up less often after a deep sleep β which can reduce brain fog.
Surprisingly, despite 30 minutes of snoozing with interruptions from their alarm clock, the snoozers actually got about 23 minutes of sleep.
However, the researchers caution that their study is small and the morning benefits may only be visible in people who regularly hit the snooze button.
These tend to be younger people and night owls, who may go to bed later, so take advantage of even interrupted extra sleep in the morning.
Dr. Tina Sundelin, who led the research at Stockholm University, said: ‘The findings indicate that there is no reason to stop snoozing in the morning if you enjoy it β at least not for snooze times of around 30 minutes.
“In fact, it may even help people with morning drowsiness to be a little more awake when they get up.”
The study, published in the Journal of Sleep Research, presents the results of an online questionnaire completed by 1,732 people in Sweden, the US, Britain, Finland and Australia.
It showed that more than two-thirds of people set multiple alarms or hit the snooze button.
These snoozers were almost four times more likely to say they were night owls than people who never slept, and on average six years younger than non-snoozers.
Researchers recruited 31 people who hit snooze at least twice a week to compare their mental abilities after snoozing or having to get up at the first alarm.
After snoozing, people performed better in a test of mental arithmetic, where they were asked to add numbers quickly and accurately, compared to when they slept until their alarm.
They did better in a memory test in which they were asked to recognize words they had previously been shown.
A snooze also meant that people performed better on a tricky test where they had to name the color a word was written in, such as blue, even if the word itself was ‘red’.
After hitting the snooze button, volunteers completed this tricky task faster after previously seeing the word for a color written in the same color.
But snoozing made no difference in a working memory test, where people had to remember the point at which a box in a grid flashed red.
The apparent benefits of sleeping in after the first alarm had also disappeared by lunchtime, when people were given the tests again.
It didn’t appear that napping made people less sleepy or more joyful when they were asked about sleepiness and mood.
The 31 snoozers monitored in the laboratory tended to sleep lighter after resetting their alarms rather than continuing to sleep.
But despite having to wake up about every ten minutes to hit the snooze button, the effects on their overall sleep quality did not appear to be significant.