You’re not alone if you reach for the snooze key when your alarm goes off each morning. A new study has found that 57% of adults are accustomed to staying in bed until the second, third, or fourth call to get up.
The ubiquity of the snooze button is testament to its popularity – you’ll struggle to find a phone app or alarm clock without one – and this is despite Many warningsThe following are the Experts thatSnoozing is bad for you.
Alarms, according to sleep scientists, could disrupt our sleep cycles and make it harder for us to wake up. Half-asleep, that snooze button never looks more tempting… but silencing that alarm for a few more minutes just lulls our body into the next sleep cycle, only for it to Don’t be late again.
Despite the negative stigma attached to snoozing it is difficult to find hard data. Most of what we know about this topic comes from studies that focus on stress and sleep-related behaviors.
“The medical establishment is against snoozing. However, when we tried to find out what hard data there was, it wasn’t there.” Stephen Mattingly is a neuroscientist, University of Notre Dame, Indiana
“We now have the data to prove just how common it is – and there is still so much that we do not know.”
This study involved 450 adults and used data from daily sleep surveys and wearable devices to find that women were 50% more likely than men to snooze. Habitual snoozers were more likely to take fewer steps per day than self-proclaimed nonsnoozers. They also had more sleep disturbance signs.
We also considered sleep preferences. Night owlsPeople reported feeling more tired and using the snooze key more often. People younger than 25 were also more likely to sleep in more frequently.
None of this is to suggest that there are direct causal links between snoozing and staying up late or being less active in the day – but it shows that while snoozing can feel good for one person, it might not be so great for the next. Past research has shown that we all sleep differently.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, snoozers were more likely to see the positives in snoozing, such as better mood and feeling more alert afterwards – whereas non-snoozers tended to disagree that those benefits were possible.
The top reasons for hitting snooze were that “I cannot get out of bed on my first alarm” and “because it is comfortable in my bed” – but the researchers It was obviousOne in three Americans doesn’t get enough sleep, which is quite telling. Perhaps this is why half of the study participants were snobbers.
These statistics don’t represent a large population, but they do show that a few people are likely to have the best sleep habits. says Mattingly.
“We do not know about the sleep habits of teenagers, low-income households, or any populations that have been historically more sleepdeprived than the participants in this study.”
The study’s team The endInstead of saying that snoozing was good or bad, we emphasize the importance of a wake-up call for our overall health.
In other words, more sleep is the answer, rather than fewer taps on the snooze button – sleep that’s The right lengthRegularly Its scheduleAnd as peaceful and unaffected by the outside world as possible.
As for snoozing, the researchers want to see more detailed studies into its effects with larger groups of people – not just to learn about the potential negatives of hitting the snooze button, but also about some of the positives.
“If you sleep and are more alert when you get behind a wheel to go work, it might be a benefit. says Mattingly. “If it reduces dependence on caffeine, that’s another.”
“It’s not uniformly bad – similar to stress. Some stress is good – that’s why we have the fight or flight response. There are places and times for it. Sometimes, hitting the snooze key can actually be beneficial.
The research has been published in Sleep.
