We all know that getting up mid-week can be tough.
Whether it’s because you’ve not had enough sleep or just general laziness, there’s nothing worse than your alarm going off and not wanting to get out of bed. Most people will hit the snooze button at least once to prolong the inevitable exit from your warm bed.
But you probably should rethink the snooze button because it’s far worse than just getting out of bed after the first alarm.
ASAP Science explains that by hitting the snooze button you interfere with your body’s process for waking up. If we didn’t have alarms our bodies would be able to wake naturally due to the release of chemicals, a lighter sleep pattern developing and our temperature increasing.
The problem with alarms, in general, is that they interrupt this natural sleep cycle and so don’t allow you to wake properly. It leaves you groggy, causing something called sleep inertia. Throughout the morning though you begin to come out of this state and function properly.
This is where the snooze button can cause even more trouble. If you fall back to sleep after hitting the button your body can fall into a deeper sleep than before and so once when the alarm goes off again your body will be even groggier and more confused than before.
Each time you hit that button you’re bringing on more sleep inertia that only gets worse the more you do it.
The solution is to set your alarm for the time you normally stop ‘snoozing’ at, giving yourself the same amount of time to sleep without the interruptions. Also, getting to bed earlier is an obvious help to not feeling as tired.
So now you know…. and knowing is half the battle.
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