Why Is It Unhealthy to Hit Snooze Once You Hear Your Alarm Clock? Expert Explains

Hearing the sound of the alarm clock, especially when you still feel sleepy, is unwelcoming, and sometimes, it's very tempting to hit the snooze button. However, an expert discourages you from doing so.

Why You Shouldn't Hit the Snooze Button

When you hit snooze, you can extend your sleep for another five or 10 minutes. However, contrary to your expectation that it will leave you feeling better, it won't. It's even unhealthy.

According to Azizi Seixas, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, our brains may initiate a new sleep cycle during the five to eight minutes between pressing the snooze button and the alarm again. This new cycle usually consists of light sleep.

However, since it throws off the body's regular sleep-wake cycle, this fragmented sleep can be troublesome because it can induce sleep inertia, which is the sleepy, disoriented feeling one experiences when one wakes up from deep sleep. The groggy and disoriented feeling

You will be in the later stages of a sleep cycle by the time the alarm goes off when sleep becomes restorative. The "fight or flight" reaction is triggered by this abrupt disturbance, which raises our heart rate and blood pressure. Recurring alerts encourage your body to perceive a real threat, which causes it to release more cortisol, also referred to as the stress hormone.

A single snooze could make you feel a little sleepy, but setting many alarms daily can cause more significant issues down the road.

"Over time, accumulated sleep disruptions can lead to feelings of fatigue, reduced productivity, increased risk of poor health outcomes and may serve as a risk factor for chronic health conditions like unhealthy glucose levels, elevated blood pressure and pressure on the heart which can lead to acute events like stroke and heart attacks," Seixas said.

Katherine Hall, a sleep psychologist at online bedroom retailer Happy Beds, shared the same sentiment. According to her, double alarm disruption subjects the body to undue stress.

"During those precious five to eight minutes between the snooze button and the blare of the alarm, our brains start to undergo a disruptive process," Hall said.

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How To Help Yourself Get Up As Soon As Your Alarm Clock Goes Off

Seixas suggests exposing yourself to light to help you respond to your alarm clock well. Light exposure can regulate your body's internal clock and improve your wakefulness. A light therapy lamp or blue light to activate the body helps if you live in a more temperate climate.

Hall recommends the use of a sunrise alarm clock. This clock works like the sun by gradually intensifying the light for a gentle awakening, just like how the body responds to light.

"This gradual start allows for a more calming awakening which is less likely to leave you feeling groggy," Hall added.

She added that the body's internal clock, the circadian rhythm, is greatly influenced by the experience of fake sunlight in the morning. Sunrise alarms can help you sleep better by aligning your internal clock with the outside world, which will make it simpler to go to sleep and wake up at the same time each day.

There are advantageous mental effects as well. Having a peaceful wakeup instead of a startling alarm clock instills a sense of peace and well-being in your morning routine and lifts your spirits.

Hall recommends that you don't press snooze and set multiple alarms. Choose a calming alarm clock tune and place your phone away so you can get out of bed to reach it.

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Check out more news and information on Sleep in Science Times.