Hitting the Snooze Button May Not Be as Bad as You Think

TIME

Many sleep experts take a dim view of using the snooze button in the morning. But the science on snoozing isn't conclusive.

Transcript

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00:05 I think people pretty widely assume

00:11 that using the snooze button is bad

00:13 because it sort of carries this connotation

00:15 that you are lazy or that you need extra time in bed

00:19 or for whatever reason.

00:20 You know, our society is very oriented

00:22 towards things that happen early in the morning.

00:24 Typical work schedules start at nine, that kind of thing.

00:27 And there's this popular perception

00:29 that it's better to be a morning person.

00:31 And I think snoozing kind of goes against that idea.

00:35 There are a couple reasons why people snooze.

00:43 One is that they find it easier to wake up

00:46 if they have kind of gone back into a half asleep

00:49 or dozing state and are not waking up,

00:51 you know, purely from a deep sleep.

00:54 And the other reason is just that people are really tired

00:56 and when their alarm goes off,

00:57 they're not quite ready to get out of bed.

01:00 One reason that people think snoozing is bad

01:03 is that you are prematurely pulling yourself

01:05 out of deep sleep and replacing it with lighter sleep

01:08 after you go back to sleep.

01:10 There are some studies that do suggest

01:12 that's not that great for you,

01:14 but others find that it can actually be easier

01:17 to wake up and feel alert if you are waking up

01:20 from light sleep instead of deep sleep.

01:22 So it might help with things like morning grogginess

01:25 or like feeling as though your brain needs time

01:27 to turn on in the morning

01:28 if you have snoozed before getting up.

01:30 Another reason that people think snoozing

01:33 is not good for you is that it just signifies

01:36 that you're not getting enough sleep at night.

01:37 Like if you're so tired that you need

01:39 to hit the snooze button,

01:40 that kind of suggests that something's wrong

01:43 with your sleep.

01:44 And that might be the case for some people,

01:46 but several studies that I saw suggested

01:49 that people who snooze don't get less sleep overall

01:52 and don't get poor quality sleep.

01:54 So it's not necessarily a signal of a bigger problem.

01:57 One of the most common sleep tips

02:02 that I hear in talking to experts

02:03 is that you should try to go to bed

02:05 and wake up at pretty much the same time every day

02:09 because that helps your body kind of get in a rhythm

02:11 of going to sleep and waking up.

02:13 Whereas if you are going to bed at midnight one night

02:16 and then 10 the next night and nine the next night,

02:18 your body kind of gets confused

02:20 and doesn't know when it should be sleeping.

02:22 So it can be harder to fall asleep that way.

02:24 There's no one size fits all.

02:27 Like for some people,

02:29 if your alarm goes off at seven

02:31 and you're supposed to get up at seven,

02:32 but you can't get yourself out of bed until eight,

02:34 like maybe that is a sign

02:36 that you didn't get enough sleep the night before

02:38 or that your sleep is poor quality.

02:40 But for people who just find it a more pleasant way

02:43 to wake up and it's kind of built into their daily routine,

02:46 from what I could find, there's nothing wrong with that.

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