Healthy Living • YMCA Health and Fitness
Why hitting the snooze button makes you more tired
25 November 2016 - by Nicole Meredith
I admit it: I used to be obsessed with the snooze button.
Whenever I had to wake up extra early, I’d set my alarm half an hour before I actually needed to. That way, I could hit snooze a few times, savour those last few moments under the covers, and wake up at my own slow, steady pace.
Turns out I was doing my body, brain, and energy levels a huge disservice.
Your body’s hard-wired to wake you up naturally. About an hour or two before it’s time to get going, your internal clock is already getting ready for the big moment: you go into a lighter stage of sleep, your body temperature rises, and increases in dopamine and cortisol give you a mini burst of energy you need to start your day.
But if you haven’t gotten enough sleep, your alarm interrupts all this prep work, giving you that groggy feeling scientifically known as sleep inertia. You’ll feel even worse if you’re still in the deep (rather than prep) phase of your sleep, because your body’s not even close to ready to wake up. (The worst part: because your body temp is still low, your bedroom feels freezing and your toasty bed’s all the more tempting.)
So you exhaustedly hit the snooze button, thinking another ten minutes will help at least a little. The trouble is, when you settle back in, your brain thinks you’re beginning your sleep cycle again. Instead of revving you up with dopamine, cortisol, and some heat, your body’s doing the opposite, and getting ready to sleep long and hard. That means your second alarm is going to jolt you out of the part of your cycle that’s not “supposed” to be interrupted — and you’ll feel even worse than you did the first time.
The more times you snooze, the more confused you’ll make your body, since it can’t figure out if you’re trying to turn in for the night or start your day. Even more bad news: sleep inertia can last for up to four hours after you finally drag yourself out of bed.
So, the real lesson I learned is that it’s not actually the snooze button’s fault; on those early mornings when 10 extra minutes of dozing felt ultra tempting, I hadn’t gotten enough sleep. There are tons of things you can do to get into a healthy sleep schedule, but if you want to kick your snooze habit in particular, I’ll post a list of strategies you can rely on next week.
Whenever I had to wake up extra early, I’d set my alarm half an hour before I actually needed to. That way, I could hit snooze a few times, savour those last few moments under the covers, and wake up at my own slow, steady pace.
Turns out I was doing my body, brain, and energy levels a huge disservice.
Your body’s hard-wired to wake you up naturally. About an hour or two before it’s time to get going, your internal clock is already getting ready for the big moment: you go into a lighter stage of sleep, your body temperature rises, and increases in dopamine and cortisol give you a mini burst of energy you need to start your day.
But if you haven’t gotten enough sleep, your alarm interrupts all this prep work, giving you that groggy feeling scientifically known as sleep inertia. You’ll feel even worse if you’re still in the deep (rather than prep) phase of your sleep, because your body’s not even close to ready to wake up. (The worst part: because your body temp is still low, your bedroom feels freezing and your toasty bed’s all the more tempting.)
So you exhaustedly hit the snooze button, thinking another ten minutes will help at least a little. The trouble is, when you settle back in, your brain thinks you’re beginning your sleep cycle again. Instead of revving you up with dopamine, cortisol, and some heat, your body’s doing the opposite, and getting ready to sleep long and hard. That means your second alarm is going to jolt you out of the part of your cycle that’s not “supposed” to be interrupted — and you’ll feel even worse than you did the first time.
The more times you snooze, the more confused you’ll make your body, since it can’t figure out if you’re trying to turn in for the night or start your day. Even more bad news: sleep inertia can last for up to four hours after you finally drag yourself out of bed.
So, the real lesson I learned is that it’s not actually the snooze button’s fault; on those early mornings when 10 extra minutes of dozing felt ultra tempting, I hadn’t gotten enough sleep. There are tons of things you can do to get into a healthy sleep schedule, but if you want to kick your snooze habit in particular, I’ll post a list of strategies you can rely on next week.
