To the snoozers out there: It’s okay to hit the snooze button

Love to snooze, but feel guilty about it? Don’t worry, researchers have found that getting up from a snoozed state may actually help you be calmer and more on the ball. — TNS

Hitting the snooze button doesn’t hurt, and might even help one wake up, a new study has found.

While use of the snooze button tends to carry negative connotations, a study published on Oct 18 (2023) in the Journal of Sleep Research found otherwise.

Lead researcher Assistant Professor Dr Tina Sundelin said in a statement: “Those who snooze on average sleep slightly shorter and feel more drowsy in the morning, compared to those who never snooze.”

However, they found “no negative effects of snoozing on cortisol release, morning tiredness, mood, or sleep quality throughout the night”.

Snoozing for an extra 30 minutes “improved or did not affect performance on cognitive tests directly upon rising, compared with an abrupt awakening,” Asst Prof Sundelin and fellow researchers at the University of Stockholm, Sweden, said in the study.

“A brief snooze period may thus help alleviate sleep inertia, without substantially disturbing sleep.”

They were even a little more quick-thinking when they did get up, she said.

“For those who usually snooze, it might even be helpful with waking,” Asst Prof Sundelin told NBC News.

In the two-pronged study, the researchers looked at snoozing behaviour in 1,732 respondents of different ages and walks of life.

Tiredness and wanting to awaken slowly rather than be yanked into the day were snoozers’ two main motivations.

In all, 69% of the respondents hit snooze or set several alarms at least occasionally, and 60% of those said they usually or always fall asleep between alarms.

Next, 31 regular snoozers spent two nights in a sleep lab, hitting snooze for 30 minutes one morning, and getting up at first alarm the next.

Snoozers turned out to be calmer.

“In the snooze condition, no one had to wake up from deep sleep, and the snoozers performed a bit better on cognitive tests right upon waking,” the researchers said. – By Theresa Braine/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service