How many times did you press the "snooze" option on your alarm clock this morning before you got up? We have good news for you: a new study suggests that pressing the snooze button may have a positive effect on your awakening process and cognitive performance throughout the day.
In an extensive survey of over 1,700 adults worldwide and published in the Journal of Sleep Research, 69% of respondents admitted to pressing the snooze button or setting alarms at least occasionally. On average, regular snooze users are six years younger than all participants, and tend to continue sleeping 22 minutes after the initial beep of their alarm clock. They also tend to be 'nocturnal animals', sleeping fewer hours at night.
To deepen the effect of Nudnik use, psychologist Tina Sondlin of Stockholm University conducted an experiment with 31 regular users of the option. The results provided intriguing insights: delaying waking up multiple times improved users' cognitive performance, although it had no noticeable effect on their mood, morning sleepiness or the characteristic increase in the stress hormone cortisol during the first hour of waking up.
According to Sondlin, using snooze for 30 minutes in the morning has no significant negative effects on sleep quality or the feeling of alertness upon waking. In fact, for those who often feel nervous in the morning and find that snooze helps them get up, research suggests that they may be objectively more alert—meaning they perform better on cognitive tests, even if they don't feel more or less sleepy. This was reflected in the fact that they performed better or identically on cognitive tests after using snooze compared to the same cognitive tests after immediate awakening.
The study sheds new light on a common habit that many people rely on to ease the suddenness of waking up, or to gain a few extra minutes of sleep.
Although this is a study with a very small sample and a reliance on self-report when it comes to background habits, it is an eye-opening study, which is the first step in a deeper understanding of waking habits and how snooze affects them. Researchers imagine possibilities like alarm clocks that gradually light up the room, creating a more gradual awakening process similar to waking up naturally. They also aim to examine the long-term effects of snooze and explore the habits of "extreme snoozers," who indulge in up to two more hours of sleep each morning.
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