Why snoozing is a bad idea for health

Can snoozing your alarm repeatedly affect your sleep? The short answer is... yes. It's happened to all of us, maybe quite often. The alarm goes off, and instead of getting up right away, we hit the snooze button—in 5 or 10 minutes—and go back to sleep . Those extra minutes seem like a gift, but are they really?

The recommended nighttime sleep duration for adults ranges from 7 to 9 hours (always longer for women, who physiologically need more sleep).

However, in recent decades, there has been a trend toward not following this recommendation, which can increase the risk of physical and mental health complications. Sleep is an essential physiological process that we should not postpone or avoid for either professional or personal reasons.

What's more, in a new study led by researchers at Harvard Medical School, they conducted an experiment with users of a sleep-tracking smartphone app to explore data on snooze alarm use and disuse, and the conclusions they drew should be taken into account by all. The database included six months of data from 21,222 app users and more than 3 million sleep sessions from users across four continents.

The first group barely gave in to the temptation to snooze their alarm: once or twice, with a mere three-minute delay. The second group, somewhat more indulgent, pressed the button twice, extending their wake-up time by just over six minutes. But it was the third group that truly succumbed to the famous "five more minutes." These repeat sleepers pressed their alarms up to four times each morning, remaining trapped for nearly 20 minutes in that hazy limbo between sleep and wakefulness.

Snooze alarm use was most common during the week (Monday through Friday) and least common on weekends (Saturday and Sunday). During the workweek, people have fixed schedules and earlier alarms, so they're more likely to hit the snooze button to get some extra sleep. Weekends often eliminate the pressure to get up at a specific time.

So, the data they obtained on average was the following: more than half of us hit the alarm clock and spent an average of 11 extra minutes sleeping. This equates to a monthly loss of almost a night's sleep (6 hours). Unfortunately, this is not good for our health . "The alarm clock interrupts some of the most important stages of sleep . The hours before waking up are rich in REM sleep (rapid eye movement sleep)," says the lead author of the study published in the journal Scientific Reports , Rebecca Robbins, who works in the Division of Sleep Medicine and Circadian Disorders at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. "So, if you hit the alarm and it interrupts you in this vital stage of sleep, the sleep you get after hitting the alarm will actually be light, fragmented sleep," she adds.

Is it worth setting your alarm? Clearly, not for your health. The best way to optimize your sleep and performance the next day is to set your alarm as late as possible and commit to getting up as soon as the first one goes off, according to experts.

Both your brain and your mood will appreciate it if you stop snoozing your alarm in the morning.

Can snoozing your alarm repeatedly affect your sleep? The short answer is... yes. It's happened to all of us, maybe quite often. The alarm goes off, and instead of getting up right away, we hit the snooze button—in 5 or 10 minutes—and go back to sleep . Those extra minutes seem like a gift, but are they really?