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There are two types of people in this world: those who have no problem waking up when their alarm goes off in the morning and the ones who need to hit the snooze button at least once before they’re ready to take on the day. If you’ve ever wondered if one of those approaches does a better job of setting you up for success, some experts may have figured out the answer.
I firmly fall into the camp of people who require at least a couple of nine-minute reprieves from their morning alarm before I even come close to reaching the point where I’m prepared to get out of bed. I’m aware there’s some evidence that suggests I’m not doing myself any favors with that particular strategy, but trying to break the habit is much easier said than done.
According to Gizmodo, Tina Sundelin—a psychologist specializing in sleep who works at Stockholm University—opted to explore the matter further after determining there weren’t any studies that had adequately addressed the potential downsides of snoozing.
Sundelin subsequently teamed up with some other researchers to conduct a couple of studies before sharing their findings in a paper that was recently published in the Journal of Sleep Research.
The first involved a survey of around 1,700 people who were asked to self-report their sleep habits. 69% of respondents said they snoozed, and while they slept less on average and dealt with a morning fog more frequently than people who get up after their alarm went off, the data showed the overall quality of sleep for both parties was basically the same.
The second experiment involved a comparatively tiny sample size of 31 people who participated in a three-night sleep study that required them to perform tests designed to measure their mental capacity after waking up as well as later on in the afternoon.
After examining the results, the researchers concluded “snoozing does not lead to cognitive impairments upon waking in habitual snoozers” while adding “snoozing did not affect self-reported sleepiness or mood.”
As a result, it seems like you should feel free to snooze away.