Health & body · 2022
Does using snooze make morning grogginess last longer than using a single alarm?
A small laboratory study suggests it does. In 10 university students waking after a normal night’s sleep, the researchers concluded that using snooze prolonged post-waking grogginess compared with a single alarm. The abstract does not say how much longer it lasted.
Details
The study focused on the temporary grogginess after waking, when alertness and thinking or performance can be impaired. Researchers compared snooze and no-snooze conditions in a sleep laboratory.
They found no differences in sleep quality or quantity before waking except during the final 20 minutes. During that period, snooze use increased time spent awake and in a light, drowsy stage of sleep. In the no-snooze condition, participants’ vigor scores were higher after waking than before sleep; that result alone is not a direct comparison of morning vigor between conditions.
The authors concluded that snoozing prolonged morning grogginess and suggested repeated forced awakenings as a possible explanation, not an established mechanism. With only 10 participants and no reported size or duration of the effect in the abstract, the finding has limited reach.
A separate survey of 293 healthy Japanese university students provided context: 70.5% reported often using their phone’s snooze function, mainly to reduce anxiety about oversleeping. That survey did not test snooze’s effects.
What do you think?
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