Many people repeatedly press the snooze button in the morning to snooze for a few minutes longer. Read here why this isn’t good for your body and which is better.
Some people jump out of bed straight away in the morning and are wide awake, but for others it is absolute horror when their alarm clock wakes them from their restful sleep.
Do you belong to the second category? Then you should still avoid using the snooze button because it releases hormones in the brain that would normally put you into a deep sleep.
The problem with snoozing: You only lie in bed for another five or ten minutes before the alarm wakes you up again.
This is extremely confusing for the body, as experts from the US Sleep Clinic Service (SCS) point out. They recommend simply setting the alarm ten minutes later than before – and getting up as soon as the alarm goes off.
Failure to do this can cause the body to struggle with what is known as “sleep inertia.”
This is actually the special feeling of lightheadedness that you feel when and shortly after waking up. However, in extreme cases it can last for hours.
Ideally, you should go to bed when you’re tired – and let your body decide when you’ve had enough sleep.
However, the reality is different: stress, children, jobs – and even snoozing – often prevent you from being able to set your internal clock correctly.
“Long sleep periods of more than 9 hours can affect health in the same way as short sleep periods,” say the researchers.
Research shows that prolonged sleep can increase the risk of dementia, cause memory loss and lead to weight gain.
On the other hand, less than six hours per night is also not recommended – and is difficult to make up for.
The experts recommend: The best way to catch up on sleep is to allow yourself an extra hour or two over a longer period of time. For example, an extra hour per day for a week or even a month.
To gain control over your sleep schedule, it can help to buy an analog alarm clock that doesn’t have a snooze button, or place the alarm somewhere in the room so you have to get up to turn it off.
The original for this article “No more snooze! How to get out of bed better in the morning” comes from FitForFun.