Ah, the snooze button. That amazing little plastic button that, when you push it, can delay an undesirable event from happening for 9 minutes. But the truth is that those 9 blissful minutes come at the expense of your sleep—and your overall health. Tell us if you're a die-hard snooze-er, then learn a few ways how you can change your snooze style when you read more.
Good morning, Unplggd! We're awake on yet another Monday morning, which means one thing—we've hit the snooze button at least five or six times. Weekday mornings always have us feeling sluggish, so we repeatedly smack the snooze button, hoping that we'll feel better after another 9 minutes of sleep.
But of course, we never do.
The snooze button has long been protested by sleep experts. They say that 9 minutes isn't long enough to get into any kind of quality sleep cycle, actually increasing your sleep debt and making you more sluggish than if you'd just wake up with one later alarm.
So how do you get from "Snooze Addict" to "Sound Sleeper"? Try one of these tips on for size, whether you're an occasional snooze-er, or an "I-need-to-go-to-meetings" snooze addict:
Casual Snoozer:
- Set your bedroom lights to a timer so that they turn on at the moment your alarm goes off. Even if you hit snooze, it will be harder to get back to sleep.
- Put your alarm clock or cell phone on the other side of the room. Make sure it's loud, and that it's far enough away to keep you from walking back to bed.
- Make the snooze button worthless. Super glue it down, yank it off or get an electrician to disable it.
Snooze Junkie:
- Torture others. Set your alarm for your normal wake-up time, but also set a second alarm five minutes later—in somebody else's room. When you wake up, you'll know that you have to walk to shut off the second alarm before it goes off.
- Set your alarm clock inside a combination-locked trunk with an external speaker attached. Then try, just try to fall back to sleep after opening it up and hitting snooze.
(Images: Flickr user muctoff under license from Creative Commons, Flickr user L'Olio under license from Creative Commons)
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As a long time snooze junkie (I'd pawn all my possessions for just 5 more minutes of sleep,) I use THREE alarm clocks. Cell phone across the room, clock radio alarm, and an old fashioned metal bell alarm. Without a snooze button, I would just turn off the alarm and go back to bed. I've always wanted to try a "rising sun" alarm clock. Anyone try those?
Those are some pretty hard core suggestions.
I realized a few years ago that setting an alarm earlier so I had time to snooze was, as the article says, hurting the amount of real REM sleep I got. I just set my alarm so that I HAVE to wake up right then in order to not be late, and so when it goes off I know I have no choice. ;)
I have tried all those methods (well, except the torture others, yikes!) and I do manage to go back to sleep, even if I have to get up to turn off the alarm, and the sun streaming through the windows makes no difference. If I set the alarm later, I don't trust myself to be conscious enough to know I have to get up.
I use at least two separate alarms on my cell phone (in case I turn one off and go back to sleep on accident.) The snooze process gives me time to become coherent enough (usually) to be able to have any control over the decision to get out of bed. Sometimes I'm so tired, I incorporate the alarm and hitting snooze into my dreams and have no idea what's going on for a long time!
I don't think I've ever used the snooze button. I think I just hate hearing the alarm go off that I simply avoid it by getting up. In fact, I tend to wake up 2 minutes before it rings just so I can "beat" the alarm.
I LOVE sleep, but it's not really that hard to get up when you remove the emotional aspect of it and turn it into a purely physical action. Move your leg off of the bed, rest of body follows. Knowing that you don't have to make any decisions or even THINK about it, there's really not much excuse to stay in bed. I think we all just build it up too much in our minds.
Short of an alarm that drags me out of bed & beats me senseless, I am hitting snooze. It doesn't matter how many alarms I set, where they are located, etc... I'm just not a morning person. I find it amazing how society has bent around so many lifestyles EXCEPT us!
As the "someone else" - torturing other people doesn't work if you are such a major "snooze addict". To go with the "pawn all possessions" attitude, some sleepers just don't care while they are in that half asleep mode if it bothers the other person or the other person ends up turning off the alarm when the snoozer sleeps through it for 30-45 min straight. Someone else waking you up doesn't even matter if you are determined enough to get that little bit more sleep.
The time I spend hitting "snooze" may not be useful sleep, but it seems to me that waking up gradually is less stressful for me. I find that if I get up out of bed on the first alarm, I feel groggy for an hour or two, whereas if I take fifteen minutes to awaken slowly, I am more alert when I actually do get out of bed. Am I the only one?
I sadly am a snooze junkie. I'm not the worst one out there as I did have a room mate in college that I was contemplated hitting after a while because she would go back to sleep immediately and keep on hitting the endless amount of snooze options on her cell and her alarm.
Anyway, I'm one of those "tricky" morning people. I may appear to be awake and talking but my brain isn't remotely functioning until closer to 10 am. I have enough muscle memory that when my cell phone is going off, I can lower the volume or hit the off button. I even had a dream of trying to turn off all the alarms to find out that I did in fact turn down the volume. Thankfully, between the boyfriend, the dogs, and the base blaring out the bugle...something wakes me up in time to get to work. Ah, if only I could start my day later than 6:45 am.
I used to be a snooze junkie, but then forced myself to just choose the time I know I actually need to get up (or will get up) and set the alarm for then. The 30+ minutes of not hitting the snooze is spent sleeping. Now I'm a big no-snooze-button guy. I'm more awake in the mornings and get to bed easier at night.
I've been a raging insomniac since birth (seriously, my mother used to cry because I would never sleep). The snooze button helps me to gradually wake up instead of turning off the alarm and going back to sleep. Getting out of bed is the worst part of the day. :-(