CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Be honest, how many times did you hit the snooze button this morning? Most of us like a little "snooze" in between alarms, but could it be bad for our health?
THE QUESTION:
Does hitting the snooze button multiple times actually make you more groggy for the day?
OUR SOURCES:
THE ANSWER:
Yes, hitting the snooze button several times can make you groggy during the day because it could interrupt deep sleep.
WHAT WE FOUND:
“My general advice is that you set one alarm. the more alarms you have, the harder it's going to be for you to wake up in the morning," Roth said.
The Houston Methodist Medical Center agrees with Roth, saying hitting the snooze button repeatedly can increase your chances of being jarred awake during "deep sleep," which would leave you feeling groggier than usual.
Kirsch agrees too.
"It is usually dreaming sleep at the end of your sleep cycle now you are disrupting and you are flying between different stages because you are waking yourself up and then you are trying to get back in that stage and you just don't feel very good with that fragmented sleep," Kirsch explained.
Roth said the reason you keep hitting snooze? You're probably not getting enough sleep to begin with.
“So, a lot of us have a tendency to go to bed later and wake up later on weekends than on weekdays that makes it really difficult to wake up on Monday morning and Tuesday morning," Roth said. "And that might prompt us to have multiple alarms or multiple snoozes."
Both doctors suggest setting your alarm to the time you actually stop hitting the snooze button or try to unwind and go to bed earlier.
Contact Meghan Bragg at mbragg@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.
