Dr Michelle Dickinson: nanotechnologist on the unexpected benefits of hitting the snooze button

Are you an early bird that jumps out of bed when their alarm clock goes off, or are you one of the 70 percent of us that likes to make friends with the snooze button?  If you are a multiple alarm, or repetitive snooze button pusher, then science has some great news for you.  Research published this week in the Journal of Sleep Research has found that snoozing for up to 30 minutes in the morning has no impact on sleep quality, and for some people might even spark alertness more quickly that sleeping through without the multiple snooze interruptions.  Previously, it had been thought that snoozing might make you more tired or more likely to be woken from a deep sleep, but this new research found that for those who need to snooze it could actually be helpful with their waking cycle.  The study interviewed over 1700 adults, of which 70 percent said they liked to hit the snooze button on weekdays. The snoozers tended to be night owls, naturally going to bed late and reported to feel drowsy when they woke up.  They said that they pressed snooze as they were too tired and struggled to wake up on their first alarm, and many said that snoozing felt good to them.  31 self-confessed snoozers were then recruited to spend several nights in a sleep lab and were tested on two methods of waking up – one where they have to get up immediately after the alarm went off, and the other where the alarm went off 30 minutes earlier but they were allowed to press snooze three times over 30 minutes.  The total amount of time the person spent in bed was exactly the same.  The researchers then carried out cognitive tests on the volunteers through the day, which included solving maths problems and testing reaction times, and they found that snoozing gave an advantage to the snoozers when tested straight after they got up, but this evened out 40 minutes after waking.  So why do we love to snooze so much? The researchers believe that snoozing allowed people to wake up more gently, rather than be yanked from a deep REM sleep.  LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.