Good news for snooze-button fans! You don’t have to feel guilty when you answer the alarm with “Just five more minutes.” Researchers at Stockholm University and the Karolinska Institute in Sweden have found a reason to let yourself snooze.
They found that dozing off after the alarm doesn’t just feel undesirable — it can actually boost cognitive performance. After fully waking, people showed increased alertness and focus.
Love hitting the snooze button? Go ahead!
The team ran two studies, published in the Journal of Sleep Research.
The first study mapped who tends to hit the snooze instead of jumping out of bed at the first sound of the alarm.
Of 1,732 adult participants, 69 percent reported using the snooze function. These individuals tended to be younger than people who get up at the first alarm. They were also more likely to be evening chronotypes, meaning night owls. Additionally, they tended to sleep fewer hours at night and often experienced morning grogginess. On average, their snooze time before finally getting up was 22 minutes, according to Science Focus.
In the second study, 31 participants in a sleep lab were either allowed to nap for 30 minutes after the alarm went off or were forced to get up immediately. They then completed arithmetic tests and memory recall tasks, both right after waking and at intervals throughout the day.
Participants who got an extra 30 minutes of sleep performed better on most tests after fully waking. The researchers say the extra nap lets people reach a lighter sleep stage, rather than deep slow-wave (non-REM) or REM sleep — which the first alarm often interrupts.
The study also found that the additional sleep had no measurable effect on stress hormone levels, mood, or the quality of nighttime sleep.
Tina Sandelin, the study’s lead author and a psychologist at Stockholm University, says there’s no reason to give up a morning nap if you enjoy it. Give yourself at least 30 extra minutes — it could even reduce morning grogginess, she added.
