It’s OK to hit the snooze button, sleep researchers say

Do you use your alarm’s snooze button every morning? If so, rest easy – it won’t harm your sleep quality and cognitive processes, results of a new study suggest.

Researchers from Stockholm University conducted a pair of studies to better understand how common hitting the snooze button is and what effects the behavior has on sleep, sleepiness, mood and cognitive abilities.

In one of the studies, the researchers surveyed more than 1,700 people on how they woke up in the morning. Nearly 7 out of 10 reported using the snooze function or setting multiple alarms at least “sometimes.” Snoozers were on average six years younger than non-snoozers and almost four times more likely to be “evening types.”

For the other study, the researchers observed 31 “habitual snoozers” in a laboratory over two nights. On one night, the participants were allowed to use the snooze feature for 30 minutes before waking up. On the other, they had to wake up immediately.

The researchers found that 30 minutes of snoozing either improved or didn’t affect the participants’ performance on subsequent cognitive tests, compared with waking up quickly.

“Our findings show that those who snooze on average sleep slightly shorter and feel more drowsy in the morning compared to those who never snooze,” study co-author Tina Sundelin said. “But there were no negative effects of snoozing on cortisol release, morning tiredness, mood or sleep quality throughout the night.”

Sundelin added that 30 minutes of snoozing didn’t negatively affect night sleep or “sleep inertia” – the feeling of not being alert in the morning.

The study was published online in the Journal of Sleep Research.