Why Snoozing Your Alarm is No Bueno

Everyone loves to sleep, and I think I speak for most people when I say that waking up in the morning is extremely difficult. But, being late for school might not be the worst consequence of hitting snooze on your alarm.

There is actually a term for the drifting in and out of sleep in the morning: drockling. Sleep scientists created the term in the 1970s, but it is rarely used today (let's bring it back!!!!!). There are five stages of the sleep cycle, the last of which is REM sleep.

 REM sleep usually occurs 90 minutes after falling asleep, and is when the human body is deepest in sleep. With the unusual sleep schedules of the hard working person, you could be waking up not long after REM sleep. This is bad!

The sleep cycle.

Serotonin and dopamine are neurotransmitters, chemical messengers that regulate functions in your body. Serotonin helps to regulate sleep and dopamine makes you feel pleasure and euphoria. In REM sleep, serotonin is released in your body. This is why your body relaxes and sleep is so satisfying. When your body starts to wake itself up, dopamine is released into your bloodstream. This makes you feel more awake when your alarm goes off. But, when you snooze your alarm you confuse the natural cycle of your body. The entire cycle restarts. Dopamine is present in your bloodstream, but now that you are back asleep serotonin is released again. These chemicals have conflicting effects, which results in you being more groggy when you eventually do wake up.

The signaling pathway of serotonin.

The other part of this to consider is that when you fall asleep after your alarm wakes you up, it is not a full, restful sleep. You are experiencing what is called fragmented sleep. Fragmented sleep is a sudden arousal out of sleep when you are deep in it. These aren't slight movements, rather you are woken up so much that you remember it later. Experiencing fragmented sleep can result in weight gain, mood problems, and extreme fatigue throughout the day.

Sleep is good for you, but only if it's good sleep. Consider this post your motivator to go to bed earlier and sleep better. If you do, you'll learn better, be more creative, stay focused, make decisions, and be more happy in general. 

So, while hitting the snooze button might bring some short term satisfaction and joy, you're much better off forcing yourself to get up right when you first hear the alarm go off. Trust me, you'll thank me later.