Hitting the snooze button on your morning alarm might not actually be bad for you, new research suggests.
Two new studies published in a report in the Journal of Sleep Research found that the practice likely isn’t as bad as experts previously thought.
“We kept hearing that snoozing was bad, and people would ask us about it, and when we tried to look into the actual research, we realized there was none,” Tina Sundelin, PhD, a researcher at Stockholm University focusing on sleep loss and the lead author of the new report, told Health. “So we set up to do that research.”
The new studies provide further evidence that sleep routines should be individualized and that practices that work for some people might not be applicable to everyone, Michelle Drerup, PsyD, a specialist at the Cleveland Clinic Sleep Disorders Center, told Health.
“As with most things in life, there is no one-size-fits-all [approach] when it comes to hitting the snooze button,” she said.
Here’s who may benefit from hitting the snooze button, as well as when the practice could be signaling a bigger issue that requires attention.
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In the first of the two new studies, Sundelin’s team analyzed data from 1,732 adults to find out which people are more likely to snooze, and for how long. 69% of the participants said they “sometimes” used the snooze function or relied on multiple alarms.
Sundelin’s team found that younger people were more likely to hit the snooze button, as were “evening people.”
“The ‘snooze group’ were more likely to indicate being night owls or evening types vs. early birds or ‘larks,’ which makes logical sense that someone who feels more productive and awake in the evening would be more likely to snooze in [the morning],” Drerup said.
Overall, people who hit the snooze button were more likely to sleep for shorter periods of time on weekdays. On average, the amount of time people snoozed was 22 minutes, though the length ranged from one minute to three hours.
The second study in the report was designed to determine whether half an hour of snoozing had any impact on people’s cognitive functioning when they woke up. There were only 31 participants, all of whom identified as “habitual” snoozers.
That study found that people who snoozed for 30 minutes lost nearly six minutes of sleep. However, there were no negative effects on their sleep quality or stress hormone levels, nor was their morning tiredness level impacted by the time they spent snoozing.
“I was surprised at how much sleep participants actually got in the time that they snoozed,” Sundelin said, “ and, also, we found they were better, after snoozing, on some of the cognitive tests.”
The new studies don’t necessarily suggest that snoozing—especially for an indefinite period of time—is always good.
Drerup explained that with so little research and mixed results on the topic, more information is needed to make any clinical claims.
“Most studies have significant limitations in terms of small sample sizes and have been in young adult populations, so [the results are] not necessarily generalizable,” she said. “In summary, the jury’s still out.”
That said, there’s no strong evidence that snoozing is necessarily bad for you either—and it can’t hurt to try.
“If someone has experimented with both waking up immediately after the first alarm vs. allowing one to two brief snooze periods and [they feel] they are less groggy [and] feel more refreshed when they allow the snoozing, this may be a better option for them,” Drerup said.
Though the second study looked at what half an hour of snoozing, specifically, did for “habitual snoozers,” Drerup clarified that there isn’t adequate research to say whether an “optimal” amount of snoozing exists.
“Many individuals who habitually snooze aren’t getting enough sleep or experience poor sleep quality,” Drerup said.
Sometimes the desire to hit the snooze button, she added, could signal an undiagnosed sleep disorder like obstructive sleep apnea or chronic insomnia disorder.
Or, it could simply mean that you’re not giving your body enough time to rest.
“If someone can hit the snooze button multiple times, it suggests they have additional time to sleep and could try to set their initial alarm for as late as they can sleep,” Drerup said. “This would allow them to have a more consolidated sleep schedule.”
If you’re having difficulty discerning whether snoozing is helpful or harmful for you, consider whether you’re experiencing any other symptoms of sleep disorders, such as:
If so, you should consider speaking with a sleep specialist.
If you aren’t experiencing any of the above but are still looking to improve your sleep routine, Drerup recommends the following:
Sundelin and her study co-authors wrote that more research is needed to determine exactly how snoozing affects sleep quality. Future work, they explained, should focus on the impact of longer snoozing times and the long-term impact of snoozing.
Ultimately, Sundelin said, the new studies suggest you don’t necessarily need to stop snoozing just because you’ve been told it’s a bad habit.
“If you are a person who enjoys snoozing, and you feel like it might help you wake up or you have a hard time waking up right when the alarm goes off, it’s probably not that bad,” she said.
