If you snooze, you lose
ONE question for you to start this week’s article… HAVE YOU DELETED YOUR SNOOZE ALARM OR SETTING YET? This week’s article is a lead on from last week and it is all about your snooze alarm.
Today we are going to discover whether it is your friend or your enemy. First of all though, let’s have some interesting information about the infamous snooze alarm...You ready? The information is pretty interesting.
The points are quite content rich so I have added my brief opinion in CAPITALS after each point below:
You might think that hitting snooze will give you a chance to finish your natural sleep cycle and wake up feeling rested, that’s not what happens. After you hit snooze and drift off, your brain starts its sleep cycle all over again. When the alarm goes off a second time, you’re likely at an even deeper, earlier part of your sleep cycle, which results in you feeling even worse than you did the first time. YOU THINK YOU WILL FEEL BETTER BUT SCIENCE DOESN’T BACK THIS UP.
According to a study published in the Public Library of Science, waking abruptly leads to a period of grogginess called sleep inertia. If you doze off every time you hit the snooze button, that means your alarm wakes you abruptly a few times each morning. “Hitting the snooze button can actually make sleep inertia worse,” says Elika Kormeili, a clinical psychologist specializing in sleep. “It will leave you dragging throughout the day.” SNOOZING LEADS TO GROGGINESS AND THE DAY CAN SEEM TO DRAG AFTER.
The fragmented sleep you get in between pressing the snooze button doesn’t count toward your total hours, Kormeili says. Your body doesn’t have time to fall back into restorative deep sleep. Instead of hitting the snooze button three times, consider setting an alarm 15 minutes later, or recharge with a 15 minute nap midday. THE EXTRA SLEEP DOESN’T EVEN COUNT TOWARDS YOUR TOTAL SLEEP SO YOU ARE ACTUALLY WASTING TIME.
A study at the University of Surrey in the UK found that hitting the snooze button in the morning can affect cognitive functions throughout the day. Rather than feeling more well-rested, you may have trouble concentrating or making decisions. DECISION MAKING IS MADE HARDER.
When your alarm jolts you awake in the middle of a sleep cycle, you’ll likely feel groggy, but you don’t have time to complete a full sleep cycle after hitting the snooze button. So that extra five minutes doesn’t help much. In fact, according to a study published in the journal Sleep Medicine, interrupted sleep can negatively impact your mood and attention span as much as getting no sleep at all. SNOOZING CAN LEAD TO A WORSE MOOD AND A LOWER ATTENTION SPAN; US MEN ALREADY STRUGGLE WITH THAT RIGHT?
According to the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School, we process new experiences and new skills during the REM stage of our sleep cycle. If you set your alarm earlier than necessary just to allow enough wiggle room to snooze a few times, you may be interrupting this important step in the sleep cycle. Set your alarm for when you need to get up — and consider putting your alarm clock out of arm’s reach, so you have to physically get out of bed to turn it off. THE BRAIN ISNT AIDED BY A QUICK SNOOZE.
SO do you want to feel groggy?
How about having a lower attention span? Could being in a worse mood help you in anyway?
Would you like your decision making to be more difficult?
The answer is clearly NO, NO, NO, NO.
“There is no snooze button on a cat who wants breakfast,” proclaimed cat expert Andrew Waddelove.
Personal Development legend Eric Thomas once said “Push that snooze button and you’ll end up working for someone who didn’t.”
Life is what you make of it… If you snooze, you lose.
I think by now you can see my thoughts on snoozing… after all, I am a MORNING PERSON.
When researching for this article I looked for any link between snoozing and productivity. A list of 10 bad habits kept coming up so check them out below. Look what is NUMBER 7: Impulsive web browsing.
Constant checking of emails.
Too many tasks being focused on at any one time.
Procrastination on most important tasks. Over and under planning.
Failure to prioritise most important task at any given moment.
HITTING THE SNOOZE BUTTON IN THE MORNING.
Using the phone for too long before sleep. Insisting on perfection.
Lack of regular exercise.
So there you have it… even more of a reason as to why the Snooze button isn’t your friend.
This week’s homework is actually two weeks’ worth of homework, my friend. I want you to do the following three simple tasks:
For one week don’t stress about using the snooze button. Use it whenever you want, every day if you want to
In the second week I want you to refrain from using the snooze button for the whole week
Thirdly, after the two weeks are up all you have to do is see which week you preferred.
Now I know if you are reading this column every week then you are probable striving to be dynamic, confident, happy, energetic, confident, motivated, timed, driven, positive, awake…the list could go on.
Which week made you feel more of the above descriptions?
I can’t tell you the future but I am going to hedge my bets without a shadow of a doubt on week two.
It’s time to remember what it’s like to feel alive.
Do something today that your future self will thank you for.
You were born to be real, not to be perfect. Your life only gets better when you get better. Happy Thursday, I look forward to seeing you on the journey of no snoozing.