Snoozing your alarm will only tire you more

Dhwani Vora | Jun 12, 2019, 12:26 IST
Each one of us has snoozed our alarms sometime or the other. In fact, some of us even has a list of alarms with different labels to it only to snooze them all every single morning and wake up with the last one with no option but 'getting late' as a reason for the day. All of us know how sleep is so important to function through the day, and so, we think that snoozing to get some extra time to sleep will only give our body extra rest. But that's now how it works. Poor sleep is associated with a number of problems like memory issues. weight control and even blood pressure. So think twice before you get into the habit of snoozing every time only to sleep a little more.

You should know that our natural body clock is the one that regulates the functioning of our mind and body which is known as circadian rhythms which are the physical, mental and behavioural changes that follows the daily cycle. Adults in most cases require at least seven to eight hours of good sleep every night. This enable us to spend quality time in the stages of sleep called nonrapid eye movement and rapid eye movement.

Usually, an individual goes through these stages of sleep at least four to six times every night. The first bit of the night is mostly nonrapid eye movement where the person is deep in sleep and the second half of the sleep consists of rapid eye movement where the brain is active and you tend to see dreams.

Maintaining this sleep cycle is very important for your health. And so, if this process is disturbed, you tend to wake up feeling drained out or tired right in the beginning of the day.

There could be a number of factors that can affect you sleep cycle. A person's breathing during sleep can also disturb the quality of sleep and end up making them feel tired in the morning. The quality of sleep can also affect due to electronic devices, alcohol or tobacco in the evening. It is also advised to eat a couple of hours before bedtime for a reason as it could create problems otherwise.

It's mostly teenagers who start using the snooze button too often when the circadian rhythms are a little altered which causes them to want to stay awake till late hours and get up even later in the morning. But delaying the process of waking up for even as little as nine minutes by keeping on snoozing is not going to give you any quality sleep. In fact, it will only confuse the brain to start the process of secreting more neurochemicals and affect our body.

This is why, it is for the best that you wake up on time and don't end up snoozing every five minutes.
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