To Snooze Or Not To Snooze?

That is the question....

As much as we all LOVE those extra minutes in the morning, being woken abruptly causes your body to enter a slight state of grogginess called "inertia". This state intensifies each time you enter back into sleep mode, meaning that actually you would feel much less tired if you got up to your first alarm than you would your third, fourth, fifth, or seventeenth.

This week I have been testing this theory out as well as learning about the science behind it and I can say first hand (as a person who would never previously turn down their sleep) this technique actually works and genuinely improves your functions throughout the day. WHAT A MIRACULOUS DISCOVERY!

When the amount of sleep you receive doesn't feel like enough, the natural thing to do is whack the snooze and get those "precious 10 more minutes". It seems to feel SOOOO good! However, this couldn't be further from the truth. As I mentioned before, when abruptly woken, the body goes into a slight groggy state called "inertia" and if you've had a full cycle of sleep, this is likely to last to all of a few seconds, maybe a minute or two at most. How long this period lasts for is the way in which your body tells you exactly how much sleep you got. Though your body only knows how to do this correctly following a full-cycle of REM sleep (where the body is able to complete each stage of sleep without being disturbed, more on REM sleep below). Without completing a full cycle, your body and your brain can't tell the difference between a full night's sleep and just a couple of minutes.

For example: You get a full 7 hours of sleep, though in those few seconds before getting out of bed you decide you didn't get enough sleep because you feel kind of tired still (because you've entered into sleeps stage one: non-REM sleep where wakefulness meets tiredness aka. light sleep), and so you hastily click the snooze. Your body then forgets about ALLLLLLL of the sleep you just got and enters into a new cycle of sleep meaning, when your alarm goes off, your poor body thinks it's only had 10 minutes of sleep all night!!You feel extra groggy now... So 10 more minutes should do it right? WRONG. Congratulations! You've now successfully tricked your body into being just as tired as it would be if you'd had two nights in a row of just 10 minutes sleep each night. No wonder you feel like sh*t getting out of bed now! If only you could just get 10 more minutes...

But WHY is This SO Important?!

This may seem a bit extreme when we're just talking about having a few extra minutes in the morning, but when you spend the rest of your day in a dream-like state because of your morning, days upon weeks are spent in confusion and sleepiness mixed in with slow reactions and poor decision making skills. Would you agree it has the potential to actually ruin your life, slowly? Your "best life" in any case. I'd say, for myself, hitting snooze every morning most definitely has the potential to ruin the best version of myself I know I'm able to be. You of course, are your own subject.

To know that the inertia period is only very temporary is extremely important to deciding whether or not you've had enough sleep. I can safely say for myself, I only ever feel completely refreshed and ready to start the day when I haven't been woken up by an alarm. We convince ourselves that a few seconds of sleepiness upon being woken by an alarm is enough to justify staying in bed for that little bit longer.

Is it ever even worth it? I'm sure my words aren't falling on blind eyes when I say, deep down we probably know this stuff already. Maybe you've wondered why you seem to feel so much more tired when you've had more contact with your alarm clock in the morning than with some family members all month long, whilst at the same time convincing yourself you did the right thing- because you needed it! Or did you? Imagine how tired you'd be if you hadn't snoozed! (Probably not very tired at all). I really wish I tried this out months, HECK EVEN YEARS ago!

What you COULD try instead

I've written articles on "Becoming The Early Bird" that include great things that happen in your life if you wake up before everybody else (or most people), and I stand by these facts. However having the ability to get up at 5am or 6am begins with the ability to ignore your snooze. Once you set yourself a routine of not only forgetting the function of the snooze button, but actually seeing the benefits of not using it, then you'll be more ready than ever to play around with the times you decide to wake up, find the best time that suits YOUR life and be proactive in sticking to your new routine. If for now you're just looking to not feel so tired during your day what I'd suggest to test this theory! Set your alarm for the very last minute you can possibly get up without it completely ruining your day, don't give yourself time to snooze. If anything, make yourself panic (ever so slightly) upon waking up to shake yourself into getting out of bed straight away.

This can be a very powerful technique if you absolutely minimise the time you need to spend doing things in the morning (because people who snooze also have a tendency to shorten their morning to-do list, whilst in their zombie-like state, in order to get more sleep! Or is that just me?).

Do this over the space of a week or so and once you realise that breaking up with your snooze button was the best thing you ever did, you're now ready to begin tweaking your morning routine to get more stuff done and you no longer need to worry about feeling tired in the mornings, no matter what time you wake up! If you've done any research at all on the morning routines of the rich, successful and productive people, more often than not and over all of the articles I've read, morning routine sticks out like a sore thumb as productivity doesn't come to those wrapped up in their sheets, snug as a bug in a rug!

If you had no idea what snoozing did to your day/week/life and you're now shocked into the realisation that all you have to do is just get up, I suggest doing it at such an hour that seems completely realistic to you. This of course, will be different for everyone.

If I could have known one thing 10 years ago - it would be that "if you respect your sleep, your sleep will respect you." Your body clock will, in time learn your ways and work with you each morning- not against you. But you have to teach it how to first!

Of course, an overall sleep routine is best and not just for kids! But going to bed and waking up at around the same time each day is what makes for optimal energy levels during the day and a deeper, more rejuvenating sleep at night time. It can be difficult to establish when that best time is and sure, life will occasionally get in the way of your sleep and waking up times but once a routine is established, it's very easy to get back into if it does slip.

Below are listed 5 things that happen to your body when you snooze and 10 things that happen to your body when you don't (we thought to get the negatives out of the way first!)

5 Things That Happen To Your Body When You Snooze

1. Poor memory function during the day

2. You do not enter a full cycle of sleep so your body assumes the 10 minutes you just got from snoozing are what you got for the whole night!

3. Your sleepiness affects you throughout the whole day leading to poor decision making skills and slower reaction times meaning......

4. You become less productive during the day

5. It can make it much more difficult to sleep at night which allows the cycle to continue over and over again.

10 Things That Happen To Your Body When You Get Up Straight Away

1. You become more productive

2. You train your body-clock

3. ...And strengthen your willpower at the same time

4. You're no longer late for things!

5. You no longer feel sleepy during the day, in fact you feel alert!

6. Better decision making skills

7. Faster reaction times

8. No need for copious amounts of caffeine

9. Better concentration

10. No guilt about lying in when you should have gotten up!

It goes without saying that, for you to perform optimally on a daily basis, it's so important that you don't keep going through these morning cycles every day.

THE 'HOW'

There is a simple technique I use to help me hit my alarm and jump straight out of bed. I call it "The Final Countdown" (sorry if I just got the song stuck in your head!) -Once you hear your alarm, you let it go off for a countdown of 5, so with this technique I'd suggest changing your alarm tone to something that doesn't blow your brains out... I got this going by actually having "The Final Countdown" as my alarm tone - hence the sterling name - and it worked! I counted down from 5 as soon as I heard it ring.

The next step is to again, count down from 5 once you've turned it off (OFF being the key word here - not snoozed!) and from 5...4...3...2...1... PLUNGE YOURSELF OUT OF BED, which not only wakes you up but it shocks your nervous system into waking up too so you really don't feel sleepy like you would if you'd rolled around in bed hitting snooze every 3 minutes for an hour and a half.

Of course, after a while you'll notice the benefits it can have on your life but ultimately, if you have something going on in your life WORTH getting out of bed for, you're much more likely to WANT to get up and get going.

The reason this worked for me is, because as I said before, the inertia period only lasts a few seconds and whilst you're counting down, not only are you concentrated on the numbers, not how tired you feel, but by the time you get to 0 and jump out of bed, the inertia period would have passed already and the countdown itself naturally builds anticipation, meaning for no good reason at all... You start to get excited! The excitement means your nervous system starts waking up and so do you!

A morning routine that you enjoy doing is the core of consistently having a concession of successful days. Keep an eye open for my article "Become The Early Bird" and you'll understand why the two go hand in hand but for now we'll focus on just getting your engine revving enough to NOT HIT THAT SNOOZE BUTTON!!

Everybody is different of course! But if you want to see how you can change your day in a positive way, try it tomorrow! You could be surprised what you're capable of when you plan to be capable!

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Written by Charlotte Deverill