Why snoozing gets a bad rap

Some sleep scientists and physicians who criticise snoozing say that it can reduce the amount of rapid eye movement (or REM) sleep you get.

REM is a crucial sleep stage that is important for brain health and for helping to enhance memory, process emotions and foster creativity. It occurs throughout the night, but tends to happen more in the later evening and early morning hours. If you set your alarm for earlier than needed (to allow time for snoozing), you might interrupt a useful REM phase, the thinking goes.

Then, when you fall back asleep, it is likely to be a lighter, non-REM sleep, which will “be more fragmented and not as restorative,” said Rebecca Robbins, a sleep scientist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

That said, we don’t have solid evidence showing that tiny losses in REM sleep in the morning are enough to meaningfully affect brain performance or wellbeing the next day, said Dr Cathy Goldstein, a clinical professor of neurology at the University of Michigan Medical School.

Until we learn more, Goldstein said that she’s not convinced that losing a few minutes of REM sleep is so bad.

Snoozing could be a bad idea, however, if it causes you to have an inconsistent sleep schedule, Robbins said. If snoozing sometimes means that you are waking up more than half an hour later than usual, your body’s inner clock may get disrupted, making it harder for you to fall asleep and wake up on time on future mornings, she added.

Snoozing as a crutch, not a cause

Sometimes, snoozing is used as a crutch to manage poor sleep habits or sleep disorders, said Shelby Harris, a clinical associate professor of neurology and psychiatry at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City.

Many people are “not getting enough sleep, or they have poor quality sleep and they’re just trying to catch little bits where they can,” she said.

Conditions like insomnia, restless legs syndrome, narcolepsy and sleep apnoea can make people more likely to snooze, Harris said. Or, they might snooze if they take medications that cause morning grogginess like trazodone, diphenhydramine (Benadryl), gabapentin or quetiapine (Seroquel), she said.

If snoozing ends up “covering up for other issues,” Harris said, it can make people less likely to address them. To discern if you have a sleep disorder, Harris advised prioritising your sleep hygiene for a week – limit late-in-the-day caffeine, alcohol and naps; maintain a consistent sleep schedule; keep your bedroom quiet and dark – and see if sleep improves. If it doesn’t, consult a primary care doctor, she said.

There is some limited research, however, that suggests snoozing could come with benefits, Goldstein said – especially if you keep a consistent sleep schedule and have all the signs of being well rested. (If you feel fairly awake in the morning and don’t get sluggish between 2pm and 4pm, Robbins said, those are signs that you’re well rested.) In one such study from 2023, in which 31 habitual snoozers slept in a lab, researchers found that snoozing was associated with better cognitive performance soon after waking compared with not snoozing.

Because snoozers spend the last portion of their sleep in a lighter sleep stage, snoozing may sometimes help reduce morning grogginess. It may encourage certain people to “get up and get going,” Goldstein said.

However, more research is needed in the field in general, she said. If you can’t drag yourself out of bed because of a sleep disorder or other sleep issue, it’s best to talk to a doctor in order to address the root problem instead of hitting snooze, she said.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

Written by: Melinda Wenner Moyer

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