the dreaded alarm strikes again. Except now you feel even more tired, so do you

hit it again? Are those extra minutes really helping at all? Or is it the

beginning of a never-ending cycle that ends in you being late and still dead tired.

In an unimaginable world without alarm clocks our bodies would simply wake up

naturally, seems crazy right? But our bodies have many chemical mechanisms in

place to not only put us to sleep, but wake us up as well. The body begins

preparing in the hour before you naturally wake-up, body temperature rises

sleep becomes lighter and hormones such as dopamine and cortisol are released

which give you energy to start your day. But the problem with alarms is that they

often interrupt your sleep cycle and cut these processes short. Particularly if you

don't have a regular sleep rhythm or schedule, the alarm goes off, but your body

isn't quite ready. This groggy and tired state is known as "sleep inertia"

and its strength is related to which sleep stage you are waking up out of.

The deeper the sleep the more potent the sleep inertia and so the snoozing

begins. But the snooze button can do more damage than good, as you fall back asleep

the body be restart its sleep cycle and enter into deeper sleep stages. So

instead of your body prepping to wake up, it's going in the opposite direction and

as a result the second alarm may cause you to feel even more tired

and so continues the vicious cycle.

Ultimately. you would be better off setting your original alarm later and not

interrupting your sleep. Many studies have found that fragmented sleep is much

less restorative

and leads to sleepiness related daytime impairment. So by breaking up those last

thirty minutes or so of sleep, you are more likely to feel tired and perform

poorly during the day. What else can you do? Try adopting a more regular sleep

schedule. Being tired is not only a product of sleep deprivation or waking

up out of a deep sleep, but also lacking a consistent schedule. The body loves

predictability, wake up at the same time every morning, including the weekends, and

after a few weeks your body should adapt to the timing and be less inclined to

require an alarm in the first place. And if you do wake up feeling a little

tired, try to resist the snooze temptation and just get up,

because as the saying goes "you snooze you lose".

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