Snoozing your alarm improves brain function

Dawn comes, the first rays of the sun begin to appear between the curtains of the room, and suddenly a shocking sound signals that it is time to get up, but you look at cellular telephone (or a clock for older children) out of the corner of your eye and snooze the alarm for another five minutes. This situation may seem quite familiar to you because you probably do this every morning.

Well, now science wants to explain that there are unknown benefits to this routine.

The study of more than 1,700 adults surveyed worldwide, published Wednesday (October 18) in the journal Journal of Sleep Research69% said they hit the snooze button or set multiple alarms at least “sometimes.”

Then, in an experiment with 31 good sleepers, the study authors found that snoozing the alarm improved some of these people’s performance on cognitive tests. However, it didn’t seem to affect their mood, morning sleepiness, or the normal increase in the stress hormone cortisol that occurs. within the first hour after waking up and helps prepare the body for the next day.

“Taking a 30-minute nap in the morning doesn’t have a major negative impact on your night’s sleep or how tired you feel when you wake up,” he said. Tina Sandelin, lead author of the study and a psychologist at Stockholm University in Sweden. “For those who are as sleepy in the morning as people are at night and believe that sleep helps them wake up, the study suggests that they may actually be more objectively alert.” [lo que significa que se desempeñaron mejor en las pruebas cognitivas] after sleep, even if they don’t feel more or less sleepy,” he said.

On average, people who reported sleeping at least occasionally slept about 22 minutes after the first alarm went off. The authors found that these people were about six years younger and nearly four times more likely to be night owls than those who reported never hitting the snooze button. They were also more likely to sleep for shorter periods of time at night and experience sleepiness in the morning than non-nappers.

For the 31 regular users in the second part of the study, a 30-minute nap either improved or had no effect on their performance on cognitive tests they took when they woke up, compared to when they weren’t allowed to nap. These tests included basic arithmetic questions and the requirement to memorize a list of words and then recognize them among new words.

When participants were allowed to sleep, they were less likely to wake up from the deepest stage of sleep, called slow-wave sleep, than when they had to wake up immediately. Waking up during slow waves can cause sleep inertia, a feeling of sleepiness that occurs as your body transitions from sleep to wakefulness.