Updated at: 20-06-2022 - By: Jane

Does snoozing your alarm set you up for a long day of work?

Because you know what you’re doing is wrong, you do it nonetheless. Just a few more minutes,” you convince yourself as you slip back under the covers, only to be forcibly awakened nine minutes later by a loud noise. You push the snooze button again since, after all, you didn’t get the whole nine minutes of sleep you were hoping for.

This can take anything from twenty to forty minutes to get out of bed.

Stop dozing forever by following these best recommendations.

Why Is the Snooze Button Bad for You?

General Electric produced the first snooze button-equipped alarm clock in 1956, with the goal of allowing people to wake up at their own leisure rather than being woken up by a shrieking buzz. Things have gone out of hand. It’s fine to spend a few extra minutes cuddling with your partner or pet before starting your day, and hitting the snooze button is a great way to ensure you don’t fall back asleep and miss your morning meetings.

Pressing snooze even once gives you with virtually no benefits and may even be hazardous to your well-being. Snooze Because sleep cycles range from 90 to 110 minutes, this makes sense. Five stages of sleep are experienced during these cycles, which include light sleep, REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, and profound sleep (rapid eye movement). If you’re going to feel relaxed after a night of sleep, you need to spend as much time in REM as possible. As the night progresses, the REM cycle tends to get longer. However, pressing snooze deprives the body of REM sleep. It’s impossible to function at your best when you’re unable to get a good night’s sleep due to interruptions.

Breaking the Snooze Addiction

Making sure you’re getting enough sleep is an important first step in ending your snooze habit. Snoozing in the morning has become a national epidemic because of the nation’s chronic sleep deprivation. Being well-rested can help you wake up in the morning ready to take on your day without hunkering down for a second night of sleep. Sleep requirements vary widely among individuals; some can function well on 6.5 hours of sleep each night while others require a few more.

Setting a wake-up and bedtime schedule is the key to obtaining enough shut-eye. Sleeping at 11pm and getting up at 6am means that if you need seven hours of sleep and have to get up at 6am, you need to be in bed by 10:45pm. When trying to quit a bad habit, it’s not just about how many hours you’ve spent doing it. With the help of sleep cycles, you can also boost your chances of feeling rested when you wake up. It is possible that you will feel more exhausted if you awaken in the middle of a 100-minute sleep cycle rather than the end of one.

It may be more crucial to wake up at the conclusion of a cycle than the number of hours you sleep. If your sleep cycles are typically 90 minutes long, then you may want to design your sleep pattern so that you wake up at the conclusion of a 90-minute increment. That would necessitate a 6.5- or 8-hour night’s sleep. Sleeping 7 hours may actually leave you feeling less rested than sleeping 6.5 hours, which explains why you may wake up fatigued even if you’ve slept a long period.

Tips to Avoid Hitting It

Put Your Alarm Clock out of Reach

Even if you’ve heard it before, it’s worth repeating. For optimum results, avoid using an alarm clock or smartphone that’s just a few inches away from your pillow and instead use an actual snooze button on your alarm clock. Stay away from the couch or bed once you’ve activated snooze mode.

old clock is standing on the window from the inside

Use Rewards

In order to avoid the temptation of snoozing, you may need a reward for getting out of bed early. Allowing yourself a special treat or scheduling time to read a good book, lengthen your beauty regimen, or chat with a friend or family member who lives in a later time zone are all possible ways to reward yourself for waking up earlier than usual. You’ll be more likely to get out of bed if you have something interesting or pleasant to look forward to.

Smell a Cup of Coffee

Coffee serves as a morning wake-up call for around 80% of the population in the United States. The aroma of freshly brewed coffee can serve as a powerful wake-up call. Brew a pot 10 minutes before your alarm goes off the night before. The genes responsible for arousal are triggered by the smell of coffee. You’ll also be greeted by a freshly brewed cup of coffee as soon as you exit your bedroom. There’s no need to fiddle with the machine and then sit about while the coffee is made.

Heat Your Room

When the room is cool, getting out of bed can be difficult. It takes a tremendous amount of willpower to get out of that warm cocoon. To avoid this, warm your bedroom up an hour before you get out of bed to make it simpler to get out of bed. A thermostat or timer-controlled heater should be sufficient. Instead, use a blanket or robe to cover the entire room when you get out of bed to keep yourself warm.

Go to Bed Earlier

Despite the fact that this is a well-known tactic, it is often disregarded. If you don’t get enough sleep, you’ll be groggy when you get up. Make the necessary adjustments to your bedtime routine in order to receive the rest you require.

Train Your Brain

Getting out of the habit of clicking snooze every morning can be difficult if you’ve been doing it for years. You may train yourself to get out of bed when the alarm goes off with a simple technique. It works by “practicing” getting out of bed as soon as the alarm clock goes off.. In order to get better at it, try these exercises:

  • Decide on a specific time during the day to retire to bed. This is not a nap, so don’t expect to doze off. However, if you do, don’t worry about it.
  • Take a few minutes to reschedule your alarm clock. It could take anywhere from three to ten minutes.
  • Getting out of bed when the alarm goes off is a good way to start your day off well.
  • Do it again and over again until you’ve mastered it.

Getting out of bed when you’re not sleepy is an effective way to educate your brain and body so that getting up is automatic and requires no conscious effort.

Glue Your Snooze Button

You can always superglue your snooze button to prevent yourself from using it.

Appreciate Waking Up

As we become older, we tend to lose our sense of wonder and anticipation for what the day might hold. When you were a youngster, you were probably eager to see what Santa had brought you each morning. As an adult, you have the ability to transform any day into a celebration of the season. Not every day is spent receiving gifts and munching on candy canes, of course. You have more freedom as an adult to make your own life’s journey. You can look forward to fresh chances instead of fearing the dreaded (traffic, tedious meetings, arguments with coworkers).

Set an Alarm You’re Happy to Wake up To

It’s impossible to enjoy the sound of an alarm going off. Not even changing your smartphone’s alarm tone helps the matter. Why not start your day with a music that you enjoy? Make a choice that is lively and uplifting. To avoid developing bad associations with a music you formerly loved, make sure you change it out every few weeks.

Have a Reason

To get up at 4 a.m. when you need to fly or study for a test is easier than it sounds. To some extent, it felt as though a part of me was already wide awake and ready to leap into action as soon as the alarm went off. With a compelling incentive to get out of bed, you will be less likely to push snooze on your alarm clock. Try coming up with an excuse if you don’t have to be at the airport by sunrise. Learning to play an instrument or studying a foreign language may require getting up early.

Set a Goal

Snooze addiction might lead to panic attacks when you can’t use the snooze button ever again. If you don’t want to go cold turkey, there are alternatives. Instead, begin with a short-term aim. Sleep deprivation isn’t something to be taken lightly. You can then keep expanding the time frame as you near your objective.

Turn on the Lights

We’re all aware that getting out of bed in the middle of the night requires a significant amount of willpower. Turning on the lights to simulate sunlight and get your day started will help ease the shift from sleeping to waking.

Drink Some Water

You should drink a glass of water as soon as you get up to replace the fluids you lost while sleeping. It’s a great way to get yourself out of bed in the morning. You should start to feel more human by the time you get to the kitchen and start pouring water. It’s also possible to boost your energy by drinking cold water or adding a lemon wedge to it.

photo of bottle of the water on the dark table

Commit

Having someone to answer to might also assist you in staying on track. The idea of texting or contacting each other each morning to make sure you’re both awake would be a good idea for those of you who are both snooze button addicts. Anyone who fails to check in on time will be subject to a fee. If you don’t have a friend to hold you accountable, why not ask your Facebook pals to join you? An app for iOS and Android devices called BetterMe shames users on social media if they miss a goal, such as snoozing or missing an exercise.

Snooze-Busting Gadgets

Clocky

It’s a cute little gizmo that looks and sounds a lot like R2D2. When it’s time for him to get out of bed, he starts yelling and bouncing about the room. There is only one way to stop him: catch him in the act!

Loud Alarm Clock

The Sonic Boom is the name given to an alarm clock because it is so obnoxiously loud. As a bonus, it’ll likely wake up everybody in your immediate vicinity as well. Getting up in the morning could be a significant motivating aspect for you!

Smart Alarms

When you use a smart alarm clock, it will wake you up at a moment when you are most receptive to being up. In order to gently wake you up, they are able to tell when you’re in the middle of your sleep cycle. A smartphone software like Sleep Cycle can be used to help with this, or you can utilize a stand-alone gadget.

light blue bed on the left side of the photo and on the right side a night table with alarm and phone on it

How You Can Wake Up Early?

I’ve been able to get through waking up at 6am by employing the aforementioned strategies to combat my snooze addiction. Since I’ve started the day off appropriately, I’ve had more productive days.

Even if you don’t need to use all of these suggestions, you can pick and choose whatever ones work best for you. You have to figure out what motivates, methods, and strategies work best for you because no two people are exactly identical. Wishing you the best of luck and greetings for the day.

My Get Up Early Routine

For anyone who are curious about my current morning ritual, here it is:

  1. When the alarm goes off, the song “A Brand New Day” begins to play. As a side note, if I don’t change my waking tune every couple of weeks, it becomes less helpful for me.
  2. A few minutes after waking, I walk to my alarm clock and sing along with it.
  3. A glass of water is all I need to wake me up after turning off my alarm.
  4. I return to my room, drink some water, and then go on to my computer to do anything that requires mental power (reading email or a sudoku puzzle).
  5. Aiming for a workout or just getting ready for a shower is my preferred method of exercise preparation when I’m in the mood.

FAQs

What are the alarm clock apps for heavy sleepers?

It’s no surprise that there are a slew of apps out there to help heavy sleepers get out of bed in the morning. Many people use the Android app Alarm Clock Xtreme and Timer. Either a song or a pre-loaded soundtrack can be used to make it unbearably loud. If that doesn’t wake you up enough, you may even be forced to finish a math problem before the alarm clock goes off. In addition to a wide range of alarm selections, the Alarm Clock for Me (also available for Android) includes volume, illumination settings, and the possibility to upload your own soundtracks. Before you can turn it off, you can chose whether or not you need to answer a math problem or shake it violently.

What happens when people hit the snooze button so much?

Excessive use of the snooze button can put you to sleep. It’s possible that you’ll wake up feeling more fatigued because you get less restorative sleep. If you don’t get enough sleep, you’re putting your health at risk. It’s hardly a leap to assume that those who repeatedly hit the snooze button in the morning probably lack ambition and self-esteem. They’ll undoubtedly feel bad about skipping their morning ritual, and they’ll probably realize that if they can’t even get out of bed without clicking snooze, they’ll have a hard time getting anything else done.

Can the snooze button ruin your sleep?

Yes, without a doubt! In order to get enough rest, the body need deep, uninterrupted sleep, which can only be obtained by avoiding the temptation to hit the snooze button. You should set your alarm for the time of day that you need to get out of bed in the morning rather than snoozing your alarm. Instead, the extra time in your morning routine can be used for deep sleep, so that you don’t have to worry about snoozing in the morning.

Conclusion

You won’t be able to stop pushing the snooze button just by reading this article. A master negotiator who wants nothing more than a few extra minutes of sleep is replaced by your sensible mind in the early morning hours.

It’s crucial to set yourself up for success in order to overcome the dark side of your psyche. Keep in mind that tomorrow is a new day, so if all else fails, you can always try again to defeat the snooze button the next day.

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