Allowing yourself as little as five more minutes in bed each morning is actually doing your body more harm than good.
If you don’t get up the moment your alarm goes off, and instead set the very tempting snooze button, your brain signals for hormones to be released that would usually put you into a deep sleep.
The problem with that is you’re only getting five or ten more minutes in bed before jolting yourself awake again – which is very confusing for your body.
If you don’t get up the moment your alarm goes off, and instead set the very tempting snooze button, your brain signals for hormones to be released that would usually put you into a deep sleep
The experts at Sleep Clinic Services believe the better option is to simply set your alarm ten minutes later than you normally would, and raise yourself as soon as the music blares.
If you don’t your body could experience what’s called ‘sleep inertia’ – that feeling of grogginess you feel as you wake up – for hours longer than usual.
In an ideal world we would simply go to bed when we’re tired and let our bodies decide when we’ve had enough sleep, jolting us awake so that we’re raring to go for the day.
The experts at Sleep Clinic Services believe the better option is to simply set your alarm ten minutes later than you normally would, and raise yourself as soon as the music blares
But like stress, newborn children and jobs, snoozing prevents us from living by this logical body clock (or circadian rhythm as it is known) so it is important to abide by the time we set ourselves to rise.
You’ve just got to get the timing just right.
‘Long sleep periods, in excess of 9 hours, may impact your health in the same way that short sleep periods do,’ the Sleep Clinic Services website states.
But stress, newborn children and jobs prevent us from living by this logical body clock (or circadian rhythm as it is known) so the next best thing is to abide by the time we set ourselves to rise
‘In fact research shows that extended sleep may increase your risk of dementia, cause memory loss and make you put on weight.’
One the other hand, if you’re getting less than six hours sleep a night, it’s not recommended that you catch up by sleeping in on your weekend.
‘The best way to catch up on sleep is to have an extra hour or two each night over a longer period of time. For example an extra hour each day over a week or even a month,’ the website also said.
To take control of your alarm it’s worth investing in a physical clock that doesn’t have a snooze button or put your alarm across the room so that you have to get out of bed to reach it.