Hitting snooze, the hidden health dangers of delaying your day

Sleep is an extremely important health factor. If we don't sleep an adequate number of hours for our body's needs, we won't be able to function optimally. Furthermore, the timing of our waking hours is crucial. While not everyone metabolizes into a morning person, extending sleep by using the snooze feature on our phones is not an ideal solution. The long-term effects of this habit can be significantly detrimental.

For night owls, waking up early in the morning can seem torturous. But even if we don't stay up too late every night, we've all probably hit the snooze on our alarm clock at some point, rather than getting up at the first ring. Delaying the start of the day, however, is not an effective solution and comes with its own set of side effects.

Experts maintain that regularly hitting snooze on our alarms results in us feeling less refreshed than if we got out of bed as soon as the alarm sounded.

"The additional ten minutes of sleep you keep giving yourself is not productive sleep. Drifting back to sleep and waking up several times will make you groggy. This can make you feel even more tired during the day," emphasizes neurologist Dr. Aarthi Ram in an interview about sleep conducted for Houston Methodist.

Continually hitting the snooze button and dozing off between alarms leads to what is known as fragmented sleep. Dr. Aarthi Ram points out the serious consequences of this sleep pattern:

• Impaired concentration;
• Deteriorated cognitive abilities;
• Emotional instability;
• An intensified feeling of fatigue.

In addition, regularly using the snooze feature disrupts our circadian rhythm, which can lead to difficulties in falling asleep and may even result in insomnia.