Those “5 extra minutes of sleep” affect the quality of rest

NEW YORK (HealthDay News)—Almost everyone has at some point dealt with their alarm clock, hoping to hit the snooze bar and grab a little extra sleep.

But sleep experts recommend against reaching for the snooze button, as it can interfere with healthy sleep.

Now, a new study shows that nearly half of people worldwide hit the snooze button most mornings, to their detriment.

About 45% of people hit the snooze button more than 80% of their mornings, getting an average of 20 extra minutes of sleep a day, according to the findings, which were published in the May 19 issue of the journal Scientific Reports.

“Unfortunately, snoozing disrupts some of the most important stages of sleep,” lead researcher Rebecca Robbins, a sleep expert at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, said in a news release.

“The hours just before waking up are rich in rapid eye movement sleep. Hitting snooze or snooze will interrupt these critical sleep stages and typically only offer light sleep between snoozes,” he said.

Researchers analyzed sleep data from more than 21,000 people using SleepCycle, a smartphone sleep-tracking app. The data spanned six months and more than 3 million sleep sessions.

The snooze button was pressed on nearly 56% of those 3 million nights, the results show. All participants in the study spent an average of 11 additional minutes sleeping, but heavy users slept even longer, about 20 minutes on average.

Those who slept longer than nine hours were more likely to end up using a snooze alarm than those who had a healthy sleep pattern of seven to nine hours or a short sleep pattern of less than seven hours, the study found.

People who slept five or fewer hours in particular rarely used the snooze alarm, possibly because their work responsibilities required them to be awake with no time to sleep, the researchers said.

Users of heavy snoozing alarms also had more erratic sleep schedules, the researchers found.

Snooze alarms were used most frequently on weekdays, peaking on Wednesdays, the researchers noted.

People in the United States, Sweden, and Germany used the snooze button most frequently, while people in Japan and Australia used it least.

Robbins said that to sleep better, he recommends people skip the nap.

“The best approach to optimizing sleep and performance the next day is to set your alarm for the latest possible time, and then commit to getting out of bed when the first alarm goes off,” Robbins said.