For most people, hitting snooze is not bad for you. The idea that snoozing “ruins” your sleep has been around for years, but recent research suggests a short snooze is mostly harmless. In a 2023 study, habitual snoozers who snoozed for 30 minutes lost only about six minutes of sleep, with no harm to mood or the night’s sleep, and their thinking on waking was the same or slightly sharper. What snoozing can be is a useful signal that you are waking before your body is ready.
So if you are a snoozer, there is no need to feel guilty about it. It is more useful to understand what the habit is telling you.
Is hitting snooze bad for you?
The most detailed recent research comes from Tina Sundelin, Shane Landry and John Axelsson at Stockholm University, published in the Journal of Sleep Research in 2023. Their work had two parts.
First, they surveyed 1,732 adults. Around two-thirds said they used the snooze button or multiple alarms at least sometimes, most often on workdays, and the average snooze time was about 22 minutes. Snoozers were more likely to feel mentally drowsy on waking and slept a little less on workdays, about 13 minutes on average.
Second, they brought 31 regular snoozers into a sleep lab for two nights. On one morning they were allowed to snooze for 30 minutes; on the other they woke abruptly. The snooze cost about six minutes of total sleep. It did not change overnight sleep, mood or morning sleepiness, and on thinking tests done straight after getting up, performance was the same or slightly better after the snooze. The snooze also meant people were less likely to be woken directly out of deep sleep.
The authors were careful to note that their lab study only included people who already snooze, and only tested one snooze length. So it is not a recommendation to start snoozing. But it is reassuring for anyone who has been told the habit is harming them.
Does snoozing make you more tired?
A 2022 study published in Sleep by Mattingly and colleagues looked at the question from a different angle. They combined surveys with data from wearable devices for 450 working adults. Just over half regularly snoozed.
The snoozers got about the same amount of sleep as non-snoozers and did not report more daytime fatigue. What stood out was a different group: people who woke naturally, without any alarm, slept longer and drank less caffeine. The authors suggested the bigger question may not be “to snooze or not to snooze” but whether we need alarms at all.
Why do I hit snooze every morning?
If you find yourself reaching for snooze most mornings, it is usually because your body is not quite ready to wake when the alarm goes off. That can happen for a few reasons:
- Your bedtime is a little late for the amount of sleep you need.
- Your alarm is earlier than your body clock prefers. Night owls tend to find early alarms harder, and research suggests later chronotypes snooze more. Our post on chronotype and sleep explains why.
- The alarm interrupts deep sleep, leaving you groggy. That heavy, slow feeling is called sleep inertia, and it is a normal part of waking.
- Your nights are broken, so you are carrying extra tiredness into the morning.
None of these is a failing. They are information about what your sleep needs.
For new parents: when the alarm is a baby
For many new parents, the alarm is not the problem. The baby is. Mornings are often less about snoozing and more about surfacing after a night of feeds, and the first wake of the day may come well before you feel ready.
A few things can help make those mornings gentler:
- Trade mornings when you can. If you share care, taking turns with the first wake-up lets each person get an occasional longer stretch, which often helps more than a snooze ever could.
- Give yourself a few minutes. If you can, lie still for a moment, take a few slow breaths and let the grogginess ease before getting up. It usually fades within minutes.
- Get daylight soon after waking. Light helps your body clock and your mood, especially when sleep is short.
If the tiredness feels relentless, sleep debt for parents looks at realistic ways to recover across the week, rather than all at once.
For perimenopause: snoozing when you already wake early
For many women in perimenopause, the issue is the opposite of oversleeping. You may wake at 4 or 5 a.m. without an alarm, sometimes after a hot flash, and then drift into a deeper sleep just before the alarm goes off. Hitting snooze in that window can feel like the only rest you get.
That is understandable, and the research suggests a short snooze is unlikely to do harm. But if early waking is a regular pattern, it can help to look at what is causing it:
- Morning light shortly after you get up helps anchor your body clock. Our post on morning sunlight and sleep explains why.
- A cooler bedroom can reduce night-time waking from hot flashes and night sweats.
- A steady wake time helps your body clock settle, even after a broken night.
If waking early is becoming the norm, waking up too early explores the reasons and what helps.
How long should you snooze for?
There is no proven ideal snooze length. The research has mostly looked at snooze periods of around 20 to 30 minutes. If you like to snooze, a simple approach is to set your first alarm for when you would like to start waking, and a second alarm for when you truly need to get up, rather than lots of short alarms. That keeps the morning calm and predictable.
What is better than hitting snooze?
The ideal, when life allows, is waking without needing an alarm at all. In the Mattingly study, people who woke naturally slept longer and used less caffeine. A few steps can move you closer to that over time:
- Keep a consistent bedtime that allows enough sleep before your wake time.
- Get daylight soon after waking, which helps your body clock wake you more naturally.
- Keep evenings dim in the hour before bed.
- Look at your sleep across the week, not just one morning. If you consistently wake up tired after 8 hours, the quality of your sleep may matter more than the alarm.
The calm version
Hitting snooze is not the sleep villain it is often made out to be; for most people a short snooze is harmless and can even soften a groggy start. If you snooze every day, take it as gentle information that your body may want a little more sleep or a slightly later wake time. Mendtide’s morning briefing reads your Apple Health sleep data, so you can see whether snooze-heavy mornings follow shorter or more broken nights.
Snoozing is not a failure of willpower. It is your body asking for a few more minutes, and it is worth listening to why.