2025年12月06日 / ライフスタイル

Healthy Sleep: Is Snoozing Really Unhealthy? A Comprehensive Guide to the Latest Research and "Smart Ways to Manage It"

Healthy Sleep: Is Snoozing Really Unhealthy? A Comprehensive Guide to the Latest Research and "Smart Ways to Manage It"

1. Why Has "Snooze is Bad for Your Health" Been a Common Belief?

Morning, the alarm rings
→ You barely open your eyes
→ Hit snooze and fall back asleep
…Many people repeat this loop multiple times.


Traditionally, sleep experts have repeatedly warned against using the snooze button. The main reasons are as follows:

  1. Sleep Fragmentation
    Being woken up by an alarm every few minutes disrupts light sleep repeatedly, leading to a loss of sleep continuity.

  2. Prolonged Sleep Inertia
    The groggy state right after waking is called "sleep inertia." It has been thought that being "forced awake" multiple times by snoozing might prolong this grogginess.PMC

  3. Sign of Fundamental Sleep Deficiency
    The struggle to wake up in the morning is often simply a result of insufficient or irregular sleep, leading to the idea that "instead of relying on snooze, you should first ensure adequate sleep."


For these reasons, many sleep books and health websites have advised, "Stop snoozing and get up as soon as the alarm rings."

However, doubts like "Is it really that bad?" and "Isn't it difficult in reality?" have persisted.



2. The Surprising Aspects of Snooze Revealed by Recent Research

2-1. "Does Snoozing Really Not Reduce Sleep?"

A research group from Stockholm University in Sweden conducted a detailed study on the effects of snoozing among regular snooze users.su.se+1


The results showed that,

  • people who snooze sleep only about 6 minutes less per night on average compared to those who don't snooze.

  • No significant negative effects on cortisol secretion (a hormone related to wakefulness) or nighttime sleep structure were observed

—a result that challenges the traditional image of snoozing.


In another experiment,

  • when comparing days when subjects woke up immediately after the alarm with days when they snoozed for 30 minutes before getting up, it was found that even on snooze days,

    attention

    • performance on simple cognitive tests

    • did not decline, and in some cases,
better performance was reported on snooze days.

Scientific American+1


2-2. Expert Opinion: "No Problem if Within 30 Minutes"

In a feature by the German weekly magazine "stern," sleep physician Dr. Dora Triché introduced the latest Swedish research and highlighted the following points:

Scribd


    Snoozing for about 30 minutes doesn't seem to pose significant issues

  • However, repeatedly snoozing for longer than that is a
    • sign that "you aren't getting enough sleep in the first place."


  • In other words,
    • short snoozes aren't necessarily the villain,
while a state where you can't wake up without extending snooze multiple times suggests another issue (chronic sleep debt or sleep disorders).


2-3. Insights from Large-Scale Data on "Snooze Habits Around the World"

There is also research investigating how common the habit of snoozing is.

An international study analyzing data from about 3 million nights from the sleep app "Sleep Cycle" reported that

about 56% of all sleep sessions ended with snooze.



Nature+2ScienceDaily+2 The main findings are as follows:

Globally,

people snooze for an average of

about 11 minutes

per sleep session.

  • About 45% of participants

    are "heavy users" who rely on snooze in more than 80% of their mornings.

    • Heavy snoozers tend to have irregular sleep rhythms, with inconsistent bedtimes and wake-up times.


  • Japanese users, when viewed by country,

  • snooze relatively less


and are among the group with the shortest snooze time per sleep session globally.

  • This suggests that,

    • on the surface, "Japanese people don't rely on snooze," but it also points to the possibility that "they don't have enough sleep time to even afford snoozing."

    • News-Medical

3. Organizing the "Pros" and "Cons" of Snooze

3-1. Pros: If Used Well, It Can Be a "Soft Landing"

Considering recent research and expert opinions, short snoozes have the following

positive aspects: Reducing the risk of being abruptly woken from deep sleep Setting the alarm a bit earlier and snoozing can make it easier to wake up when sleep naturally becomes lighter.


Sleep Foundation


+1




    It can alleviate sleep inertia

  • Although you don't fully wake up with the first alarm, the brain gradually moves towards wakefulness, making it easier to feel clear-headed when you finally get up.

    Scientific American+1

    Psychological reassurance
  • Having the leeway of "10 more minutes" can reduce the stress of waking up for some people. Considering that stress itself lowers sleep quality, a moderate psychological cushion isn't necessarily bad.




    3-2. Cons: Overuse is Definitely a No-GoOn the other hand, the issues with excessive snoozing are clear. Sleep becomes fragmented

    Inserting multiple 5-10 minute light sleep periods can lead to a state where "you think you're sleeping, but you're not recovering."

  • PMC

    +1

Potentially reducing REM sleep Morning is a time when REM sleep, important for emotional processing and memory consolidation, is prevalent. Repeated alarms during this time may disrupt valuable REM sleep.


Your snooze time is within a total of 30 minutes



Scribd

+1


You don't experience strong daytime sleepiness or concentration decline


The difference in wake-up times between weekdays and weekends is within 2 hours


You don't have extreme difficulty falling asleep

    • In this case, there's no need to be overly concerned about "having to eliminate snooze completely to be healthy."
  • Instead,

    you can utilize short snoozes as a "gentle awakening ritual."