Swedish study shows snoozing in the morning isn’t bad

STOCKHOLM: You snooze, you lose? Swedish researchers said on Wednesday that might not be the case, after their study even saw some benefits for those struggling with morning drowsiness.

While for many, a reach for the snooze button on the alarm clock is how most days start, researchers at Stockholm University noted that little is still known about the habit, prompting them to conduct two studies, the results of which where published on Wednesday.

The first sought to identify who the snoozers actually were via the use of questionnaires collected from 1,732 respondents.

“In the first study we found that in general younger people were the ones snoozing and they were to a high degree night owls,” Tina Sundelin, sleep researcher at Stockholm University, told AFP, noting that the initial finding was not too surprising.

Sundelin explained that the most common reason for snoozing was simply “because they felt too tired to get up.” But in some cases respondents said they just enjoying the feeling of staying in bed for a while longer, describing it as a “luxury”.

The second study then examined how snoozing actually impacted performance and they had 31 individuals join them at their sleep lab. They then tested the difference between uninterrupted sleep and getting up immediately or first waking up a half-hour earlier and snoozing before getting up.