Are you pressed the snooze button? Research shows that you're not the only one

A study by researchers at the University of Notre Dame paints a clearer picture of our tendency to press the snooze button — if you wake up late this morning, you're certainly not alone
.

The study, published in the journal Sleep, found that 57 percent of participants were habitually dozing off
.
While scientists and medical professionals have long dismissed napping, the frequency and reasons for our naps are actually still unstudied
.

"Much of what we know about sleep comes from data on sleep, stress, or related behaviors," said
Stephen Mattingly, lead author of the study.
He conducted the research with Aaron Striegel, a professor of computer science and engineering at the University of Notre Dame, while a postdoctoral researcher at the
University of Notre Dame.
"Alarm clocks and smartphones have an alarm stop button
.
Medical institutions are generally opposed to the use of naps, but when we went to see what conclusive data there was, there was none.

We now have data to prove how common it is, but there's a lot we
don't know.
”

The U.
S.
Centers for Disease Control estimates that one-third of Americans don't get enough
sleep.
The findings suggest that napping may be a way
for some people to combat fatigue.

"So many people doze off because a lot of people are chronically tired
," Martinley said.
"If only a third of people get enough sleep, it means that many of us are turning to other ways to cope with fatigue
.
"

The study surveyed 450 full-time salaried adults
.
Participants completed daily surveys and questionnaires
.
Data collected from wearables measured sleep duration and heart rate
.
According to the study, women are more likely to nap
than men.
Those who snoozed took fewer steps than other respondents and were more
disturbed during their sleep time.

"These people have been working for years, white-collar workers with advanced education, and 57 percent of them are dozing
off," Martinley said.
"The point is that these statistics represent only a small subset of people
who are likely to be at their best in terms of sleep habits.
We don't know that different age groups, such as adolescents, low-income families, or any population, have historically been more sleep-deprived than the respondents in this study
.
So, this may be a conservative estimate
of the wider population.
”

The study also took into account each respondent's sleep type, that is, when they preferred to go to bed and when they woke up
.
Studies have found that night owls sleep more and are more tired
overall.
"In a nine-to-five world, night owls are going downhill
," Martinley said.

"Part of this research is focused on demystifying sleep
," Striegel said.
"Is this really worse than being woken up as soon as the alarm goes off? Is there that a big difference?" The suggestion not to set an alarm is well-founded, but from physiology and our data, being woken up by one alarm or pressing the stop button is not much different
from being woken up by two or three alarms.
If you need an alarm clock because of sleep deprivation, that's the
problem.
”

When respondents woke up naturally without the help of an alarm clock, they slept longer and consumed less
caffeine.
People who nap sleep the same
amount of time as people who don't.
People who nap don't sleep more and don't get tired
often.

"When we can sleep as long as we want, the body experiences a stress response
before waking up," Martinley said.
This physiological response helps people stay alert when they wake up
.
”

An alarm clock disrupts the natural sleep cycle and can lead to sleep inertia – feeling tired or groggy
.
"When you wake up from REM sleep," Martinley says, "your brain is close to being fully awake
.
" Hormone circulation levels at this stage will be different
from those during deep sleep.
”

Being woken up by an alarm clock is a bit like a double whammy, bypassing the natural stress response that makes you feel alert and waking you up with brain chemistry out of order
.

Both Striegel and Martinley say more research is needed to understand the potential negative health effects of napping, and Mattingley stressed that the best advice is for everyone to get as much sleep as they can because their bodies need it
.

Still, there are benefits to
napping.

"If you take a nap, then when you drive to work, you'll be more awake, which can be a benefit and a useful benefit
," he said.
"If it reduces dependence on caffeine, that's another story
.
" It's not all bad – just like
stress.
Some stress is good – that's why we have a fight-or-flight response
.
It has a time and place
.
In some cases, pressing the snooze button is actually beneficial
.
”