In this article series “15 minutes makes a difference,” I decided to take a real look at how much of a difference 15 minutes can make in different aspects of life.
This article’s topic is sleep. Ever heard the saying “you snooze, you lose”? Here’s why hitting the snooze button can actually cause you to have a lousy, drowsy day.
How often are you tempted to hit the snooze button when that annoying alarm clock pulls you out of your dreams? It might be doing more harm than good.
Just enter “hitting snooze” into Google and all of the results for pages and pages will be about the how bad of a habit it is for you to develop. But why is it so bad? Why do I feel worse after waking up the second or third time? It has to do with your sleep cycle.
You know how on weekends or days when you don’t have class, you don’t turn into Rip Van Winkle and go on sleeping forever, you do wake up naturally, eventually? You usually feel more rested than on days when your alarm woke you up. According to the video “The Snooze Button” by AsapSCIENCE on YouTube.com, people wake up with out an alarm clock because we have our own circadian rhythm, or body clock, that sends out chemicals that wake you up. The process of waking up naturally takes about 30 minutes. When your alarm clock goes off and wakes you up during this time when you are about to wake up naturally, you feel a little tired still and that snooze button looks so tempting.
Resist the urge to hit snooze because you were starting to wake up on your own anyway, if you wake up at around the same time every day, and your body had released those wake up chemicals. Once you hit snooze and go back to sleep, a new sleep cycle will start over again. It’s in the beginning of the sleep cycle when you sleep the deepest. Being woken up 10-15 minutes after you fall asleep will leave you feeling groggy and worse than when you woke up the first time because the first time, you were waking up naturally. After hitting snooze and waking up the second time you were sleeping deeply, leaving you feeling even more compelled to hit snooze.
Instead of planning on hitting snooze, plan on not hitting it. Get those last, uninterrupted bits of sleep because it will help you stay alert and awake during that boring power point lecture.
The other thing you can do, according to the video, is develop a sleep schedule that you adhere to, even on the weekends. I know, I know, it’s hard to wake up early on Sunday morning, but your body will thank you for the rest of the week.
See what a difference 15 minutes can make? The difference between being thrown out of class for sleeping and being able to stay awake during that crucial lecture.
Click the link to watch the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6zcSFA7ymo#t=99