Snips and Snails and Puppydog Tails

A recent tweet from Dr. Oz caught my eye: “one of the hardest rules to follow . . . @DrOz said no to snooze button. makes you feel worse.” This idea intrigued me. Is it true? Does the snooze button make you feel worse?

I’m currently quite in love with my snooze button. Some might even say I’m an addict. My cell phone alarm (which I set because I’m paranoid about middle-of-the-night power outages wrecking my regular alarm . . . it is springtime in north Texas, after all, and that means power-killing storms can blow up in nano-seconds) is set for 5:45 am Monday through Friday. Lofty goal, yes. My standard alarm clock is set for 6:01 (yes, I’m strange and prefer to have the alarm go off on an odd-numbered minute), but it’s typically sometime between 6:35 and 6:45 (or, on REALLY bad days, 7:15) when I actually get my butt out of bed. I’m a heavy sleeper, so I need the annoying, blaring alarm sound instead of the radio to wake me, so yes, all that time between 6:01 and the time I get up is spent in 9-minute segments with the snooze button.

I started looking into this so-called “snooze button effect.” I think we all know it’s pretty much a mind fake-out, but is it truly detrimental to our health?  In this article, author Kevin Ngo, states that “the problem with [the snooze button] is that 9 minutes isn’t enough time for you to fall into any beneficial sleep stage, therefore, all you’re really doing is deliberately allowing your sleep to be interrupted. ”

The article goes on to describe adverse effects of interrupted sleep, such as tiredness, agitation, headaches, and mood swings, and also likens the snooze button to a form of procrastination. Well, Mr. Ngo, you’ve got me there. I always attributed those symptoms to being a working wife, stepmom, and just generally having too much to do each day, but now I potentially have another reason, and one that’s actually something I can do something about. I’m also an admitted procrastinator (no comments on how that is ALSO something I can do something about, please), so it makes sense that I’d want to procrastinate doing something that I really dislike – getting up in the morning (in case you hadn’t figured it out already, I am NOT a morning person).

A further search (thank you, bing.com) found several suggestions–both funny and practical–for how to wean one’s self off the snooze button. (I might have chuckled most at the suggestion of locking the alarm clock in a safe so that you have to get up and work out a combination to get to the clock to turn it off.) Among the more practical solutions offered: set the alarm for the latest possible minute you can still make it to work on time, so that you CAN’T use the snooze button; put the clock on the other side of the room so that you have to get up to turn it off; set your thermostat to come on and warm up your room about an hour before you have to wake up, because it’s easier to get out of bed in a warmer room; super gluing the snooze button so that you can’t use it. (Okay, maybe that’s more funny than practical, but, hey, I liked it, so I included it.)

I think, though, the one I like best–the most “Zen”, if you will–is one from our friend, Mr. Ngo, “have a purpose to get up that’s greater than what any 9 minute intervals of sleep can offer you. When you’ve set up your life in a way that brings excitement and passion into each waking hour, getting up will come naturally.”

I’m actually quite tempted to test this whole “Snooze button effect” theory by voluntarily going through snooze button detox. . .of course, it may be unneccessary, as in just a couple weeks, there will be a new alarm clock in our home who doesn’t come with a snooze button, and WON’T be ignored (and who, incidentally, should definitely bring excitement to our lives) . . . so maybe this is an experiment better left for closer to time for my return to the working world. Or would it be better to get used to the no-snooze feature now, before that exciting new addition comes home? What do you think, folks?