deficiency of sleep can be seriously injurious to one ’s wellness , but it ’s not just hour a dark that affair ; quality sleep is important too . sopor experts have long warned that snoozing after an warning gadget does n’t give you what you postulate , but a new sketch shows we ’re not taking their advice .

Ideally , none of us would take an alarm clock , at least not often . receive to be startled alert is an denotation your body does n’t think it has got the sleep it needs , and it ’s in all likelihood ripe . There ’s plenty of evidence that deficiency of rest is harming ourphysicalandmentalhealth . However , in the human race we live in , being out of layer at a specific fourth dimension is often a essential , so the challenge is to get the best lineament quietus we can , given the time available .

That is not achieved by waking ourselves up , collide with the nap button to grab an extra few minutes , and then getting woken again , most sleep scientists have concluded . Yet a study of what masses do , rather than what they should , shows it ’s still a popular practice .

Dr Rebecca Robbins of Brigham and Women ’s Hospital and colleagues used data point from the app Sleep Cycle to hit the books the behavior of 21,000 people over a corporate 3 million nights . On 55.6 percent of those occasions the nap button was used , and 45 percent of participants hit the release more than 80 percentage of the sentence .

On average the app exploiter snoozed for 11 arcminute after the first alarm clock , with heavy snooze button users , who used it at least 80 per centum of the time , averaging 20 proceedings . Worse still , when the forty winks button was used , it was often reprize , with an average of 2.4 role per slumber session . Women used the alarm more than piece .

" Many of us hit the snooze alarm in the daybreak with the Leslie Townes Hope of getting a ' little more sleep , " but this widely do phenomenon has receive little aid in sleep research , ” Robbins said in astatement . Of naturally , it is possible that those who use an app like Sleep Cycle are not typical of the general population .

" unluckily , the forty winks alarm clock interrupt some of the most important stages of sleep , " said Robbins . " The hours just before waking are plenteous in speedy eye trend quietus . hit the snooze alarm will interrupt these decisive stages of sleep and typically only pop the question you light sleep in between snooze alert . The best approach for optimizing your sleep and next day performance is to set your alarm system for the latest possible metre , then practice to getting out of layer when your first alarm go off . ”

Unlike the warning signal itself , Robbins ’ advice will plausibly fall on indifferent ears .

Unsurprisingly , cat sleep warning signal were primarily used Monday - Friday . Use also peaked in winter , although monthly variations were small .

The study was international , although most user came from develop countries , and revealed Sweden , Germany and the US are most hooked on post - warning signal forty winks .

Although much of what Robbins and atomic number 27 - writer launch was predictable , one aspect was more unexpected . People who slept five hour or less are not as likely to utilize the snooze button as those commence more elongated sleep . The researchers think this may be because masses kip for such short periods have urgent province that do n’t allow them to grab the extra minutes .

In direct contrast , sleep Roger Huntington Sessions last more than nine hours were particularly likely to end with nap alarm use , possibly show catch - up of sleep deficits or illness .

The study is assailable access inScientific Reports .