Artificial lighting isn’t as bright as sunshine, but turning it on is more helpful than staying in the dark. If it’s still dark when you need to wake up, switch on a lamp as soon as the alarm goes off (it’s even better if you have to get out of bed to do that-see “Get on your feet” below). Or consider a smart shade, which you can program to rise at a certain time. “If you have trouble getting up in the morning, a brighter room will be easier to wake up to.” If the actual sunrise corresponds to your desired wake time, leave your shades raised a bit at night, as long as light sources outside your home-lamp posts, street lights, the neighbors’ off-season Christmas decorations-aren’t visible through your window (because they can prevent you from falling asleep in the first place). “Light cues our brain to be awake,” Rosen says. You may find a range of more-pleasant sounds in your phone’s clock feature, on a few of our alarm clock picks, and in all of our sunrise alarm clock and sleep-tracking app recommendations. “It’s allowing you to sort of wake up, become more conscious and thoughtful about your actions, and then get up,” Winter says. Instead, he suggests trying soothing sounds (birds chirping, bells chiming, a favorite song) that gradually increase in volume and peak at your scheduled wake-up time. Christopher Winter, MD, president of Charlottesville Neurology and Sleep Medicine and author of The Rested Child, says, “A lot of times, when people hear that jarring sound, they shut it off immediately,” only to fall back asleep. In fact, it may have the opposite effect: As W. You might expect that the louder and more unpleasant the alarm, the more effective it would be at waking you up. To address this issue, some sleep-tracking apps, such as the Wirecutter-recommended SleepScore, monitor your sleep cycles and wake you at an optimal time within a programmed range (for example, during the light sleep of non-REM stage 1 instead of the deep non-REM stage 3), thereby increasing your chances of waking up feeling refreshed and ready for the day. “You’re setting an artificial time to wake you that’s not in sync with your body rhythm,” explains Nathaniel Watson, MD, professor of medicine and co-director of the University of Washington Medicine Sleep Center. The resulting grogginess can be one reason you’re especially tempted to hit snooze. Work on your timingĪlthough you’re typically in REM sleep by wake-up time, there’s a chance your alarm will go off during a deeper sleep cycle instead.

What to do? We asked sleep experts for answers.

That’s why so many folks fall victim to the siren song of the snooze button. Of course, waking up is hard-sometimes even after eight hours. “You’re short-changing yourself,” she says. So those extra nine or so minutes post-alarm aren’t very restful. But once REM sleep is interrupted, Rosen says, you don’t immediately return to the same stage. “For most of us, that alarm is going off at a time when we are likely having REM sleep, one of the most restorative stages of sleep,” explains Ilene Rosen, MD, associate professor of medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, who studies sleep disorders and sleep deprivation. Adding insult to injury, the sleep you manage to get between snooze alarms doesn’t benefit you much anyway.

Unfortunately, those 20 or 30 minutes deliciously lost to snoozing can become problematic. It’s a penalty-free grace period that never expires-after all, you’ll get up eventually, right? No harm done. And in a few minutes, you hit snooze again. But you’re sooo tired, and the bed is sooo comfortable. Beep-beep! Beep-beep!! It’s wake-up time, and your alarm is going off.

Iphone snooze time