Why you feel better waking up naturally vs an alarm, according to a neurologist. People can actually train their brains to wake up at a consistent time each day that is a natural stopping point. Brains have an internal 24-hour clock that dictates when you first start to feel sleepy and when you wake up.
When you wake up on your own, it means you're likely completing your sleep cycles, which can allow your body and mind to rest and recover properly. This can lead to improved mood, better cognitive function, enhanced concentration, and reduced stress.
“My general advice is that you set one alarm. The more alarms you have, the harder it's going to be for you to wake up in the morning,” explained Alicia Roth, PhD, sleep psychologist for Cleveland Clinic. The more times you hit the snooze button, the more you're interrupting your sleep cycle.
Waking up without an alarm clock can offer several benefits for your overall health and well-being: Natural Sleep Cycle: Waking up naturally allows your body to complete its sleep cycles, which can lead to feeling more rested and alert. Alarm clocks can interrupt these cycles, leading to grogginess.
Most Burglars Admit Alarm Systems Deter Them
60% of the burglars claimed an alarm would change their minds. “The benefit of a security alarm comes more from deterring crime and limiting loss if a burglary does happen,” says Bill Nelson, owner of Nelson Alarm in Indianapolis.
Sudden sounds cause higher blood pressure and heart rate, thus causing stress by getting your adrenaline rushing. Studies have claimed that our alarm sound could trigger our stress levels.
Regularly getting too little sleep is linked to a number of chronic diseases, not to mention irritability and sluggishness during the day. But did you know that sleeping too much could also be problematic? Oversleeping is associated with many health problems, including: Type 2 diabetes.
Light plays a key role in regulating our sleep-wake cycle and can help ease you into waking up. Most of us know it all too well -- that painful feeling when the alarm goes off long before you're ready to wake up.
So he designed a study using both survey and wearable-device data to assess the science of snoozing. The results, published in the journal Sleep in 2022, suggested that snoozers didn't sleep less overall or report feeling more fatigued throughout the day than people who got up after one alarm.
An alarm clock can be a healthy upgrade to a distraction-free bedroom, despite it feeling like a technological downgrade. After a phone-free week of testing, we recommend six clocks for a more peaceful bedroom. They aren't too bright at night and will dependably wake you up in the morning.
The rule is simply this: Set two alarms in the morning, three minutes apart. I call it the two-by-three rule.
McHill explains that being woken up during deep sleep can cause more sleep inertia than getting up during REM sleep. Instead, using an alarm that wakes you up gradually might help you feel better in the morning. An alternative that might help is a light-based alarm clock that gets brighter and brighter.
Most experts recommend 7-9 hours of sleep for adults. If you haven't deposited enough time in your sleep bank for the night, Behar suggests heading back to bed—with one exception. If your alarm is set to wake you in 90 minutes or less, stay up, he advises.
Your phone disrupts your sleep
Another benefit of not using your phone as an alarm is that you have an easier time removing it from your bedroom, which is helpful for sleep, Paruthi said.
Before the invention of mechanical alarm clocks, some people relied on knocker-uppers. These individuals were hired to wake people up by knocking on their windows with long sticks. Knocker-uppers were especially common in urban areas where people needed to wake up early for work.
He mentioned in an interview that he makes sure he gets 6 to 6 1/2 hours of sleep everyday on average.
Studies suggest oversleeping is associated with increased risks of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and having obesity as much as undersleeping because toxins and inflammatory markers build up.
Waking up abruptly can cause higher blood pressure and heart rate. Besides increasing your blood pressure, an alarm can add to your stress levels by getting your adrenaline rushing. The solution to this health-harming problem is to instead try gradually waking up to natural light.
Stress or anxiety — People with high-stress lifestyles or anxiety disorders might have heart palpitations when they wake up, especially during stressful times. Night terrors, nightmares, and sleep paralysis — Heart pounding after nightmares isn't harmful and should subside as the day goes on.