Hitting the Snooze Button Every Morning?

A new study shows you’re far from alone.

A study by researchers at the University of Notre Dame has painted a clearer picture of our tendency to hit the snooze button — and if you delayed getting out of bed this morning, you’re not alone.

The study, published in the journal SLEEP, found 57% of participants were habitual snoozers. While scientists and medical professionals have long advised against it, the act of snoozing — how often and why we do it — remains virtually unstudied.

“Most of what we know about snoozing is taken from data on sleep, stress or related behaviors,” said Stephen Mattingly, lead author of the study. “Alarm clocks, smartphones — they all have snooze buttons. The medical establishment is generally against the use of snoozing, but when we went to look at what hard data existed, there was none. We now have the data to prove just how common it is — and there is still so much that we do not know.”

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates one in three Americans do not get enough sleep. The findings of the study suggest snoozing may be how some battle their exhaustion.

“So many people are snoozing because so many people are chronically tired,” Mattingly said. “If only one in three people are sleeping adequately, that means a lot of us are turning to other means to manage fatigue.”

The study surveyed 450 adults with full-time, salaried employment. Participants completed daily surveys and a questionnaire. Data collected from wearable devices measured sleep duration and heart rate. According to the study, women were 50% more likely to snooze than men. Snoozers tracked fewer steps than other respondents and experienced more disturbances during sleeping hours.

“These are people who have been in the workforce for years, white-collar workers with advanced degrees — and 57% of them are snoozing,” Mattingly said. “Critically, these statistics are only representative of a small population that is likely to be in the best position with respect to sleep habits. We have no idea about various age groups, such as teenagers, lower-income households or any of the populations that are historically more sleep deprived than the respondents of this study. So, the odds are this is probably a conservative estimate of the wider population.”