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Does snoozing actually give you more rest?

Last updated: October 15, 2026

No. In a sleep-lab study, 30 minutes of snoozing cost people about 6 minutes of sleep and left them no less sleepy and in no better mood. It did not hurt their test scores either: snoozing simply does not buy you rest.

What the research actually shows

Sundelin et al. (2024) studied 31 habitual snoozers in a sleep lab, comparing a morning with 30 minutes of snoozing to a morning of waking up at once. Snoozing cost them about 6 minutes of sleep, and there were no clear differences in morning sleepiness, mood, the cortisol awakening response or overnight sleep architecture. The extra "rest" did not show up. To be fair, cognitive test scores right after getting up were the same or slightly better after snoozing, so a short snooze is not the disaster it is often made out to be. It just does not deliver what it promises.

Earlier research on sleep inertia (Tassi & Muzet, 2000) explains why mornings feel rough either way: the grogginess after waking is a normal transition that is strongest when you wake from deep sleep, and without major sleep loss it rarely lasts more than 30 minutes.

Snoozing is common. In a 2022 University of Notre Dame study of 450 working adults, 57 percent were habitual snoozers (Mattingly et al., 2022). A 2025 analysis of more than 3 million nights from over 21,000 Sleep Cycle app users found that 55.6% of sleep sessions ended with a snooze; on those mornings, people pressed snooze 2.4 times on average, for about 11 minutes in total (Robbins et al., 2025).

What happens during a snooze

A complete sleep cycle lasts roughly 90 minutes and passes through light sleep, deep sleep and REM. Deep N3 slow-wave sleep and REM sleep take uninterrupted time to reach. A 9-minute snooze is mostly spent falling back asleep and dozing lightly. In the Sundelin study, snoozing did have one upside: it kept people from being woken straight out of deep N3 sleep. What it cannot do is add meaningful deep sleep.

What you are actually gaining

• The pleasant feeling of choosing to stay in bed. It feels like relief, but it is comfort, not recovery.
• Warmth. Real, but addressable by turning the heat up.
• A few minutes of light dozing. Cozy, and maybe a gentler wake-up, but not extra rest.

What you are losing

• Sleep. Setting the alarm early so you can snooze trades solid sleep for broken dozing: in the lab study, 30 minutes of snoozing meant about 6 minutes less sleep.
• Habit formation. Snoozing is a habit like any other: the more mornings you repeat it, the more automatic it becomes.
• Schedule discipline. Every snooze pushes back the moment you actually get up, and the rest of the morning gets squeezed.

The placebo of "I needed those extra minutes"

If you genuinely needed extra minutes, you would set the alarm for the time you actually have to wake up, not 30 minutes earlier so you can "afford" 3 snoozes. The snooze ritual is not a sleep strategy. It is a way to negotiate with yourself in the early-morning fog. The brain wins that negotiation every time because it is the only party that is fully awake (it does not want you to be).

The honest alternative

Set the alarm for the time you actually need to get up and spend those 30 minutes asleep instead of dozing. Then get up on the first alarm: cutting the snooze entirely and starting with a mission (like ByeBed's photo or push-up tasks) gets you out of bed while the grogginess wears off, instead of back under the covers.

Common counterarguments

"But it feels good." So does scrolling social media at 2am. Feeling good is not evidence of benefit.

"I get more vivid dreams in those snooze cycles." Possibly: the last part of the night is rich in REM sleep, when the most vivid dreams happen. Vivid dreams are not a sign of extra rest, though.

"My doctor said it is fine." Your doctor may well be right: the Sundelin study found no sign that a short snooze harms habitual snoozers. It just does not give you more rest. If you want mornings that start on time, it is still the habit to change.

"I cannot help it." That is the actual problem. Use an alarm that removes the easy option.

Sources

1. Sundelin et al., Journal of Sleep Research, 2024. Is snoozing losing? Why intermittent morning alarms are used and how they affect sleep, cognition, cortisol, and mood.
2. Mattingly et al., SLEEP, 2022 (University of Notre Dame). Snoozing: an examination of a common method of waking (450 working adults).
3. Hilditch & McHill, Nature and Science of Sleep, 2019. Sleep inertia: current insights.
4. Tassi & Muzet, Sleep Medicine Reviews, 2000. Sleep inertia.
5. Robbins et al., Scientific Reports, 2025. Snooze alarm use in a global population of smartphone users (more than 3 million nights)