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How many times does the average person hit snooze?

Last updated: October 15, 2026

On mornings that end with a snooze, people press it 2.4 times on average and spend about 11 minutes snoozing, according to a 2025 study of more than 3 million nights. About 56 percent of those nights ended with at least one snooze.

The numbers in detail

Researchers at Mass General Brigham analyzed alarm data from 21,222 Sleep Cycle users, more than 3 million nights, in a study published in 2025. They found:

• 55.6 percent of sleep sessions ended with at least one snooze press.
• On those mornings, people pressed snooze 2.4 times on average.
• Total time spent snoozing averaged 10.8 minutes.
• Snoozing was more common on weekdays than on weekends.
• Earlier, smaller studies had put snoozing at 22 to 27 minutes a day, closer to what only the heaviest snoozers do in the objective data.

Heavy snoozers vs occasional snoozers

The average hides very different habits. The study sorted 12,961 of its 21,222 users into three groups (users in between were not classified):

• Light snoozers (3,492 users, 27 percent of those classified): snooze on fewer than 20 percent of mornings. Average 1.2 presses and 3 minutes.
• Moderate snoozers (3,614 users, 28 percent of those classified): snooze on 40 to 60 percent of mornings. Average 1.7 presses and 6.3 minutes.
• Heavy snoozers (5,855 users, 45 percent of those classified and about 28 percent of all users): snooze on more than 80 percent of mornings. Average 4.0 presses and 20.2 minutes on snooze mornings, with more erratic bed and wake times.

Patterns by day of week

Snoozing is more common on weekdays than weekends. This likely reflects the gap between desired wake time (when you feel rested) and required wake time (when work or commute demands). On weekends, the two move closer together, and the snooze impulse drops.

Patterns by demographics

• Women snooze a little more than men. In the Notre Dame study, women were 50 percent more likely to be snoozers; in the Sleep Cycle data, women averaged 2.5 presses versus 2.3 for men.
• Younger adults snooze more than older adults. In the Notre Dame study, the odds of being a snoozer fell by about 2 percent with each year of age.
• Sleep length matters, in both directions. Nights longer than 9 hours were more likely to end with a snooze, while shorter nights (6 hours, for example) were followed by fewer snoozes, possibly because short sleepers had to be up for work or caregiving.

Why so many people snooze

The snooze button gives an immediate sense of control over waking up. It feels productive, even though Sundelin et al. (2024) found that 30 minutes of snoozing cost about 6 minutes of sleep and did not leave people any less sleepy. The behavior is reinforced because:

• The reward (more time in bed) is immediate.
• The cost (lost minutes, lateness) is delayed and easy to attribute to other causes.
• Most alarms make snoozing the easiest possible response.
• The half-asleep brain is bad at weighing trade-offs.

Is your snooze pattern normal?

• 0 snoozes most mornings: Like the 43 percent of Notre Dame participants who did not snooze. Likely sleeping enough and well-anchored to your wake time.
• 1 to 2 snoozes most mornings: Close to the average snooze morning (2.4 presses). Not optimal, not pathological.
• 3 to 5 snoozes most mornings: Heavy snoozer territory (heavy snoozers average 4.0 presses). Worth addressing. Either sleep more, fix sleep quality, or install an alarm that removes the option.
• 6+ snoozes regularly: The alarm is probably not the only problem. Consider talking to a doctor about your sleep.

The compound cost

If you snooze 2.4 times per morning, every weekday, for a year:

• 624 snooze presses per year.
• About 47 hours a year (roughly 4 hours a month) spent between alarms, at the average 10.8 minutes per snooze morning.
• For heavy snoozers (20.2 minutes a morning), about 88 hours a year.
• Snoozing typically offers only light sleep between alarms, according to the lead author of the 2025 study (Mass General Brigham, 2025).

Most of this cost is invisible because it is distributed across many tiny daily losses. Summed, it is significant.

Sources

1. Robbins et al., Scientific Reports, 2025. Snooze alarm use in a global population of smartphone users (21,222 Sleep Cycle users, 3 million+ nights).
2. Mattingly et al., SLEEP, 2022 (University of Notre Dame). Snoozing: an examination of a common method of waking (450 working adults).
3. Sundelin et al., Journal of Sleep Research, 2024. Is snoozing losing?
4. Hilditch & McHill, Nature and Science of Sleep, 2019. Sleep inertia: current insights.
5. Mass General Brigham press release, May 2025 (via EurekAlert!). Don’t hit snooze on new research about waking up each morning (quotes lead author Rebecca Robbins)