Is snoozing bad for you? What the studies actually say
By the Rise team · Updated 22 October 2026.
We make Rise, an alarm app. This page is about the research, not the app; Rise comes up once, at the end.
This is general information, not medical advice.
Sundelin and colleagues (2023) found that 30 minutes of snoozing, in 31 habitual snoozers, cost about 6 minutes of sleep, with no clear effect on mood. Thinking tests straight after waking were not worse. In that study the last 30 minutes of sleep were broken up. Ogawa and colleagues (2022) conclude, from a 10-person lab study, that snoozing prolongs the groggy spell after waking, and they say the small sample limits that finding. Dr Fiona Barwick advises getting out of bed when the alarm goes off. If you snooze again and again and still feel tired, Dr Alicia Roth says that could be a sign of too little sleep. Details and limits are below.
Below: what each study found, who it applies to, and a check drawn from those sources.
In short
Sundelin and colleagues (2023): in habitual snoozers, 30 minutes of snoozing had no clear effect on mood, and morning thinking tests were not worse
In that same study, the last 30 minutes of sleep were broken up
Ogawa and colleagues (2022): the authors conclude a snooze alarm prolongs grogginess, and they flag the 10-person sample
The short answer, in the words of the people who study it
On 11 February 2025, the Cleveland Clinic quoted behavioural sleep medicine psychologist Dr Alicia Roth. She treats the answer as not straightforward, and calls the recent studies preliminary, with small samples. "What we suggest clinically in the real world is to try to minimize snoozing. The research may show that it doesn't hurt people, but it certainly doesn't help."
Lead author Tina Sundelin, quoted in Scientific American: "Snoozing for a limited time in the morning is probably not bad for you."
What the studies found
There isn't much research on snoozing itself. These are the main studies, with how many people took part.
2023: 30 minutes of snoozing in 31 habitual snoozers
Sundelin, Landry and Axelsson, Journal of Sleep Research, published online 17 October 2023, Stockholm University. The lab part followed 31 adults who snooze at least twice a week and almost always fall back asleep between alarms. Poor sleep and sleep disorders were screened out, including on a habituation night. Polysomnography (a brain-wave recording) covered two nights with the same final wake time: 30 minutes of snoozing, alarm every 9–10 minutes, or sleep straight through. The authors report about 6 minutes less sleep. In the last 30 minutes, snoozing meant less sleep, more brief awakenings, more light stage N1 sleep, and less REM sleep. No one in the snooze condition had deep sleep (stage N3) in that half hour. The two awakenings from deep sleep were both on the sleep-through night. Across the whole night, sleep structure showed no clear difference. Thinking tests, completed by 30 of the 31, were not worse straight after rising. Some scores were better, and the authors say more evidence is needed before treating that improvement as settled. They found no clear effects on morning sleepiness, mood, or the cortisol awakening response. After the snooze night, people reported feeling slightly sleepier at lunchtime and putting in more effort on the afternoon tests. The authors add a caution they did not test: a 30-minute snooze may matter more for someone already short on sleep, or already sleeping badly. They studied habitual snoozers, for 30 minutes.
The same paper's survey of 1,732 people is what the authors call a convenience sample, so it is not a population figure. Snoozing was more common in younger people and in later chronotypes. Snoozers were more likely to feel mentally drowsy on waking, and they reported 13 minutes less sleep on workdays, with no difference on days off. The reason mentioned most often was feeling too tired to get out of bed, named by 25% of snoozers. They gave that reason on a questionnaire. The study does not show that people decide to snooze while half-asleep. What this study can support: in this group, 30 minutes of snoozing had no clear effect on mood, morning thinking tests were not worse, and the last 30 minutes of sleep were broken up. The authors do not extend that to longer snoozes, or to people already short on sleep.
2022: a 10-person lab study of sleep inertia
Ogawa, Kaizuma-Ueyama and Hayashi, Journal of Physiological Anthropology, published 31 December 2022, Hiroshima University. Ten healthy university students who used a snooze 5 to 7 days a week spent nights in the lab. The snooze alarm was set to go off four times, at 5-minute intervals, in the last 20 minutes. In that window they slept about 4 minutes less, with more time awake and in light stage N1 sleep. Sleep across the whole night was also 8.7 minutes shorter on average. The authors say the part of the night before those last 20 minutes was not clearly different. In the 30 minutes after waking, reaction times were slower in the third of three 5-minute blocks after the snooze night. A test of the overall difference in reaction time was not statistically significant. Global Vigor, a self-rating, rose after waking compared with before sleep on the no-snooze night. The authors conclude that vigour was lower after the snooze night, and that a snooze alarm "prolongs sleep inertia" (the groggy spell after waking), possibly from repeated forced awakenings. They write that the small sample might have limited the statistics. A separate survey in the same paper collected 293 responses. People who used a phone snooze did so mainly to reduce anxiety about oversleeping. What this study can support: the authors' conclusion of more grogginess, in a 10-person sample they describe as limited. It does not estimate the effect in other groups.
2022: heart rate and lighter sleep before waking (450 working adults)
Mattingly and colleagues, Sleep, published 11 August 2022, University of Notre Dame. 450 full-time working adults in the United States, with surveys and a Garmin wrist wearable. 57% snoozed. In this paper, snoozing means several alarms, as well as a snooze button. Across about 10 months of recordings, snoozers' heart rate during sleep was 1.86 beats a minute higher over the night, and 1.62 beats a minute higher in the last hour. The abstract calls this an elevated resting heart rate. In a one-week slice, the gap between snoozers and non-snoozers was 3.35 beats a minute across the night, while heart rate on a day the person snoozed was 0.83 beats a minute lower across the night. That day-level comparison was not statistically significant in the last hour. In the last hour, snoozers spent 2.19% more time in light sleep and 1.86% less time in deep sleep. They did not sleep less, did not feel more sleepy, and did not nap more. Scores on the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index were associated with being a snoozer. On that scale, a higher score means worse sleep. These are links between groups. The study did not test whether snoozing causes the difference, and it did not measure heart disease. Participants were not screened for sleep disorders. Sleep stage came from the wrist wearable, which the authors treat as a limited measure, and they call for more research on health effects. What this study can support: snoozers in this sample differed in heart rate during sleep, and in light sleep in the last hour. It does not show that snoozing harms the heart, or that heart rate was higher on the mornings they snoozed.
2025: snooze logs from 21,222 app users
Robbins and colleagues, Scientific Reports, published 19 May 2025, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School. 21,222 iPhone users of the Sleep Cycle app, 3,017,276 sleep sessions of at least 4 hours, from July to December 2022. The logs have no ratings of how people felt. Of the logged sessions, 55.6% ended with a snooze. Among those sessions, the snooze was pressed 2.4 times and lasted 10.8 minutes on average. Heavy users, defined as a snooze on more than 80% of sessions, averaged 4.0 presses and 20.2 minutes. Snooze use was higher on weekdays than on Saturday and Sunday. The authors' summary says people who went to bed later than usual used the snooze more, and people who went to bed earlier used it less. In the detailed split, later bedtimes also included mornings with no snooze. Sessions longer than 9 hours were more likely to end with a snooze than sessions of 7 to 9 hours, or sessions under 7 hours. On a visual check of the logs, heavy users had less regular bed and wake times. The authors write that heavier snooze use "may be part of the phenotype of poor sleep health." They also write that experts discourage snoozing because it breaks sleep up. That sentence is their note on expert opinion, not a result counted from these logs. They say more research is needed on daytime performance. What this study can support: snoozing was common in these app logs. Heavier use sat alongside less regular timing on a visual check, and longer sleep sessions were more likely to end with a snooze. The paper does not show that heavy snoozing means poor sleep habits, and it did not ask people how they felt.
What sleep experts advise
Stanford's Dr Fiona Barwick, in an 8 August 2024 Stanford Lifestyle Medicine article: "Hitting the snooze button is one of the worst things you can do because it prolongs morning grogginess and associates the bed with being awake." She says to get out of bed within 15 minutes of the alarm and get natural light.
University of Utah Health (2 January 2024) says that for healthy sleepers without a history of sleep disorders, snoozing a bit in the morning "might not actually be so bad." The article quotes Kelly Baron, PhD, on the Stockholm study: "This data suggests that it didn't have much of an impact on sleep among these people who are pretty healthy, and that snoozing did help them wake up a little easier." That is her comment. The study's own results are in the section above, including broken-up sleep in the last 30 minutes. The Utah article also says snoozing can prolong sleep inertia, and quotes Baron: light, a shower, and a little caffeine "will reduce sleep inertia." She calls that "boot-up time."
Dr Alicia Roth, in the Cleveland Clinic piece (11 February 2025): "Much of the latter part of our sleep cycle is comprised of REM sleep, or dream sleep, which is a restorative sleep state. And so, if you're hitting snooze, then you're disrupting that REM sleep." Her clinical suggestion, quoted above, is to try to minimize snoozing. Barwick's advice is to get out of bed when the alarm goes off.
When snoozing is more likely to be a problem
These are the groups named by University of Utah Health (2 January 2024), unless another source is named. This list does not say that you have any of these conditions.
People with a sleep disorder such as sleep apnoea. University of Utah Health names this group. The Cleveland Clinic article says the evidence is clearer on the downsides of snoozing for people who have a sleep disorder.
People who do shift work or work irregular hours (University of Utah Health).
People who wake in the night to care for children or others (University of Utah Health).
People with another health condition that wakes them in the night (University of Utah Health).
People already short on sleep, or already sleeping badly. Sundelin and colleagues (2023) write that a 30-minute snooze may matter more in that situation. They state it as a caution, not as a result they tested.
People who are cranky and groggy in the mornings. University of Utah Health says they may want to consider dropping the habit.
Is your snoozing OK? A quick check
This check points at the sources. It is not a new study result, and it is not a diagnosis. Dr Alicia Roth, in the Cleveland Clinic piece (11 February 2025), says that if you snooze and feel fine, there is no real need to change your habits. The NHS says that, on average, adults need 7 to 9 hours, and that everyone needs a different amount. University of Utah Health says a bit of snoozing might not be so bad for healthy sleepers without a history of sleep disorders. Roth also says that needing to snooze again and again could be a sign of too little sleep, or of a sleep disorder such as obstructive sleep apnoea or chronic insomnia. University of Utah Health says people who are cranky and groggy in the mornings may want to consider dropping the habit. On length, Sundelin and colleagues (2023) tested 30 minutes in habitual snoozers. A longer snooze was not tested. The paper does not give a number of presses to aim for.
When to speak to a GP
Speak to a GP when the NHS insomnia page says to see one: changing your sleeping habits has not helped your insomnia, you have had trouble sleeping for months, or your insomnia is affecting your daily life in a way that makes it hard to cope. Dr Alicia Roth, in the Cleveland Clinic piece, says needing to snooze again and again could be a sign of too little sleep, or of a sleep disorder such as obstructive sleep apnoea or chronic insomnia. That is her clinical comment, not a diagnosis from this page.
On Rise, the price is set per alarm, with no minimum or maximum, and it is locked once the alarm rings. Pay to Snooze can be switched off per alarm. No card is charged automatically. Token packs are 10 for £0.89, 50 for £3.49, and 200 for £8.99. Tokens don't expire. At zero tokens, snoozing falls back to free. The default snooze is 9 minutes. iOS is coming soon. Nothing on this page says Pay to Snooze will change how much you snooze.
Not clearly, in the one lab test of a 30-minute snooze. Sundelin and colleagues (2023) found that 31 habitual snoozers lost about 6 minutes of sleep, with no clear effect on mood, and thinking tests straight after waking were not worse. The last 30 minutes of sleep were broken up. Ogawa and colleagues (2022), in a lab study of 10 students, conclude that snoozing prolongs sleep inertia, the groggy spell after waking, and they say the small sample limits that finding. Dr Fiona Barwick's advice is to get out of bed when the alarm goes off.
Should you hit snooze?
If you snooze and feel fine, Dr Alicia Roth says there is no real need to change your habits. That is her comment in the Cleveland Clinic piece from 11 February 2025. Dr Fiona Barwick at Stanford advises getting out of bed when the alarm goes off. The steps are in how to stop hitting snooze.
Is it OK to snooze your alarm every day?
If you snooze again and again, Dr Alicia Roth says that could be a sign of too little sleep, or of a sleep disorder such as obstructive sleep apnoea or chronic insomnia. That is her comment in the Cleveland Clinic piece, not a diagnosis. The NHS says see a GP if changing your sleeping habits has not helped your insomnia, you have had trouble sleeping for months, or your insomnia is affecting your daily life in a way that makes it hard to cope. In those situations, speak to a GP. Why that happens is covered in why you keep snoozing.
Is snoozing bad for your heart?
No study on this page measured harm to the heart. Mattingly and colleagues (2022) studied 450 full-time working adults with wrist wearables. In their longer record, people classed as snoozers had a resting heart rate 1.86 beats a minute higher across the night than people who did not snooze. On days the same people snoozed, heart rate was not higher. It is a link between groups, not proof that snoozing causes the difference, and the authors call for more research on health effects.
How long is it OK to snooze for?
Sundelin and colleagues (2023) tested 30 minutes, in habitual snoozers screened to exclude sleep disorders. A longer snooze was not tested. The paper does not give a number of presses to aim for. Dr Fiona Barwick's advice is to get out of bed when the alarm goes off.
Why do sleep experts say not to hit snooze?
Ogawa and colleagues (2022) conclude that a snooze alarm prolongs sleep inertia, the groggy spell after waking, and they say the small sample limits that finding. Dr Alicia Roth, in the Cleveland Clinic piece, says much of the later night is REM, or dream sleep, so snoozing disrupts it. Dr Fiona Barwick at Stanford says snoozing prolongs morning grogginess and associates the bed with being awake.
Can a pay-to-snooze alarm help me snooze less?
Pay to Snooze can be switched off per alarm. The price is set per alarm, with no minimum or maximum, and it is locked once the alarm rings. No card is charged automatically. Token packs are 10 for £0.89, 50 for £3.49, and 200 for £8.99. Tokens don't expire. At zero tokens, snoozing falls back to free. The default snooze is 9 minutes. iOS is coming soon. Nothing on this page says Pay to Snooze will change how much you snooze. See how Pay to Snooze works.
Sources
Sundelin, Landry and Axelsson. 30-minute lab snooze. Journal of Sleep Research, 2023. 31 habitual snoozers; survey of 1,732. Stockholm University.
Ogawa, Kaizuma-Ueyama and Hayashi. Snooze alarm and grogginess. Journal of Physiological Anthropology, 2022. 10 students; survey of 293. Hiroshima University.
Mattingly and colleagues. Snoozing, sleep and resting heart rate. Sleep, 2022. 450 working adults. University of Notre Dame.
Robbins and colleagues. Snooze alarm logs from a smartphone app. Scientific Reports, 2025. 21,222 iPhone users; 3,017,276 sessions. Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School.