Is hitting snooze bad for you?

Key takeaways

• Snoozing is common. In a study of 450 US professionals, 57% snoozed, and in app data covering more than 3 million sleeps, 55.6% of sleeps ended with a snooze.

• We found no study showing that snoozing harms your health. The two lab studies we found are small, and they disagree about grogginess.

• Snoozers don’t clearly sleep less. Wearable data found no shorter sleep in snoozers, though they skewed toward evening types with more disturbed sleep.

• Your body clock may play a part. More snoozing followed later-than-usual bedtimes in the app data, and evening types report more morning grogginess.

• If you want to stop, a regular schedule is a common recommendation. The NHS lists going to bed and getting up at the same time every day among its sleep tips.

How common is snoozing?

Very. A 2022 study in the journal Sleep surveyed 450 US full-time workers in cognitively demanding jobs and tracked their sleep with wrist wearables for a year. About 57% said they snoozed. A 2025 analysis in Scientific Reports of six months of data from 21,222 users of the SleepCycle app found that 55.6% of logged sleeps ended with a snooze. On sleeps that ended in a snooze, the button was pressed 2.4 times on average, for about 10.8 minutes in total.

That 55.6% counts sleeps and not people, and the data came from the app maker through a coauthor who used to work there, while another coauthor is currently employed by it. A 2024 survey of 1,732 people and a 2022 survey of 293 Japanese university students, about seven in 10 of whom said they often used their phone’s snooze, point the same way.

Who hits snooze?

Younger people, women, and evening types, according to the studies. In the workers study, snoozers were also more likely to have lower conscientiousness scores, fewer daily steps, and more disturbed sleep. The app data found more snoozing after a later-than-usual bedtime, less after an earlier one, and slightly less on weekends.

These findings describe who snoozes. They can’t show what snoozing does.

Does snoozing cost you sleep?

A little, in one lab study, and not clearly in the others. In a 2024 lab study with sleep recording, 31 habitual snoozers spent 30 minutes in a snooze routine on one morning and woke to a single alarm on another. Snoozing cost about six minutes of sleep, kept people from waking out of deep sleep, and left cognitive test scores right after rising the same or better. It had no clear effect on mood, sleepiness, or the morning cortisol rise. The authors suggested a short snooze might help late chronotypes and people with morning drowsiness. The evidence varied in strength.

In the workers study, snoozers didn’t sleep less than non-snoozers, didn’t report feeling sleepier, and didn’t nap more. Their wearables did show a higher resting heart rate and lighter sleep before waking. The authors cautioned that the wearable’s sleep staging hasn’t been validated against a sleep lab, and said the health impact of snoozing needs more research.

Does snoozing make you groggier?

The lab studies disagree. In the 2022 Japanese lab study of 10 students, snoozing lengthened the stretch of wakefulness and light sleep in the last 20 minutes and prolonged grogginess compared with a single alarm, and a measure of vigor rose after waking in the no-snooze condition. The authors suggested repeated forced awakenings could be the reason.

The two lab studies tested different groups with different designs, which leaves the grogginess question open. Our post on how different alarm clocks affect drowsiness covers what else has been tested, and our guide to the ideal nap explains why waking from deep sleep is the hardest.

Is it bad for your heart or stress levels?

We found no snooze study of heart disease, blood pressure, or long-term stress effects. Two measured one marker each. The 2024 lab study found no clear cortisol effect, and the workers study found a higher resting heart rate in snoozers, a correlation that its authors said needs more research.

Broader research links disrupted or restricted sleep with sleepiness and worse mood. A review of sleep fragmentation and sleep deprivation concluded that both raise objective sleepiness and impair performance and mood, with the degree tied to how much sleep was lost or broken up. It dealt with sleep disorders and experimental disruption, so it doesn’t show that snoozing is harmful.

Is snoozing a sign you aren’t sleeping enough?

Possibly, but the data conflict. The workers study found no shorter sleep in snoozers, the app data found sleeps of more than nine hours likelier to end in a snooze, and the 2024 survey found shorter sleep in snoozers. The samples and methods differ, so the safest reading is that some snoozers are short on sleep and some aren’t.

A body-clock mismatch may explain more. Researchers call the gap between your body clock and your social schedule social jetlag, and a 2012 paper in Current Biology described it as a source of chronic sleep loss. A 2006 paper that surveyed 501 people described late chronotypes as having the largest work-day versus free-day differences in sleep timing, with sleep debt building on work days. In a 2025 questionnaire study of 231 people, evening types reported more behavioral responses to morning grogginess, though the authors found little overall link between social jetlag and grogginess. Snoozers skew toward the evening types.

How long does morning grogginess last?

On average, about 16 minutes, with wide variation. In a 2026 survey of 2,355 Korean adults, people reported taking an average of 15.8 minutes to shake off grogginess. It lasted longer in evening types and in people with insomnia, daytime sleepiness, or anxiety, and shorter in morning types and in longer sleepers. It was a single self-reported question.

What helps if you want to stop snoozing?

A common recommendation is to keep a regular schedule. The NHS, citing the Royal College of Psychiatrists, lists going to bed and getting up at the same time every day among its tips for sleeping well. Going to bed earlier is the other lever, though we found no trial of it. The app data only shows that earlier bedtimes went with less snoozing.

A few practical suggestions aren’t backed by trials. Set the alarm for the time you need to be up, put the phone out of arm’s reach if you tend to reset it, and give yourself something to do right away. If the snooze habit comes from late nights, it’s a signal about your schedule, and our guide to how much sleep you need covers why there’s no single number. If you sleep enough and still can’t wake or feel very sleepy through the day, a doctor is the person to ask.

The short version

Snoozing isn’t proven to harm you. The lab studies are small, one found snoozing cost a few minutes of sleep and another found longer grogginess, and none of the studies we found shows lasting harm. If you hit snooze most days, your bedtime is one place to look, though no study has tested whether that stops it.

Frequently asked questions

Is hitting the snooze button bad for you?

We found no study showing that it harms health. Two small lab studies found little or no cost to sleep in one and longer grogginess in the other, and the larger studies only show who snoozes.

How many people hit snooze?

In a study of 450 US professionals, 57% did. In app data, 55.6% of logged sleeps ended with a snooze, which counts sleeps and not people.

Does snoozing make you more tired?

Not clearly. The workers study found snoozers weren’t sleepier overall, and the lab studies disagree about grogginess right after waking.

Why do I keep hitting snooze?

Evening types and later bedtimes both go with more snoozing in the studies, though they can’t say which causes which.

How do I stop hitting snooze?

Keep regular bed and wake times, as the NHS advises, and consider an earlier bedtime. Set the alarm for the time you need to be up.