Half the World Hits Snooze Every Morning—Here’s What It’s Doing to Your Brain

Every morning, millions of people face a small but consequential decision: hit the snooze button or get up with the first alarm. Now, a new study involving over 21,000 smartphone users worldwide reveals just how common the snooze habit really is—and who’s most likely to delay that inevitable morning rise.

Researchers at Mass General Brigham found that in more than half (55.6%) of over 3 million sleep sessions analyzed, users opted to hit snooze rather than wake up with their first alarm. The average snoozer pressed the button about 2.4 times per morning and spent nearly 11 minutes in snooze mode before finally starting their day.

But what happens during those stolen minutes between alarms? Are we actually getting restful sleep, or just fragmenting our natural wake cycle?

The Science of Snoozing

The study, published this week in Scientific Reports, represents the most comprehensive analysis of real-world snooze button behavior to date. Using data from the sleep tracking app Sleep Cycle, researchers gained unprecedented insight into how people around the world interact with their morning alarms.

Lead author Rebecca Robbins, PhD, from Brigham and Women’s Hospital’s Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders, explains why these findings matter: “Many of us hit the snooze alarm in the morning with the hope of getting a ‘little more sleep,’ but this widely practiced phenomenon has received little attention in sleep research.”

What makes this study particularly valuable is its global scale and objective measurements, a significant improvement over previous research that relied primarily on self-reporting, which often overestimated actual snooze times.

Who Hits Snooze Most Often?

The study identified distinct patterns among snooze button users:

• Heavy users: About 45% of participants hit snooze on more than 80% of mornings and averaged 20 minutes of snooze time daily.
• Gender differences: Women snoozed slightly longer than men (11.5 vs. 10.2 minutes).
• Geographic variations: Users in Sweden, Germany, and the United States snoozed most frequently, while those in Japan and Australia hit snooze least often.
• Weekday warriors: Monday through Friday saw significantly more snooze button usage than weekends.

Sleep Duration and Snooze Patterns

Contrary to what researchers expected, those who slept longer were actually more likely to hit snooze. People who slept 10 hours or more hit snooze about twice as often as those who slept just 6 hours (5 times vs. 2 times).

This finding contradicts previous research suggesting short sleepers would be more likely to snooze. The researchers propose this could be because short sleepers may be facing strict morning commitments like work shifts or childcare responsibilities, leaving them no choice but to get up immediately.

Is Snoozing Bad for You?

Sleep experts have long cautioned against using the snooze function, and this research helps explain why. “Unfortunately, the snooze alarm disrupts some of the most important stages of sleep,” said Robbins. “The hours just before waking are rich in rapid eye movement sleep. Hitting the snooze alarm will interrupt these critical stages of sleep and typically only offer you light sleep in between snooze alarms.”

This disruption may be why heavy snooze button users often demonstrated more erratic sleep schedules than others in the study. The fragmented morning sleep likely provides minimal restorative benefit while potentially disrupting natural sleep cycles.

Better Morning Strategies

For those looking to break the snooze habit, Robbins offers straightforward advice: “The best approach for optimizing your sleep and next day performance is to set your alarm for the latest possible time, then commit to getting out of bed when your first alarm goes off.”

This means being honest with yourself about when you actually need to wake up, rather than setting aspirational early alarms with the intention of snoozing.

The Broader Impact

With the average heavy snoozer spending 20 minutes per day in snooze mode, that adds up to over 121 hours—or about five full days—of fragmented, low-quality sleep per year. For perspective, that’s nearly one complete 6-hour night of sleep lost every month to snoozing.

The researchers suggest that reducing snooze alarm use could be a viable target for public health communication efforts to promote better sleep health, especially since heavy snooze use appears to be part of a pattern of poor sleep habits.

As sleep science continues to evolve, this study offers a fascinating glimpse into one of our most common yet least studied morning rituals—reminding us that even the smallest sleep decisions can have meaningful impacts on our daily well-being.