People hit the snooze button on alarm more often than thought

If you got delayed getting out of bed this morning, you’re not alone as a study by researchers at the University of Notre Dame has painted a clearer picture of the human tendency to hit the snooze button.

The study found that 57 per cent of participants were habitual snoozers. While scientists and medical professionals have long advised against it, the act of snoozing — how often and why we do it — remains unstudied.

“Most of what we know about snoozing is taken from data on sleep, stress or related behaviours. Alarm clocks, smartphones — they all have snooze buttons. The medical establishment is against the use of snoozing, but when we went to look at what hard data existed, there was none. We now have the data to prove just how common it is — and there is still so much that we do not know,” said researcher Stephen Mattingly.