Are you among the ones who doze until the last possible minute? Or do you give yourself some time to snooze, hoping that some light sleep will make it easier to drag yourself out of bed?
This one’s for all the lovers of the respite that the brief snooze offers – research says, if not overdone, snoozing might actually be of help.
Studies confirm that snooze, need not always mean lose.
Instead of popping right out of bed, those extra 10 minutes can help your brain get moving slowly, in turn, helping you start your day with a gentle and happy note.
Here’s how people who often hit the snooze button are likely to be more intelligent, creative and happier than those who jump out of bed hearing the alarm clock:
- Healthy adults need at least 7 hours of sleep
External stimulants adversely affect quantity and quality of sleep and interfere with our natural sleep-wake pattern or ‘circadian rhythm’. According to National Sleep Foundation, sufficient sleep duration requirements vary between individuals. National Sleep Foundation’s research on human sleep patterns, as published in the Sleep Health Journal, observed that sleep requirements vary among individuals. The 2-years research mentions that the duration of sleep that one needs can be determined through two factors – analysing where one will be on the ‘sleep needs spectrum’ and assessing the lifestyle factors like stress and daily routine that interfere his/her sleep. Young adults and adults usually need seven to nine hours of sleep, while older adults require seven to eight hours of sleep.

- Our brains are in high activity zone when we sleep
The brain, like the rest of the human body, is a revelation in itself. The ‘hot zone’ in our brain is responsible for the hyperactive brain activity even when we are asleep. A research by the Center For Research and Investigation in Sleep at Lausanne University Hospital in Switzerland observed that a particular region at the back of the brain that showed activity when the subjects were asleep is the source of dreams. Why affect your ‘sleep health’ as that Big Idea might just strike you when you are asleep!

- Insufficient sleep affects our decision-making capabilities
A research by Walter Reed Army Institute of Research has shown that sleep deprivation or lack of sufficient sleep disrupts the emotional wellbeing and physical health. The amount of sleep affects one’s ability to make decisions. Adequate sleep boosts mental agility, enabling you to take decisions quickly. In contrast, lack of it impairs your cognitive skills and ability to integrate emotion during decision-making. Resultantly, it clouds judgements and delays responses.

- Inadequate sleep impairs memory
Human memory, in sharp contrast to popular belief, does not record information. In reality, itis gets influenced by representations of knowledge that is already existent in the brain. Lack of sufficient sleep affects the ability to retrieve information from memory the way it had been originally encoded. Besides, sleep deprivation also causes false memories, that is, claiming to remember events that have never occurred.

Now that you have a handful of reasons why you should refrain from depriving yourself of sufficient sleep, go on hit the snooze button and enjoy complete bliss for some more time every morning!