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30th Jan 2018

Hitting The Snooze Button Could Be Damaging Your Heart According To A Sleep Expert

Shirleydonlon

Everyone who isn’t a morning person – listen up.

We understand that the daily struggle of trying to drag yourself out of the bed is possibly one of the worst parts of the day, and sometimes hitting the snooze button several times seems like the only way to help the situation.

However, Matthew Walker, neuroscientist and founder and director of the Center for Human Sleep Science, said that this is possibly the worst thing we can do for our bodies.

Writing for the Daily Mail, the expert in Human Sleep Science said that when we wake up to the sound of an alarm clock it causes a spike in blood pressure and increases heart rate.

via GIPHY

This is down to a burst in the fight or flight branch of the nervous system.

And the snooze button doesn’t help the situation.

Walker said: “If alarming your heart, quite literally, were not bad enough, using the snooze feature means you will repeatedly inflict that cardiovascular assault again and again within a short span of time.”

And worse again, doing this a few times a week can cause “multiplicative abuse” to the heart and nervous system.

Walker recommends, if you’re going to use an alarm clock, to get out of the habit of ‘snoozing’.

He added: “Do away with the snooze function and get in the habit of waking up once to spare your heart the repeated shock.” 

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