You set the alarm for 7 a.m. but hit the snooze button a couple of times before you actually get up.
According to Robert S. Rosenberg, medical director of the Sleep Disorders Centers of Arizona, this bad habit actually makes you more sleepy and groggy.
The extra sleep you are getting is fragmented, Rosenberg told CNN. You are starting a new sleep cycle, but you won't have time to finish it in the 10 minutes before the alarm goes off again.
The result is called sleep inertia — that groggy, disoriented feeling upon waking. It can take an hour and a half to recover from this disorientation. Even a shower or coffee won't help much, Rosenberg says.
According to the Wall Street Journal's Dan Ariely, the best plan is to get up at the alarm and stay up. In a few months, it will become automatic.
Rick Good spent ten years in the newspaper business, including with The News & Observer (Raleigh, NC) and The Greenville News (Greenville, SC). He co-wrote, with Melinda Coleman, Rutledge to Riley: Governors of South Carolina, 1776–Present (Published by The Greenville News), and is the author of Mind Games Trivia #1 (Amazon). He has recently spent 15 years creating original trivia content through Sounds Good Mobile Entertainment and continues that with his new company, SGME Software. He edits The Smart Reader’s money, real estate, and business coverage.