While hitting the snooze button promises a few more minutes of sleep, you might also be hitting snooze on a range of health benefits.
This is what University of Southern Queensland psychology honours student Aimee Wright seeks to uncover as she launches her online survey into sleeping habits.
Under the supervision of sleep expert Dr Daniel S. Joyce, Ms Wright will investigate how snoozing might impact psychological health and sleep quality.
“Sleep has always been something I have been very interested in,” Ms Wright said.
“There isn’t a lot of research into alarm snoozing, and the few papers that have been published are from countries other than Australia.
“Other sleep studies have linked depression, anxiety and stress with sleep quality.
“We want to look at whether alarm snoozing plays a role in this while also investigating the motivations behind it.”
Ms Wright said the survey is open to people who choose to snooze and those who do not, allowing for comparison.
The survey includes questions that measure sleep timing and quality, motivations behind snoozing, and health and mood.
“Waking up naturally is very different to setting multiple snooze alarms in the morning,” Supervisor Dr Joyce said.
“Snoozing as a behaviour is tied heavily with modern technology – which is why we don’t know much about it.
“Especially with the advent of smartphones, everyone now has the snooze button at the tip of their fingers, and the health outcomes and motivations behind this action are completely unknown.
“You spend a third of your life asleep, so if we can optimise this, we are going to get benefits for the rest of our waking lives.”
The survey is open to everyone over 18 and takes 15 to 20 minutes to complete.
It will remain open until September 9, when Ms Wright will examine the results for her honours thesis.
Find the survey here.
