In an ideal world, we’d all be wide awake, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at the crack of dawn. The reality for many couldn’t be more different. We all have that mate who sets seven alarms – and still manages to be late. Perhaps you have an alarm clock but keep subconsciously turning it off in your sleep. Maybe you do wake up with your alarm but stay glued to your mattress for the next few minutes and inevitably end up falling back asleep. 

Whatever the alarm issue, not being able to wake up when you need to can cause issues. No one wants to be the person running out of the door with a piece of toast hanging out of their mouth, hair all over the place and a leaking KeepCup with hastily made coffee.

So why do some people have such a torrid time waking up in the morning compared to those who hear their alarm, turn it off and get up? And is it possible to train yourself to be better at waking up? To find out, we’ve roped in the services of Dr Kat Lederle, sleep and body clock specialist and the author of Sleep Sense.

First up, why do some people need several alarms to wake up? The answer is painfully basic: they’re sleep-deprived. “They’re simply lacking sleep and thus are tired,” Dr Lederle says. “Their sleep inertia will be too high for them to get out of bed immediately.” 

When asked if it’s possible to train yourself to wake up at the first alarm, Dr Lederle says: “There are many things you can ‘train’ your body to do but not all will be healthy for you.” In fact, she’s not a huge fan of using alarms in the first place. “Using an alarm means that your sleep duration is artificially shortened. If there wasn’t an alarm or alarms, you would carry on sleeping. We all know now that lack of sleep can have serious implications for our health, so I question the use of alarms in the first place (on a habitual basis).” 

Having said that, however, she does flag a recent study that compared non-snoozers and snoozers. “Researchers found that snoozing helped individuals to reduce feelings of sleep inertia/grogginess and it improved cognitive functioning upon awakening. However, how this then develops over the course of the day, we don’t know. Given that an alarm shortens sleep, my guess would be that individuals feel tired later on and may reach for stimulants that then affect their ability to fall asleep or sleep soundly. It’s a vicious cycle.”

Relying on alarms that cut our natural sleep need short might not be the best habit in the world, but it’s a reality of the world in which we live. Chronoworking might be becoming increasingly popular but for the vast majority of workers, you’re still expected to start work around 8am or 9am, which means waking up early – especially if you’ve got to commute. Not everyone can hope to naturally come to at 6am.

The benefits of snoozing and spending more time in bed also seem to be quite contentious within the sleep community. Speaking at the Strong Women Wellbeing Summit a couple of years ago, sleep behavioural expert Natalie Pennicotte-Collier told the audience that the most crucial moment of our day is the minute our brains switch on the morning.

“If you hit snooze, it’s like driving a Ferrari and then tapping the brake. You’re only going to U-turn – nothing good is going to happen,” she warned. “It’s just going to stutter. Do not do that to your mental health. It might feel fake good [to snooze], but it’s not sustainable energy and the data shows that if you get up at the same time every single day, it sets up a freely available cascade of female hormonal health – let alone sleep health later on at night. 

“Getting up at the same time every day may feel hard but it’s the first step [to better sleep], and it’s free.” 

Pennicotte-Collier’s key point was consistency. That works with Dr Lederle’s theory about under-sleeping. If your alarm’s consistently set for 6am during the week but you’d be unconscious for another hour without that alarm call, it might be worth thinking about the timings of your day. 

Dr Lederle does admit, however, that struggling to get up the moment your alarm goes off is totally normal. “You shouldn’t expect to be able to get up the moment the alarm goes off. Sleep inertia (grogginess) is a real thing, but for some (eg night owls waking up too early), it’s more intense than for others. It all depends on whether you got the sleep you need (duration and quality) in the time window your body clock has allocated for it.”

So, what’s the solution? Dr Lederle says it’s vital you go to bed when your body clock tells you to. If you can, she also recommends letting your body clock wake you up. “That’s easier said than done in our society. An alternative is to try to shift your body clock to an earlier time, but again, that can be tricky.” That means going to bed earlier, eating earlier and waking up earlier.

Aside from extending your sleep window, she also recommends trying to get more light in the mornings. “Use a light alarm, leave the curtains open a bit and [if you have one] get your partner to wake you up with a cup of tea. You could get your flatmate to play gentle music. Basically, you need something to get your alertness levels up and your inertia down in a gentle way.” 

Images: Getty