The snooze button.

Have you ever heard of sleep inertia?

I first learned the term from Mel Robbins’ book The 5 Second Rule. Robbins gives the gist in this short video, but basically, sleep inertia is 4-hour-long grogginess that occurs as a result of hitting snooze and dozing back off after our alarm clock has chimed. Our brains are gradually waking us up as we approach morning, but if we respond to the alarm by clicking snooze, our brains have no other choice than to believe we’re reentering an entire sleep cycle that needs 90-110 minutes to complete.

When our second alarm goes off after 5, 10, or 15 “snooze minutes” and we finally roll out of bed, physically we might be up, but mentally our brains are still in that sleep cycle. According to Robbins, it takes our brain about 4 hours to snap out of that cycle and gain full alertness to take on the day.

I like the way Mel Robbins frames why we should forever ditch the snooze button and wake up at the first alarm every morning: “I want you to remember that you’ve gotta wake up and give your brain its best shot to do its best work.”

There was a time in my life when I religiously implemented this practice. It helped me feel like I was in control of my day and could manage my time wisely. However, over the course of this exhausting summer, I got out of the habit. In the vulnerable moments of waking up in the morning, I began to justify more and more why I should try to get a few extra minutes of sleep in. It was a combination of feeling physically exhausted, but more so, I really didn’t want to start at the beginning of another long day of work.

Almost every night of the past 4 months, I would limp across the finish line at my desk—putting in 10 to 14 hours of work to finally get to shower and lay down to bed. Every morning when that alarm clock would assault my sleep, I wanted to suspend the responsibility of waking up to climb that same mountain all over again.

It makes sense why I started my mornings with a nice dose of procrastination. I was looking for any stress relief I could.

As my schedule has loosened, I want to reimplement this practice back into my life. It was a beneficial habit to cultivate. It set the tone for the rest of my day. It afforded me the time to ease into the morning and not have to rush to get out of the door. I was able to give my body the gift of a good breakfast when I woke up with enough time to cook it. It made me feel a little bit more in command of my life.

I need this again. I’m thankful I have this tool in my pocket.

This is a good habit to relearn.