Scientific reason why you wake up just five minutes before your alarm goes off
Waking up just minutes before your alarm goes off is not the one
Imagine not needing an alarm to wake you up?
Because it's often on your phone, you end up waking up and going on a doom scroll sesh before you've even got up to brush your teeth.
And it's still hard to believe that there are actually people among us who can just wake up without using one.
As someone who does shift work, I can assure you that isn't really an option for me.
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But the truth is that there's actually a scientific reason why some people are able to wake up just before their alarm goes off, essentially disturbing those extra precious minutes of sleep.
Well, your body is controlled by a ball of nerves known as the suprachiasmatic nucleus, which sits in the middle of the brain.
The nerves play a vital role as they control your blood pressure, body temperature and most importantly in unravelling this scientific mystery, our sense of time.
The suprachiasmatic nucleus can also decide when we you are feeling sleepy and when you feel wide awake, so you know who to blame when you are wanting a snooze despite eight hours sleep the previous night.
Your body clock responds to a routine, becoming more efficient when you head for bed at the same time each night and wake up at the same time each morning.
A protein called PER is very important in this situation because it regulates your sleep-wake cycle.
The level of proteins will rise and fall throughout the day, peaking in the evening and at their lowest at night.
Low levels of this protein will lead to low blood pressure, which makes us groggier and ready for bed.
Scientists say that if you stick to a consistent sleep schedule, your body will learn to adapt and increase your levels of PER just before your alarm is due to go off.
They say this increase will usually happen around an hour before your alarm is due to go off, as we release stress hormones.
When you haven't woken up before the alarm, it can be a bit of a shock, and as result can cause stress to your body.
To avoid this, your body produces PER earlier in the night - and this is why the reason you may find yourself waking up a few minutes before the alarm goes off.
The NHS recommends that adults should get between seven and nine hours of sleep and children need around nine to 13.
Anish Vij