We've all been there, haven't we? You jerk awake in the morning to the sound of your alarm and immediately wish for just 10 more minutes of sweet slumber.
It's there for you - and you've given yourself time - so you slam the snooze button down and roll over.
But, is that the best thing to do? There's a good deal of evidence that making a habit of snoozing the alarm could mess with your sleep cycle and leave you feeling more fatigued than if you'd just got up in the first place.
To understand why this is, it's important to first understand the nature of sleep cycles.
They're stages of sleep that our brain revolves through to help you get the most rest and recuperation through sleep.
First, you hit the light sleep stage. That's when your body prepares you by slowing everything down and dropping the temperature.
Then, you should hit deep sleep. This is when the real restorative work gets done.
After that, you'll move to REM - rapid eye movement - sleep, which is where you'll experience dreaming and high brain activity.
Still, this is the phase that helps contribute to how sharp and focused you feel the following day.
That cycle goes on a few times during a regular night.
But - I hear you ask - what does this have to do with snoozing your alarm?
You see, as you wake up you should ideally be somewhere towards the end of that last REM stage, which is fine.
However, snooze the alarm and drift off again and you'll enter that stage of the cycle again, and wake up in the middle of the cycle, which will leave you feeling groggy and frankly weird.
It's not ideal.
If you just get up, you might feel a bit crap to start with, but you'll soon start to perk up and get stuck into the day.
For a professional opinion, Reena Mehra, M.D., M.S., Director of Sleep Disorders Research at Cleveland Clinic, said: "Much of the latter part of our sleep cycle is comprised of REM sleep, or dream sleep, which is a restorative sleep state. And so, if you're hitting the snooze button, then you're disrupting that REM sleep or dream sleep."
She added: "Make sure you're getting seven to eight hours of sufficient sleep and good quality sleep,
"And if that's happening, and someone still feels the need to hit that snooze button, then they should probably see their physician to make sure there's no undiagnosed sleep disorder that could be contributing to their need to hit the snooze."
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Topics: Science, Interesting