Researchers say that to avoid sleep inertia, we should pop right out of bed when the alarm goes off, turn on lights, and get moving. Um, no. I'm not going to do that.
I set my alarm clock about 45 minutes before I really have to get out of bed and then I hit the snooze until I can't do it one more time without being late. I like this time in bed to acclimate to the idea of getting up. On mornings where I accidentally turn my alarm off (oops!) and the backup alarm wakes me, I'm cranky and discombobulated all day.
Now granted, that could be because the backup alarm is a hugely annoying beep as opposed to my regular alarm which wakes me up to music. It might also be because if the backup alarm is going off, I've overslept and that can throw the whole day out of whack, but I don't think so.
Even on the weekends when I sleep as late as I want (another no-no according to researchers), I still don't pop right out of bed when I wake up. I'll stay snuggled under the blankets for another half an hour or so before I decided to actually start the day. I enjoy this time in bed. Seriously, more than enjoy it, I love it.
So no matter what science says, I'm not giving up my seven minutes of sleep that the snooze function on my alarm clock gives me. I say it's easier for me to wake up this way and I'm sticking to it.
