Maney wakes up to an old alarm clock but has it tuned t Kiss 95.1 in the morning instead of the beeping. I always thought he was crazy for not just using the alarm clock on his phone, (I mean come on it’s 2021.) but it looks like he might be on to something.
Want to break your snooze button habit? Changing the sound of your alarm could be the fix. A new study finds that lots of people deal with “sleep inertia” – or feeling groggy and not alert because they’re not ready to wake up yet – and simply swapping the sound you wake up to may help change that.
Researchers with the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia suggest trading the buzzing or ringing of an alarm clock for something more melodic. They found waking up to your favorite song or anything with a catchy tune is more likely to help you feel well-rested and alert when it starts playing. Study participants tested it out by doing a game-like activity immediately after waking up to measure alertness and they had faster and more accurate responses after melodic alarm sounds than with classic alarm sounds.
Study author Stuart McFarlane explains that waking to low-pitched sounds or human voices can help us feel less groggy than sirens or high-pitched alarms. Kids were involved in this research as well and they were also found to be more alert after waking to low-pitched tones. As a result, the researchers advise setting your alarm to a soothing tone or your favorite song so you rise and shine feeling more refreshed.
