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Topics: Health, Science, Sleep, Technology
Callum Jones
Often wake up minutes before your alarm is set to go off? Yep, me too and there's a scientific explanation for this annoying situation.
It's never a great start to the day is it? Waking up during what you think is the middle of the night to find you only have five minutes before the dreaded alarm goes off.
Do you get up or try and get that extra five minutes kip?
Either way it's not a good situation, but there's actually a simple reason as to why a lot of us wake up naturally minutes before the alarm goes off.
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To put it simply, your body's internal body clock is as efficient as that dreaded alarm that wakes you up every morning.
A protein known as PER is key when it comes to the sleep-wake cycle, as per the Daily Star.
Peaking in the evening and dropping at night, this protein works to full effect when you stick to a consistent sleep schedule. Sorry shift workers!
When PER levels are at their lowest, you typically feel drowsy as your heart rate is lower compared to usual - this allows for an easy process to get to sleep.
Well, PER levels are said to rise around an hour before you typically wake up, as well as blood pressure and overall body temperature.
Your sleep gradually lightens due to this and the mix of stress hormones your body releases in preparation to wake up and start the day.
This means you get to the stage of waking up minutes before you alarm instead of being rudely interrupted by the sudden noise while in a deep sleep.
And at that stage, you may think about hitting the snooze button - though many sleep experts over the years have advised against this.
Nurse Jordan in a TikTok video explained: "Waking to multiple alarms every morning really disrupts your REM cycle frequently.
"This actually causes sleep inertia, increased drowsiness, fatigue, mood swings and it also raises your cortisol levels.
"Every time your alarm goes off, you're in that fight or flight response, so waking up like that multiple times in the morning is very stressful.
"So when your alarm goes off in the morning, get up! Don't keep traumatizing yourself."
You've been warned...