Konnikova's Snoozers Are, In Fact, Losers

Maria Konnikova’s article “Snoozers Are, in Fact, Losers” examines the relationship between humans’ biological and social sleep; in other words, how do humans’ natural circadian rhythm conflict with their routine? Konnikova claims that it is better to wake up naturally than to hit the snooze button. Waking up after having just fallen back asleep is detrimental to one’s ability to perform basic functions as well as one’s long term health.
The act of waking up suddenly causes sleep inertia; when the gradual process of waking up is forced or interrupted by an alarm, the worse the “grogginess” caused by sleep inertia feels. Sleep inertia affects one’s ability to perform simple tasks because the cortical regions in the brain, the part that helps humans make decisions, takes longer to activate. Functions such as “memory, reaction time, ability to perform basic mathematical tasks, and alertness and attention” are more difficult when one is experiencing sleep inertia. A study at Harvard discovered sleep inertia can last two to four hours and since basic …show more content…
The period between waking up and actually feeling awake, also known as social jet-lag, expresses the feeling that even after one is wake, the brain does not fully catch up to how one feels until even hours later. Konnikova references a study that states about a third of the population has “an average difference of over two hours between their natural waking time and their socially obligated one”. This social jetlag has been linked to an increase in the use of caffeine, cigarettes, and alcohol as well as obesity. This is why in a study workers during the night shift were more likely to have chronic diseases, cancer, and heart problems. In a study focusing on medical school students, it was discovered that the timing of the sleep was more important than how long one slept or how well one believed they had