Getting up in the morning is a daunting task for many who constantly face “sleep inertia,” the feeling of not wanting to get up. It has also been proven that if you struggle to get up or get up grumpily, you are less likely to have a productive day than if you woke up cheerfully and alert.
According to Australian researchers from RMIT University, you can get over this grogginess by changing your alarm clock’s sound. The researchers say that a more catchy tune in the morning is bound to get you up and to run.
Sleep inertia in space
The researchers observe that sleep inertia is a psychological phenomenon that can run for up to four hours after waking up. In addition, they say that the feeling can occur regardless of where you sleep, on your bed, couch, or even in space. A NASA astronaut confirms this as he narrates how he slept through two alarms in space one morning.
While caffeine, hot and light showers are some of the go-to solutions to morning grogginess, the researchers realized that some sounds have a similar effect. Melodic tunes reduce sleep inertia faster than ‘unmelodic’ tunes such as the ones in alarm clocks. The researchers define melodic tunes as anything you can hum or sing along to.
To test the effect music has on sleep inertia, the researchers developed an app that allowed participants to wake up to different types of music. They were then immediately supposed to start a game-like task to test their level of alertness. The task, akin to the one taken by astronauts to test their alertness in space, required participants to touch their phones’ screens as soon as the color changed.
Children are more alert.
The results revealed that the control group who used melodic tunes as an alarm were more alert than those who used traditional alarm beeping sounds. The team also looked at how effective other alarming sounds like sirens are at waking the body up. Interestingly, they found that children are more receptive to alarming sounds in emergency scenarios.
