That's Fit

My husband and I both set our alarms for 6:00 AM on weekdays. We don't get up at this early hour, though, because we snooze, and snooze, and snooze until an extra 30 minutes has passed. Then we roll out of bed and get on with our days. Why we don't just set our alarms for a later hour, I'm not sure. But we should -- because our extra eight-minute intervals of sleep are not doing us one bit of good. We aren't even really sleeping during these short spurts of time.

The average snooze button allows for seven to nine minutes of quiet, not long enough to get back into a deep sleep, says Michael Breus, author of Good Night: The Sleep Doctor's 4-Week Program to Better Sleep and Better Health. Breus suggests the snoozers of the world set their clocks for when they absolutely must be up and spend more time in nourishing sleep. Put your alarm on the other side of the room, he says, so you have to get up to get it. Also, open the curtains as soon as you step out of bed -- the daylight tells our brains it's time to wake up.

Are you a snoozer? If so, you might want to join me in listening to this wake-up call. The bonus sleep will surely do us good as we tackle the days that lie ahead.