Here's why you should never set multiple alarm clocks (2024)

Waking up to multiple alarm clocks can be seriously damaging to your health, and it might even be making you put on weight.

Jordan Bruss, a nurse who regularly shares health tips online, recently went viral for her warning to people who need several alarms to get out of bed in the morning.

'If you're someone who sets multiple alarms then I have bad news for you - don't come for me, I'm just trying to help,' Jordan said in a video posted to TikTok.

'Waking to multiple alarms every morning really disrupts your REM cycle frequently, this causes sleep inertia, increased drowsiness, fatigue and mood swings,

'It also raises your cortisol levels - every time your alarm goes off you're in that flight or fight response,' she added.

The nurse said that repeatedly waking up after falling back to sleep is 'very stressful' and 'traumatising' for the body.

Jordan explained that excess cortisol doesn't only give you mental and physical stress - but also makes it harder to stay in shape and lose weight.

'I promise I would not be in the shape I am in without doing some serious research in the deep sleep department,' the American practitioner said.

Sleepyheads who rely on several alarms to be on time in the morning, were reluctant to take Ms Bruss' advice - with many arguing that lulling in between alarms was one of life's simple joys.

'But when you go back to sleep after the first alarm it's the best feeling,' one woman said.

'The feeling of getting back to sleep is peak,' another man agreed.

Some said that they found the act of getting out of bed in the morning traumatising in itself, and others complained that 'everything raises your cortisol levels' anyway.

'At this point, I'm just a bag of cortisol with legs,' one man quipped.

A woman who swears by multiple alarms said that they were actually an effective tool for reducing her early morning stress levels, and not raising them.

'I purposely set a pre-alarm to break my deep sleep and allow myself another 10-15 minutes to relax before my real alarm makes me get up, it's much easier to get up if I ease into it,' she explained.

A few people insisted that multiple alarms were necessary for people who can sleep through one of them, but one woman couldn't get her head around how the shrill sound of an alarm failed to jolt anyone out of bed.

'I've never understood how people can't wake up to one alarm, mine scares me so bad that I end up waking up five mins before it goes off,' she said.

One man suggested a tip for making sure that a single alarm is effective when it comes to making sure that you don't sleep in: 'Set your alarm clock across the room so you physically have to get up to turn it off.'

Others took exception to the American nurses' suggestion to just 'get up', as though it were that simple.

'Get up, wow, I never thought of that one before,' one man shot back.

Sleep expert Olivia Arezzolo agrees that committing yourself to waking up with one alarm is a sound sleep and health strategy.

'Leading neuroscientist Matthew Walker has reported that hitting the snooze button, especially if it's jolting instead of soothing, can lead to anxiety and extreme stress,' the expert told Daily Mail Australia.

Olivia believes that creating a 'sleep sanctuary' in our bedrooms and disconnecting from technology at night can help us to sleep deeper, and longer.

This should hopefully make it easier to wake up without needing multiple alarms the next day.

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