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Hitting the snooze button on the alarm clock once in a while might actually support the brain’s process of waking from deep sleep, according to a new study. People sometimes want to go right back to sleep even after the alarm goes off in the morning, using the snooze button in clocks and cell phones. Decades of previous research suggested that hitting snooze can have negative effects, both on sleep and the brain’s ability to wake up, but until now there hasn’t been any direct evidence of this, say scientists. The new study, published in the Journal of Sleep Research, assessed how common snoozing is and what effects this behaviour has on sleep, sleepiness, mood, and the brain’s cognitive abilities. Researchers found that those who snooze on an average sleep slightly shorter and feel more drowsy in the morning compared to those who never snooze. But they also saw that there were no negative effects of snoozing on the release of the stress hormone cortisol, mood, or sleep quality throughout the night. In the study, 1732 individuals answered questions about their morning habits, including how often they hit the snooze button with many – especially young adults – reporting that they use the alarm feature regularly. The most common reason for snoozing, according to participants, is feeling too tired to get out of bed when the alarm goes off. In another small follow-up experiment, 31 regular snoozers spent two nights in a sleep lab in order to measure their sleep in more detail. On one of the mornings, they were allowed to snooze for 30 minutes, and on the other, they had to get up right when the alarm went off. While in the first case, participants’ sleep was disturbed during the half hour of snoozing, most of them still got more than 20 minutes of sleep – meaning that their total night’s sleep was not affected much. In the snooze condition, no one had to wake up suddenly from deep sleep, and the snoozers performed a bit better on cognitive tests right upon waking. There were also no clear effects of snoozing on mood, sleepiness, or the amount of cortisol in the saliva. The results hint that half an hour of snoozing may not have negative effects on night sleep and could have some positive effects like a decreased likelihood of waking from deep sleep. However, researchers caution that the second experiment was small and only included people who are regular snoozers who find it easy to go back to sleep after each alarm. They say snoozing is most likely not for everyone. Jennifer Kanaan from the University of Connecticut in the US, who is another sleep scientist unrelated to the study, said the latest findings should be interpreted with caution as it could send the wrong message to people. “If you’re coming in and out of sleep for 30 minutes, after the alarm goes off the first time, you’re costing yourself 30 minutes of uninterrupted, quality, restorative sleep,” Dr Kanaan said in a statement. Instead of trying to figure out how to manipulate our alarm clocks, she says people should make a consistent good night’s sleep a greater priority and be less reliant on snooze buttons. “Simply put, instead of hitting the snooze button they should get more sleep,” Dr Kanaan said. Read More Study reveals why millions of women wake up at 3.29am Consistent lack of sleep may increase risk of future depressive symptoms – study Breakthrough study allows scientists to communicate with people as they sleep How to support a child with a stammer ‘I lost nearly a stone on Ozempic, but now it’s run out what am I to do?’ Miriam Margolyes now has part of a cow’s heart as she opens up about health

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The Washington DC judge in the election interference case against Donald Trump has responded to his legal team’s request that she recuse herself from the case with a stern warning. The former president’s legal team argued that Judge Tanya Chutkan should leave the case because of statements she had made when sentencing defendants for taking part in the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021. The lawyers for the former president argued that Judge Chutkan “agreed with portions” of a sentencing memo for one of the January 6 defendants which “wrongly placed blame on President Trump and complained that he had not been charged”. The defence lawyer for the defendant referred to in the motion said in a sentencing memo that “those voices, including the voice of the then-president himself, had convinced persons such as Mr. Palmer that the election was fraudulent and that they must take action to stop the transition of the presidency. . . . While many of the people who participated in the Capitol riot will be going to prison, the architects of that horrific event will likely never be charged with any criminal offense”. The Trump lawyers added that “although Judge Chutkan correctly noted that she does not have any influence on charging decisions, her ... comments stating ‘you have made a very good point . . . that the people who exhorted you and encouraged you and rallied you to go and take action and to fight have not been charged’ and ‘you have a point, that the people who may be the people who planned this and funded it and encouraged it haven’t been charged, but that’s not a reason for you to get a lower sentence’ reflect her apparent opinion that President Trump’s conduct ... occurred, and supports charges”. “Otherwise, she would not have characterized the point as ‘very good’,” they said. “Judge Chutkan’s statement that ‘I have my opinions’ suggests that in her view—formed almost two years before the initiation of this matter—President Trump should be charged,” the Trump legal team added. After that filing, Judge Chutkan ordered that the prosecution, the legal team of Special Counsel Jack Smith, should file any opposing arguments within three days. She also warned the Trump legal team that they must notify the special counsel’s office before filing that kind of motion or they might risk that later motions be “denied without prejudice”. “Upon consideration of Defendant’s 50 Motion for Recusal, it is hereby ORDERED that the government shall file any opposition no later than September 14, 2023, and the defense shall file any reply within three calendar days from the filing date of the government’s opposition,” the judge wrote in the order on Monday. “All other deadlines set by the court remain in effect.” “Defense counsel is reminded of the requirement to confer with opposing counsel before filing any motion and to indicate whether the motion is opposed ...Future motions that fail to comply with that requirement may be denied without prejudice,” she added. Read More Biden slammed for falsely claiming he visited Ground Zero the day after 9/11 Trump lashes out at Biden over prisoner swap deal with Iran after demanding Jan 6 judge recuse herself - live Putin calls Trump’s laundry list of criminal charges ‘persecution’