How the ringtone of the alarm clock affects your sleep and awakening

Sounds of nature, a trendy pop song or classical music – what tune do you wake up to? Scientists have proven that your choice directly affects how you feel throughout the day.

Recently, scientists from the Royal Melbourne University of Technology asked the question: what affects how well we sleep, in addition to the duration of the sleep itself and the refusal of the habit of scrolling social networks in bed? It turned out that the melody that we use as an alarm clock is equally important for this. It depends on it whether we will feel sleepy during the day or we will have enough energy for all accomplishments. The melody of the alarm clock affects the inertia of sleep – we understand what it matters. 

What is sleep inertia 

Remember that feeling you get when you wake up abruptly to a phone call, a loud sound, or a bright light? It resembles a slight lethargy: at first it is difficult for you to concentrate and understand what is happening. This is the simplest example of sleep inertia, the transitional period between when you open your eyes and when you finally wake up. 

The state of sleep inertia, in which we cannot react quickly, think productively and make decisions, can last for several seconds. Or 3-4 hours – and then we feel overwhelmed and reduced concentration of attention for almost half of the working day. If this condition occurs too often, then it is easy to confuse it with chronic fatigue. 

Previously, scientists thought that the duration of sleep inertia was affected only by the level of melatonin in the blood. Soft awakening is facilitated by a gradual decrease in its concentration, and with all sorts of failures, it remains high. But now it turned out that the melody of the alarm clock is no less important for the inertia of sleep. Not volume or duration, but the melody itself, on which you have chosen.

What should be the melody that will help wake up cheerful 

Volunteers from the Royal Melbourne University of Technology were asked to keep a diary of how they feel in the morning. Those of them who did not complain of drowsiness, poor health and lack of sleep woke up to melodies devoid of loud and sharp sounds. But these were compositions with a clear rhythm and a gradual transition from note to note. An interesting fact: most of the subjects admitted that they owe the most comfortable awakening to the song “Good Vibrations" by The Beach Boys.

Sharp sounds with a confused rhythm of the melody provoke the strongest emotional reactions of anxiety and anxiety. They negatively affect the functioning of the brain during awakening, prolonging the inertia of sleep. But the sounds of nature as an alarm clock do not have any effect on the inertia of sleep. Therefore, it is better to listen to the birds singing and the murmur of water, because they really help to fall asleep!