Your Shrieking Alarm Clock Sound Might be the Reason Your Mornings Suck
upstart writes in with an IRC submission for RandomFactor:
Your shrieking alarm clock sound might be the reason your mornings suck:
Researchers at RMIT University in Australia investigated how alarm tones and wake-up music tie into sleep inertia, which is the feeling of grogginess some people experience in the mornings. The effects of sleep inertia can last for hours, putting a serious drag on the early part of the day.
The team asked 50 participants to fill out an online survey on the type of alarm sound they use. They also rated their grogginess and alertness levels. "You would assume that a startling 'beep beep beep' alarm would improve alertness, but our data revealed that melodic alarms may be the key element. This was unexpected," said RMIT doctoral researcher Stuart McFarlane in a release on Monday.
The researchers published the results of the study in the journal PLOS One last week. The team isn't drawing hard and fast conclusions from the data just yet, but is calling for further study into how alarm tones, sounds and music play into sleep inertia.
Journal Reference:
Stuart J. McFarlane, Jair E. Garcia, Darrin S. Verhagen, Adrian G. Dyer.Alarm tones, music and their elements: Analysis of reported waking sounds to counteract sleep inertia, PLOS ONE (DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0215788)
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