Snooze button habit this spring is making early birds groggy — a sleep expert explains why and how to reclaim energy

Seasonal light changes and the recent clock shift can disrupt circadian rhythms, and experts report that snoozing fragments sleep and can prolong morning grogginess.

I usually wake early and get seven to eight hours of sleep, but this spring I've found myself hitting the snooze button more and feeling unusually groggy. The extra minutes of sleep after an alarm have become tempting, and my usual morning routine has sometimes been dropped. Erin Clifford, a certified health and wellness coach and CBT-I therapist, described several seasonal and behavioral reasons that could explain the change. A 2025 sleep study and expert commentary in the article note that snoozing is common and can fragment sleep. Key points: - Early spring mornings can be darker after clocks change, which may disrupt circadian rhythms and delay the body’s recognition that it is time to stop producing melatonin. - Small shifts in evening habits or later exposure to bright light can delay melatonin release and shift when deep sleep occurs, making waking harder. - Hitting the snooze button fragments sleep cycles; the article cites a 2025 study reported by sleep scientist Rebecca Robbins that found more than 55% of sleep sessions ended with people snoozing. Summary: The article reports that seasonal timing changes and later evening light exposure can make previously reliable early risers feel groggy, and that repeated snoozing tends to produce poorer-quality sleep. According to the article, circadian realignment typically happens over a period of days to weeks, but the exact timing of readjustment is undetermined at this time.