She’s observed various iterations of this behavior in clients, with one extreme case involving the person setting ‘over 20 alarms, each five minutes apart.’
The primary issue with multiple alarms is sleep fragmentation during the final hours of rest.
Sleep fragmentation is repeated, short sleep interruptions that lead to excessive tiredness throughout the day, per Eight Sleep.
“Having this fragmentation at the end can really affect how energized you feel in the morning,” Schmidt says.
The sleeping coach describes a typical scenario: you might wake up to the first alarm, hit snooze, and drift off again.
The second alarm might prompt you to turn on the lights before dozing off a second time.
Finally, the third or last alarm gets you out of bed.
So, what’s the solution?
Bruss’ advice is simple but may be challenging for many: “When that alarm goes off in the morning, get up!”