If you often find yourself feeling so sleepy that you can’t respond to the morning alarm, your body may well be sending you the message that you need an earlier bedtime.

That’s the message from the sleep expert Kevin Morgan who works at Loughborough University’s Clinical Sleep Research Unit.

“Waking feeling refreshed and able to face your day is the hallmark of good quality sleep.  If your alarm rings, it’s telling you to get up,” the expert has said.
”But if your body is frequently too sleepy to respond, it’s probably telling you to go to bed earlier.”

However, fans of the duvet will doubtless be pleased to hear that the expert also suggested that staying in bed for a spell once the alarm has gone off is okay, provided you are feeling alert, thinking about things and making preparations to leave the comfort of your bed.

Such a post-alarm lie-in is able to be helpful, he said, adding: “But if you’re too sleepy to get your mind and motivation into gear – you should really consider what’s going on with your life and your sleep.”

Mr Morgan was responding to Premier Inn research findings showing that on average Brits’ alarms go off at 6.22am, after which they take ten minutes to leave their beds.

A large 50 per cent admitted to having gone through the experience of sleeping through an alarm at some point.

A tenth of the sample had missed an interview because of this, with a quarter having missed the train or bus that they would have travelled to work on.

Six out of ten participants said they use the alarm on their phone and a twentieth of them claimed to set three alarms as a way of ensuring they would be woken up.

Several varieties of sleeper were pinpointed by the study, including ‘just one more minute-ers’. These guys go to sleep again after the the alarm sounds, but then do get out of their bed when the alarm sounds again.

Meanwhile, ‘eternal snoozers’ keep pressing snooze over and over.  

If you’re using a phone as an alarm, why not check out the different alarm tones that it offers?

By picking one you like, you might feel a little better when it wakes you up than you would if the sound you’re using is not to your tastes.