Waking up: out of inertia in ten minutes

Sleep inertia

On waking, cognitive function is not immediately available. That period of inertia lasts fifteen to thirty minutes under normal conditions, up to an hour if waking happens in the middle of deep sleep.

It is not a failure of willpower. It is a physiological transition.

The three morning mistakes

The snooze button. Going back to sleep for nine minutes restarts a cycle that the next alarm brutally interrupts. You are multiplying wake-ups in the wrong phase. One alarm, and you get up. If that is impossible, put the clock out of reach.

The phone straight away. You are injecting information, demands and dopaminergic stimuli into a brain that is not yet available. You are also installing a habit that will follow you all day. The rule: nothing before you are up, hydrated and exposed to light.

Coffee straight away. Residual adenosine is low on waking and cortisol is at its peak. Immediate coffee adds to an existing peak, with no benefit, and causes the 11 am slump. Delay it by sixty to ninety minutes.

The waking protocol, ten minutes