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Why do some people have a hard time waking up in the morning?
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
Scientists have finally answered the question that worries many people: why is it so difficult to wake up in the morning? It turns out that the reason is a person's biological clock that is not working properly. Experts call a person's internal clock, which works out of sync with the twenty-four-hour daily rhythm, an incorrect biological clock.
Many adults with a fixed work schedule like to sleep longer on weekends, but on weekdays they wake up with the alarm clock without any problems, and for some, waking up in the morning on both a weekend and a work day becomes torture. Such people have a hard time not only waking up in the morning and getting into the work rhythm, but also falling asleep in the evening, which literally ruins their everyday life. Any attempts to do something about it usually prove unsuccessful: changing pillows or mattresses, sleeping pills, sedatives or even alcohol at night - all in vain. Of course, it is difficult to wake up in the morning, since the total sleep time is only a few hours.
Scientists from an Australian university have been studying the delayed sleep phase syndrome for several months. Statistics show that this syndrome is typical mainly for teenagers and may be associated with age-related hormonal changes in the body. More than 15% of young people aged 15 to 18 suffer from delayed sleep phase syndrome, and there is no guarantee that the disease will go away with age. The most common version that specialists try to explain the causes of delayed sleep phases is as follows: the reason for the disruption of healthy sleep is a failure in the rhythm of the internal biological clock, which does not work synchronously with the daily rhythm.
Most people live in sync with a 24-hour circadian rhythm, which is natural and affects the cycles of wakefulness and sleep, the production of hormones, body temperature, and the body's immune system. Researchers have noted that people with delayed sleep phase syndrome take a little longer to complete each cycle, which leads to the person simply "not fitting" into 24 hours. The onset of sleep in the body in this case occurs 2-3 hours later than in the rest of the population. Most often, such a delay leads to the fact that the actual sleep pattern is significantly different from the desired one or from that required by society, which offers education or work.
At the moment, Australian researchers are working on a possible solution to the problem associated with sleep disorders. Doctors say that once the reason why people cannot wake up or fall asleep on time is established, it will be easier to choose the right therapy. Among the possible methods that will help get rid of delayed sleep phase syndrome, so far only chronotherapy (a method that involves daily shifting of the sleep phase by several hours and subsequent "freezing" of the sleep schedule) and daylight or bright light therapy (in this case, experts suggest avoiding bright light in the evening and at night) are distinguished.