How your alarm clock wakes you up may be more important than you think! A recent study of 50 individuals performed by Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, and published in the journal, PLOS One, found that individuals who woke up to music had a higher level of alertness throughout the day than those individuals who woke up to a traditional “beep, beep, beep.”
“If you don’t wake properly, your work performance can be degraded for periods up to four hours,” said lead researcher Stuart McFarlane. According to McFarlane, this can lead to major accidents.
McFarlane admitted that this was not the result they expected to find. “You would assume that a startling ‘beep, beep, beep’ alarm would improve alertness, but our data revealed the melodic alarms may be the key element.” Co-author Adrian Dyer said that the harsh “beep” sound may disrupt or confuse brain activity when waking while music “may help us transition to a waking state in a more effective way.” So there you have it! Another reason to set your alarm to your favorite iHeart channel!