Here’s what research has revealed about the cause of sleep inertia and how to keep it at bay. Sleep researchers aren’t totally sure what causes or intensifies sleep inertia, but they suspect it has something to do with the body’s circadian rhythm, also known as our internal clock. In one small study on emergency workers2 who need to be “on” as soon as they wake up, the effect of sleep inertia was tested throughout the night. Twelve workers were woken up at various points of the night and early morning and asked to solve math equations (sounds fun, no?). Their cognitive performance seemed to be lower when they were woken up during the “biological night,” when their bodies’ circadian clocks were telling them it was time to sleep, indicating that this clock can contribute to grogginess and increased processing time. Waking up during a deeper sleep stage, like REM sleep or slow-wave sleep, also seems to contribute to sleep inertia and lead to morning grogginess. The ideal time to wake up is just after you’ve completed a sleep cycle, as that’s when your body will feel the most refreshed. As a GABA agonist, magnesium is an essential mineral with important relaxing actions to help calm the body and mind for sleep.* Magnesium may also increase melatonin, helping keep our circadian rhythms running smoothly and by extension, easing grogginess.* And case in point, clinical studies of magnesium supplementation3 have shown this mineral to improve not only the time it takes to fall asleep and overall sleep duration but also early morning wakening.* It’s why mbg chose magnesium as the star of our first sleep supplement, sleep support+. When taken 30 minutes to an hour before bed, this nightly supplement calms the overactive mind and promotes relaxation, helping you fall asleep faster, stay asleep longer, and wake up feeling rejuvenated.* Ideally, you can schedule bedtime so that you go to bed around three hours after sunset and wake up with the sunrise. “When the body wakes up at the end of a sleep cycle, after sufficient sleep, and it happens to coincide with sunrise, that’s the sweet spot when you’re most likely to feel good upon waking,” says holistic psychiatrist Ellen Vora, M.D. Keeping your bedroom dark and staying off your devices at night will help you ease into this earlier bedtime. Emma received her B.A. in Environmental Science & Policy with a specialty in environmental communications from Duke University. In addition to penning over 1,000 mbg articles on topics from the water crisis in California to the rise of urban beekeeping, her work has appeared on Grist, Bloomberg News, Bustle, and Forbes. She’s spoken about the intersection of self-care and sustainability on podcasts and live events alongside environmental thought leaders like Marci Zaroff, Gay Browne, and Summer Rayne Oakes.
