Falling back to sleep can make you more exhausted—here's the cut off time when you should just stay awake. If you wake up before your alarm, should you head back to bed or get an early start on the day? The best answer depends on a few factors, experts tell Fortune, but generally leans toward heading back to bed.

Going back to sleep after initially waking up—often called "fragmented sleep" or "sleep inertia"—can actually leave you feeling worse than if you had simply stayed awake. In 2026, sleep experts emphasize that hitting the snooze button or falling back into a light slumber disrupts your natural circadian rhythm and forces your body into a new sleep cycle that it won't have time to complete. This leads to profound grogginess, as your brain is pulled out of a deep sleep stage just as the second alarm goes off. If you consistently find yourself unable to stay awake upon first rising, it may be a sign of poor sleep quality or "sleep debt" from previous nights. To feel more alert, it is better to get out of bed immediately and seek exposure to natural sunlight, which signals your brain to stop producing melatonin and start producing cortisol. While a brief "power nap" later in the day can be beneficial, that extra 15 to 30 minutes of morning "snoozing" usually results in a heavy, foggy feeling that can last for several hours, making it counterproductive for your morning productivity and overall mood.