For something that happens every single day, waking up is surprisingly under-examined. We spend so much time thinking about how to fall asleep better, deeper, faster. But the way we wake up, often to a sharp, blaring alarm, has quietly gone unquestioned. It’s just part of the routine. Necessary. Normal.
But biologically, it may be working against us.
“When you wake up to a loud, abrupt alarm your body transitions to a fight or flight state,” explains Dr. Amit Shetty, sleep advisor. “This is the same response that is activated during times of stress or danger.” In that moment, your nervous system shifts into high alert. Heart rate rises. Blood pressure increases. Cortisol and other stress hormones are released. It’s not just waking up. It’s a stress response.
That response doesn’t always end when you get out of bed. What follows is something called sleep inertia, a period of grogginess and impaired cognition that can last anywhere from a few minutes to several hours depending on what stage of sleep you were pulled out of. That foggy, slightly disoriented feeling isn’t just you needing coffee. It’s your brain trying to catch up after being abruptly interrupted.
Even if it feels subtle, the way you wake up sets a physiological tone. A harsh alarm doesn’t just get your attention. It can create an immediate spike in cortisol, which may shape how your body experiences stress throughout the day. And yet, this is the default for most people.
Part of the reason is that the alarm clock itself hasn’t meaningfully evolved. As Matthew Hassett, founder of Loftie, points out, it’s a category that’s been largely replaced rather than redesigned. “The alarm clock hasn't been meaningfully rethought in decades, and in the meantime, the phone replaced it entirely,” he says. “So now the last thing most people see before they close their eyes and the first thing they reach for when they open them is a device designed to capture their attention indefinitely.”
That shift has changed more than just how we wake up. It’s reshaped the entire boundary between rest and stimulation. Screens, notifications, and late night scrolling have become embedded in the sleep experience, even though they were never designed with rest in mind.
Hassett traces the idea behind Loftie back to a broader question around intentional living. “I became obsessed with the moments in our day that we've stopped being intentional about, and the wake up is the biggest one,” he says. Research supports that instinct. A University of Virginia study found that waking up to an alarm causes a morning blood pressure surge significantly higher than waking naturally. Other research from RMIT University suggests that harsh, beeping alarms actually increase grogginess compared to gentler, melodic sounds, which is the opposite of what most people assume.
In other words, the thing we rely on to wake us up might be making it harder to actually feel awake.
So what does a more natural wake up look like?
According to Dr. Shetty, it starts with gradual cues rather than abrupt ones. “The most natural way to wake the body up is through gradual light exposure mimicking sunrise,” he says. This kind of transition allows the body to begin preparing for wakefulness before you’re fully conscious. Hormones shift more gradually. The nervous system stays regulated. The experience feels less like being pulled out of sleep and more like coming out of it.
Sound matters too. Instead of a single jarring alarm, a gentler, phased approach can better align with how the brain moves through sleep cycles. “A gentle, initial stimulus can help shift a sleeper from a deeper to a lighter stage of sleep prior to a second stronger stimulus,” Dr. Shetty explains. “This helps prevent sleep inertia.”
It’s a small shift, but one that reflects a larger idea. The goal isn’t to eliminate structure or routine. It’s to work with the body instead of against it.
That might mean rethinking what sits on your nightstand. It might mean creating a little more distance from your phone. Or it might simply mean paying closer attention to how you start your day.
Because waking up isn’t just a moment. It’s a signal. And for most of us, it’s been sending the wrong one.
