It's the ubiquitous alarm clock feature that grants you a few more (often around nine) precious minutes of reprieve from the day ahead, but according to various sleep studies, your snooze button probably does more harm than good.

Photo by alancleaver_2000.

A New York Times article from 2004 highlights the problem with the snooze button:

[S]leep researchers agree that short bouts of sleep are far from ideal. The restorative value of rest is diminished, especially when the increments are short, said Dr. Edward Stepanski, who has studied sleep fragmentation at the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. And a teeter-totter effect of dozing and waking causes shifts in the brain-wave patterns.

''Even a subtle noise that doesn't actually wake you up is disruptive enough to affect the sleep quality,'' Dr. Stepanski said. ''That's why someone who falls asleep with the TV on may wake up exhausted. So, if a person is rousing themselves enough to reset a clock, there's likely to be an even more profound effect.''