Do you sleep through thunderstorms, barking dogs, and even your alarm? You might be a heavy sleeper. Heavy sleepers tend to be harder to wake up — which is a good thing at night, but not so good come morning. Light sleepers, on the other hand, are more easily disturbed.
Below, we’ll cover why some people are heavy sleepers vs. light sleepers, how you can wake up more easily as a heavy sleeper, and how you can stop being such a heavy sleeper if it’s bothering you. Plus, we’ll explain how RISE can improve your sleep and energy, no matter how heavy you sleep.
Some of us are heavy sleepers and some of us are light sleepers. These types of sleepers are not just related to sleep stages, but sleep stages play a part in it.
There are three stages of non-rapid-eye-movement sleep (NREM) and one stage of rapid-eye-movement sleep (REM sleep). Everyone — light and heavy sleepers — cycles through all of these stages of sleep.
Here’s what the sleep stages are.
This sleep stage happens in the few minutes it takes to drift off. It’s the lightest sleep stage. During this stage, it’s very easy for light or noise to disturb you.
Stage 2 is also known as light sleep. Your breathing, brain activity, and heart rate start to slow down. You are more easily woken up in this stage compared to deep sleep — even if you’re a heavy sleeper.
Stage 3 is also known as deep sleep. Your breathing and heart rate slow down further and your brain begins producing patterns of slow brain waves known as delta waves.
During deep sleep, you might sleep through disturbances and your partner might find it harder to wake you up — even if you’re a light sleeper.
If you’re a heavy sleeper, you may spend more time in deep sleep than someone who’s a light sleeper.
But we all spend about 10% to 25% of our time asleep in deep sleep and that’s mainly in the first half of the night. So, if you’re struggling to wake up in the morning, getting more deep sleep probably isn’t to blame.
REM sleep is the stage when most of your dreams happen. Your eyes move rapidly under your eyelids and most of your muscles are paralyzed to stop you from acting out your dreams.
Learn more about REM sleep and other stages of sleep here.
A heavy sleeper is someone who can more easily sleep through disturbances. This can be a light being switched on, a loud noise, your partner moving around, or even your alarm.
Your sleeper type isn’t set in stone. How much of a heavy or light sleeper you are can change over time, in certain circumstances, and you can influence it. This is good news for heavy sleepers looking to wake up more easily and light sleepers looking for more restful sleep.
FYI, it’s not always something external waking you up. “Light sleepers may be more readily roused by internal (e.g. heartburn) or external (e.g. noise) stimuli,” says Dr. Jamie Zeitzer, co-director of the Center for Sleep and Circadian Sciences at Stanford University and one of our advisors.
More research is needed, but here’s why some of us are heavy sleepers vs. light sleepers.
“There’s more to it than genetics, but they certainly play a role” explains Dr. Chester Wu, a double board certified doctor in psychiatry and sleep medicine.
Your genetics may determine how many sleep spindles you generate and these sleep spindles can determine how easily you sleep through disruptions.
Genetics also determine your sleep sensitivity more broadly, or how sensitive you are to factors like not only light and noise, but also pain, anxiety, and even caffeine, which can impact how restless, or not, your sleep is.
There’s also a genetic component to how much deep sleep you get. “Genetic variations of adenosine deaminase have been found to correlate to more or less deep sleep,” says Dr. Wu.
Beyond genetics, you may become more of a light sleeper with age. You produce fewer sleep spindles and could have more factors that wake you up, like pain or medical conditions.
If you’re sleep deprived, you may fall asleep quickly, sleep through the night, and struggle to wake up in the morning or oversleep your alarm. All this makes it feel like you’re a heavy sleeper.
Expert tip: You may need more sleep than you think. We looked at how much sleep 1.95 million RISE users aged 24 and up needed and found 48% needed eight hours or more. Check RISE to see how much sleep you need.
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Your daily habits — like avoiding caffeine or exercising daily — could help you sleep through the night like a heavy sleeper. On the flip side, things like late caffeine, alcohol, and stress could cause you to wake up often in the night like a light sleeper.
If you have children or are in the military, you may be more sensitive to certain sounds at night.
Heads-up: Many lifestyle factors affecting how heavily you sleep are part of sleep hygiene. These are the daily habits that help or hurt your sleep.
Good sleep hygiene can help you have a higher arousal threshold, so you sleep through small disturbances.
Medical conditions can cause sleep loss or make it harder to wake up in the morning. They may also cause light sleep as you struggle to fall and stay asleep.
Those include:
Medication can also play a role in how heavy you sleep. Some medications, like trazodone, act as sedatives, while others, like fluoxetine, cause sleep fragmentation and lighter sleep.
Sleep disorders can cause sleep deprivation, excessive sleepiness, frequent arousals in the night, or sleeping more than usual.
Sleep disorders include:
Here’s how to make waking up easier as a heavy sleeper.
Natural light can suppress the sleep hormone melatonin and signal to your circadian rhythm (or body clock) that it’s daytime and time to be awake.
Try opening the blinds or curtains as soon as you wake up, or opening them when waking a heavy sleeper.
Then, get outside in natural light for at least 10 minutes each morning.
Natural light can help shake off sleep inertia and regulate your sleep schedule, making mornings easier going forward.
If you find yourself hitting snooze when half awake, try putting your phone or alarm on the other side of your bedroom and making sure it’s loud enough to wake you.
Once you’ve gotten up to turn it off, try to stay out of bed and get started with your day.
As well as moving your alarm to the other side of the room, try:
Choose from melodic sounds, your choice of music, or vibrations on the RISE alarm.
When you turn off the RISE alarm, you’ll be kicked directly to your favorite app to slowly wake up your brain.
Do morning activities you look forward to and ones that help shake off sleep inertia.
Those include:
Encourage deep-sleeping family members to do the same.
We’ve got more tips on how to wake someone up here.
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PSA: There’s nothing wrong with being a heavy sleeper! In fact, it may come in handy when early morning light creeps through the blinds or your neighbors have a house party.
But, if you feel like heavy sleeping is disrupting your quality of life or is a product of sleep deprivation, you can make some changes. Plus, how we feel about our sleep can influence our energy, mood, and our future nights of sleep, so if you’re not satisfied with your sleep, making some changes can help you feel better day to day.
You can’t control sleep spindles or your genes, but here’s what you can do.
Try to wake up and go to bed at the same times each day, even on weekends. This keeps your circadian rhythm in check, helping you feel sleepy at bedtime and more awake when your alarm rings.
A regular sleep schedule reduces your chances of your alarm ringing while you’re in deep sleep, which could make you feel groggier than usual.
Check RISE for a prediction of your circadian rhythm to see the best times to go to sleep and wake up.
If you haven’t been getting enough sleep, you’ll have built up sleep debt.
Sleep debt is how much sleep you owe your body. How much sleep you got last night has the most impact on your energy levels today, but lost sleep from the past several days can still affect how you feel.
If you have a lot of sleep debt, you’ll find it hard to wake up in the morning, have more sleep inertia, and may sleep through your alarm altogether.
You can catch up on sleep and lower sleep debt by:
Check RISE to see how much sleep debt you have. Aim to get it below five hours to see if that helps you wake up more easily.
Better sleep hygiene can help heavy sleepers get enough sleep and have an easier time waking up each morning.
Good sleep hygiene includes:
RISE tells you when to do 20+ sleep hygiene habits at the time that makes them most effective for you.
Expert tip: Good sleep hygiene can help light sleepers sleep through the night and sleep deeper. As well as the tips above, focus on reducing stress and anxiety, especially before bed. RISE users say stress and anxiety are their biggest sleep barriers and light sleepers might be more susceptible to them disrupting their sleep.
If you’ve tried these fixes but still struggle to get out of bed in the morning and make the most of your day, consult your doctor or a sleep specialist.
“You can’t rewire the brain to become a heavy or lighter sleeper,” explains Dr Wu. “But we can try to identify factors that may be contributing to your sleep, and try options such as supplements or medications that might help.”
If you’re getting enough sleep and feeling good while awake, you probably don’t need to worry about being a heavy sleeper.
If you’re struggling to wake up, however, use RISE to lower your sleep debt, get in sync with your circadian rhythm, and improve your sleep hygiene. This can help you stop oversleeping your alarm and feel more awake in the mornings.
The good news is this advice can help light sleepers sleep deeper, too.
RISE users notice the difference:
“The difference I feel in terms of energy is night and day…I haven’t needed an alarm to wake up in the morning since I started using this app!” .
Plus, 80% of RISE users get better sleep within five days of using the app.
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