eli5: Why does waking up to an alarm make you much more tired in the morning rather than waking up naturally?

Question

I am tired 100% of the time I wake up for work even though I get 8 hours but on the weekends I don’t feel as tired at all.

In: Other

Answer 1

Sleepiness is controlled by your body adding certain biochemicals into your blood stream, or by removing them from it. If you wake up naturally, that’s because your body removed the sleepiness drugs from your blood enough for you to awaken. If woken by an alarm clock, you’re still full of sleep drugs. That’s why.