What causes grogginess when you first wake up – what about your brain isn’t working?
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It’s called ‘sleep inertia’. I know that doesn’t answer your question (I see you have some great answers already) but knowing this bleugh feeling has a name makes me feel better and reassures me that I didn’t have a bad night’s sleep, it’s just a normal phase that passes quickly.
Your brain is run by chemical reactions. Those reactions can happen very fast or more slowly, but they all take time. So, while a given reaction is ramping up or winding down, you’ll still feel it a little bit, but maybe not all the way.
When you’re asleep, your brain is full of chemicals that make you unconscious. When you wake up, those chemicals are wearing off. But they are big doses of sleepy-chemicals that last for hours on end. They don’t shut off immediately.
It kinda makes sense that you feel a little groggy when you have just stopped being asleep – you’re basically coming off some really strong drugs that are designed to have you on your ass for hours! It takes a few minutes for those chemicals to clear out of your system.
No experience, but think of it as an old computer or an old car. When you turn it on, it first needs time to warm up and be fully functional.
Take my advice with a grain of salt.
Try drinking a big glass of water and taking some magnesium before bed. You won’t have those feelings after about a week of getting use to being hydrated while sleeping.
To add a little detail since the ELI5 part is done, part of the process of cleaning (yes, physically cleaning) your brain while sleeping involves flooding it with spinal fluid. This is slightly inhibitory of normal functions, so if you wake up during one of the cleaning cycles, you will have difficulty thinking straight until it finishes draining and readjusts. There are a lot more factors involved, but this is one of the coolest ones.
I heard that if you set your alarm twice – the first one being 90 minutes prior to the time you want to get up – you won’t feel groggy. It’s because a cycle lasts 90 minutes on average and getting up in the middle of it causes the heavy, groggy feeling.
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