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Why do some people go to bed so late only to hit the snooze button five or more times before they drag themselves out of bed the next day? Mornings are hard for everybody, but for some late sleepers getting out of bed is an everyday struggle that significantly disrupts their lives.

Researchers at Flinders University say that they are now a step closer to understanding what prevents from these late owls from sleeping at night and waking up the next morning.

Researchers are about to start the second part of a three-year study looking to the role of the body clock in delayed sleep phase disorder, which is characterized by a persistent inability to fall asleep and wake at a conventional time.

Sleep expert Professor Leon Lack, who leads the Flinders Sleep Research Laboratory, says that initial study results revealed that the circadian rhythms or internal body clocks of people with delayed sleep phase disorder ran at a slower pace than people without the disorder, thus making it difficult for these people to go to bed and wake up early.

"Late sleepers can't get to sleep until 2am or 3am at the earliest, or in some cases as late as 4am, which makes it very hard for them to get up for their commitments the next day," Lack said in a university release.

Lack said that one of the "most plausible explanations" why people with delayed sleep phase disorder can't sleep or wake up on time is because their body clocks run longer than 24 hours.

"Most people have a 24-hour body clock, it's a natural rhythm that influences sleepiness and core body temperature but for people with delayed sleep phase disorder it takes longer to complete the cycle so they tend to go to bed later and wake up later," he explained.

While preliminary result suggest that the delayed sleep disorder is most likely cause by a slower body clock, Lack says that additional tests with larger sample sizes are still needed to confirm the latest findings.

If the findings from the current study are confirmed then researchers say they will be able to help those people can't go to sleep and wake up on a normal schedule.

"If we establish what we're expecting to find it will reinforce therapies that we know can help, such as bright light therapy to induce alertness in the mornings and melatonin to encourage earlier evening sleepiness," Lack said.

"Exposing people to a bright light as early in the day as possible informs the body clock that it should be awake so therefore they fall asleep and wake up earlier on subsequent nights," he explained.

Researchers said that finding the cause for delayed sleep disorder is imperative because a large percentage of the population suffers the condition. Researchers believe that as many as 10 to 15 percent of adolescents and young adults suffer delayed sleep disorder.

"It causes young people to be late for school and when they do get to school they're inattentive until their body clock finally wakes up. Adults can also have trouble holding down jobs because they're always running late for work so it does have a detrimental effect on lives," Lacks said.