When Is the Best Time To Go to Sleep? Research suggests the ideal time to go to sleep is 10 p.m. But you should focus more on having a consistent schedule and routine when it comes to hitting the hay.
School-age children should go to bed between 8:00 and 9:00 p.m. Teens should try to go to bed between 9:00 and 10:00 p.m. Adults should try to go to sleep between 10:00 and 11:00 p.m.
“There is no such thing as a “fixed or ideal time” to go to bed which will suit all individuals. It is generally advisable to fall asleep between 10 pm to midnight as for most people this is when the circadian rhythm is at a point that favours falling asleep.”
Turning in before midnight is good for our health.
In addition to regulating circadian rhythm, sleep before midnight can affect our overall wellness when awake. "Sleeping before midnight helps to ensure that you have enough daytime hours of light exposure to regulate your melatonin production," Rohrscheib says.
In general, though, people should aim to fall asleep a few hours after dark and wake up within the first hours of sunlight in the morning, where possible. General guidelines indicate that the average adult needs about 7–9 hours of sleep each night.
Waking up at 5 a.m. can be very beneficial, says Dr. Anisha Patel-Dunn, a psychiatrist and chief medical officer of LifeStance Health, an outpatient mental health company.
The Best Time to Sleep Is Between 8 p.m. and Midnight
Within that four-hour timeframe, you should go to bed when you're tired enough to get to sleep easily, but early enough to be well-rested the next day.
People who go to bed late and wake up late can often experience health problems because their body clock does not align with the regular rhythms of modern society. However, a new study suggests that a few easy routine adjustments could go a long way for night owls.
Conclusion. Waking up at 4:00 am might be great for your to-do list, but if it's causing you to lose out on sleep, it's going to do more harm than good. Consistent too-early wake-up times are often a sign that something is awry, whether it's your lifestyle or a sleep disorder.
While some people regularly function on short periods of sleep, research mostly agrees that six hours of sleep is not enough for most adults. Experts recommend that most adults need at least seven hours of sleep every night.
"The overall best is if you can wake up naturally because you're done sleeping," he said. On the other hand, if you're waking up early on just a few hours of sleep, you should probably try and squeeze in some more shuteye.
While most adults need between seven and nine hours of sleep, some adults average five or fewer hours of sleep each night. While it may seem like enough sleep, regularly getting only five hours of sleep each night may lead to sleep deprivation.
We do not recommend sleeping for only one hour at night. Some research suggests that lost sleep can take years off your life and that you may not be able to catch up on the lost hours of rest. This is because consistent sleep deprivation can cause a myriad of chronic health issues in people over time.
If you need to survive on 5 hours of sleep, try to live in sync with your circadian rhythm and get more sleep through naps, if possible, to minimize the effects of the sleep deprivation. Get bright light, drink coffee (not too close to bedtime), exercise, and take a cold shower to boost your energy levels.
“Women are also multi-taskers, and they do a lot at once. Because they use more of their actual brain, they may need a little bit more sleep than men. It is still debatable, but some experts say that women need twenty more minutes on average than men usually need.”
Chaotic hours are likely to lead to sleep issues. The best hours for regenerative sleep for most people are between 10pm and 2am, so getting to bed before 10 can make a difference, although this varies between individuals.
It's up to the individual to find their best time to go to sleep and wake up, but as a rule of thumb: adults need around 8 hours of sleep a night (give or take), so a sleep schedule of 10pm to 6am, or 11pm to 7am may work well for you.
How to work out the ideal bedtime. If you need to wake up by 7am then count back 7.5 hours to find that bedtime is around 11.30pm. Make sure you're in bed before then so you're relaxed ready for sleep and allow yourself 15 minutes to drop off.
The circadian rhythm is controlled by a tiny region at the base of the brain called the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), which makes us feel sleepy in the evening by sending a signal to the body to release the snooze-inducing hormone melatonin, which also lowers our body temperature.
Sufferers of advanced sleep phase disorder have an 'early' circadian clock; they feel sleepy and want to go bed in the early evening (6 p.m. to 9 p.m.) and wake up in the early hours of the morning (2 a.m. to 5 a.m.).
People may fall asleep early because of something else, like depression, alcohol use or sleep apnea. Or they may nap during the day, which makes them wake early in the morning. So, we screen for depression and mood disorders, eliminate daytime napping or treat them for sleep apnea.