What is the best time to go to sleep at night?

Everyone knows it’s important to get a good night’s sleep, but is there a perfect bedtime? As with so many things there is no one size fits all approach to sleep. What time you should go to sleep will depend on a variety of factors such as: when do you have to get up in the morning? What does your work schedule look like? What do your responsibilities outside of work look like? What is your partners daily schedule? Do you have kids? But also: when does the sun set and rise?

In order to get a good night’s sleep we need to be in sync with our circadian rhythm, the 24- hour natural clock inside out bodies which regulates when we feel tired and when we naturally wake up. This is regulated by light, however, can be impacted by things such as blue light emission from electronic devices and caffeine.

The simple answer is: the best time to go to sleep is when you naturally feel tired. But that’s not always so easy as you might feel tired throughout the day or have other commitments which mean you cannot listen to your body’s signals.

As a basic rule the best bedtime is one that you can stick to consistently throughout the week, both during the week and on weekends. Our bodies love routine, so choosing a bedtime you can stick to is more beneficial than trying to go to sleep at 10pm but failing to do so half of the week because you are too busy or don’t feel tired. To help with this try to establish a bedtime routine  and count back from when you have to get up to allow yourself at least 8 hours in bed (ideally even more as you most likely won’t fall asleep straight away). So if you have to get up at 7am every morning, a good bedtime to aim for would be somewhere between 10:30 pm and 11pm.

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