What’s The Best Time To Go To Bed?

A new study has identified a “golden hour” between 10pm and 11pm as the ideal time to fall asleep. Researchers discovered both the quantity and quality of our slumber plays a vital role in all aspects of our health. People who nod off during this golden hour have less risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke than those who go to bed outside it, their report suggests.

Let’s take a closer look at what we all need to understand about this golden hour sweet spot for sleep in order to improve our own health.

Our natural circadian rhythm is based around the sun coming up and going down, and so aligning your bedtime to your rhythm is a great idea, but not always possible. Your daily routine and the time you need to be up dressed and ready for work, school or university will determine the time you need to wake up. Likewise, this affects what time you should go to bed in order to ensure you get the correct amount of sleep.

If we go to sleep at very different times than we are used to it disrupts our internal body clock. During the various Covid lockdowns, lots of us were watching Netflix or glued to social media and going to bed later, which pushed our circadian rhythm out of sync and led to more disturbed sleep.

To calculate the best time for you to go to bed you can simply detract eight hours from the time it’s necessary to wake up.

Related: Ways To Sleep Better At Night

Set a really good bedtime routine

During the hour before you go to bed switch off your television and devices, including tablets and laptops, to avoid mental stimulation.

You may also find it helpful for your bedtime routine to include calming activities such as taking a warm bath, reading a book or magazine, writing a diary, or some form of meditation. Your mind starts winding down for sleep a few hours before bedtime as part of your natural sleep-wake cycle so use your bedtime routine to make that process more effective.

Stick your bedtime and wake-up times every day. According to the Sleep Foundation, following a consistent sleep routine helps train your brain to naturally feel tired when it’s bedtime.

Put down the phone

The blue light emitted by your mobile phone and tablets stops your body from producing melatonin. This is a hormone that your body starts producing when natural light reduces during the evening. Blue light stops this hormone from being produced, which stops you from getting sleepy. Set a time to stop looking at your phone in order to prevent it from interfering with your falling asleep time, or you may even decide to banish it from the bedroom completely.

In conclusion, perhaps the most important takeaway from this study is that we all need to give ourselves a proper bedtime, around 10pm to 11pm and certainly before the midnight hour.

Regina Giblin, British Heart Foundation senior cardiac nurse, said: “This large study suggests that going to sleep between 10 and 11pm could be the sweet spot for most people to keep their heart healthy long-term.

“However, it’s important to remember that this study can only show an association and can’t prove cause and effect.”

For more information about how you can improve your sleep health see our guide to establishing an evening routine.