Bedtime is very important so as not to wake up still tired the next day, but it is not enough to go to bed early. Here is the ideal time to go to bed.
The more you sleep, the less tired you are, you might think. But in reality, it’s not that simple. You’ve probably already gone to bed early and yet felt tired when you woke up the next day, even more so than the day before when you went to bed later. An early bedtime is not always enough. You also have to take into account your sleep cycles. You should know that a sleep cycle lasts 90 minutes, during which you go through “light slow wave” sleep, where you can wake up easily, “deep slow wave” sleep, which allows your body to regenerate, and “paradoxical” sleep, during which you dream.
If you wake up at the wrong time during a sleep cycle, especially during the deep phase, you may feel more tired than if you had slept for less time, but woke up at the right time. To feel rested in the morning, it is therefore best to fall asleep between sleep cycles. And to find out the ideal time to go to bed, the site Hillarys has created a “sleep calculator.” It is based on the natural rhythms of the human body, with adults needing 7 to 9 hours of sleep per night, representing five to six sleep cycles, compared to 9 to 13 hours for children.
The tool gives very precise and practical results. According to the calculator, if you wake up at 6am, you should ideally go to bed at 8:46pm or 10:16pm, depending on whether you are an early bird or not. This schedule takes into account the 14 minutes it takes on average for people to fall asleep, so you are not five minutes away. For a wake-up at 7am, you should go to bed at 9:46pm or 11:16pm and so on. Similarly, getting up at 6:30am ideally corresponds to going to bed at 9:16pm or 10:46pm and 10:16pm or 11:46pm for 7:30am.
Yvonne Keal of Hillarys said: MailOnline that getting better sleep can “improve concentration, reduce stress levels and even keep our hearts healthy,” but that “modern, always-on lifestyles and busy home environments can actively prevent us from getting the rest we need.”
In addition to these times, there are some recommendations for waking up properly in the morning. It is not recommended to look at your phone as soon as you open your eyes, a common action, but too abrupt when getting up. It is also recommended to avoid pushing back your alarm because this makes you fall into a very light sleep while waiting for the next ring and it will not be restorative. A good habit to take is instead to drink a good glass of water to hydrate yourself and gently wake up your body.