Ideal bedtime

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Is there an ideal set time to go to bed and wake up?

I read somewhere that the most 'natural' sleep pattern for a human was to go to bed when it gets dark , sleep until midnightish and get up for a couple of hours, then back to sleep until dawn. I don't know what that was based on.

I think you'll find that there are many, many different sleep patterns that work for different people and as long as you're getting enough sleep for you then it's probably okay.

There is a lot of conflicting advice on this topic that exists.

In any case, a regular sleep pattern, going to bed at the same time and getting up at the same time on a regular basis, is supposed to be important.

Nine hours of continuous sleep at night makes me comfortable, and I haven't tried anything else.

That can depend a lot.
It's not only when the sun reaching one's eyes and the amount of light exposure...

But also had to be in concert with one's meal times, bowel movements, intensities of activities, certain dosages/amount of consumption (this even includes hydration), etc.


In my own case, I cannot.

I tried for basically most of my life; striving to be consistent in schedule -- but that's just impossible for me, not even in childhood, not even with regular schedules and commitments, not even before screen times. Nothing. It is even uncertain if I can ever have a sleep study in this lifetime to attempt and treat whatever undiagnosed issues I have with sleep.


I don't know about you, but a fixed "Ideal bedtime" just doesn't work with me.
It doesn't matter if I sleep in this supposed 'ideal bedtime' and wake up in the 'ideal' time consistently -- I'd still wake up feeling crappy everyday and still feel crap the whole day.

It coincidentally happened to me before; sure it made me going to a regularly scheduled work a bit easier (or harder, actually), but that's just all.

All I get is that sleeping by 90 mins cycle is better for me than just counting the hours, or that my meal time is ideally 1-2 hrs before falling asleep.
Any attempts on predicting myself depending on what I consumed, what I did, how much and when, and if XYZ symptoms/state/whatever will or will not likely to happen, etc.

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I sleep whenever I need to, and wake up whenever I do. My work schedule is flexible enough that my time is my own. If I want or need to be awake for a day or 2 I can, or not - as I see fit.

I do best by going to bed around 5 am, and getting up around 9.

That way I get to be awake in the dark, which is my best / most productive time.
I get to sleep through the early sun rays coming through my window.
I hate morning sun.

Sleep and wake have a social component - time keeping in general (clocks, calendars) does.

This source suggests 7 to 9 hours of sleep per night:

https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/sleep/how-much-sleep

Based on this, if you must get up by a certain hour for work or school just work backwards to find your best bed time.

This study:


https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/full/10.1 ... -2020-0032

Says getting to bed earlier is better than later, consistent is better than variable and weekend catch up sleep is better than not doing so.

I think it's funny how those articles presume we can just go to bed at a certain time and sleep until the alarm.
If it were that easy, wouldn't everyone be getting 8-9 hours of sleep per night?

I have insomnia and haven't fallen asleep without prescription sleeping tablets for over ten years.
Even when I take them, the most sleep I can manage is about four hours.
I fall asleep relatively quickly (an hour or two after the tablet), but I wake up four hours later.
It happens all the time.
It's because of anxiety and having an overwhelming number of responsibilities.

In my case it depends on background noise levels (which are less when it's very late) and on how long I slept the night before (can't sleep if I'm already overslept, and it does more harm than good trying to). Other than such practical issues as that, I doubt there is an ideal bedtime. Obviously it's easier to see if you synchronise your awake time with daylight hours. Different people get on better with different sleep times.

I go to bed at 11 on weeknights after Hogan's Heroes. I need to watch Schultzie before I go to bed. I'm usually up at 6:30 in the morning.

Falling asleep is very difficult for me so I can't predict when it will be and I certainly can't have a regular sleep schedule. Even sleeping pills like Ambien don't work. My natural sleep cycle is longer than 24 hours, so in the best of times I fall asleep later and later every night, which is very inconvenient, but then sometimes I'm awake for more than 24 hours at a time, or more. It's just all over the place. It's a huge problem for me.

As far as what is ideal, I don't know. If I could magically get a sleep schedule given to me by a genie, I think I would choose to sleep between 1am and 9am. I need about 9 hours to feel somewhat rested. (I have chronic fatigue (ME/CFS) so I never feel rested.)