The ideal time to go to bed is going to vary from person to person. Bedtime can change over time depending on your sex, your hormone levels, your life stressors and most importantly your age.

As we age we produce less melatonin which along with light is the primary regulator of our circadian rhythm.

Going to bed at the same time each night is a very healthy thing to do for your circadian rhythm.

I used to go to bed around 10 or 11pm each night. Then I got a job when I was 23 at a nationwide mortgage company handling  hundreds of computer servers in their data center.

The computers in that data center were being used 24 hours a day 7 days a week to process loans and handle mortgages. I would work the swing shift (3pm to 11pm or 12am). I lived about 35 minutes away and we’d normally leave work around midnight or 12:30am. This would put me getting home around 1am.

Of course I’d need to grab a bite of food, take a shower, brush teeth and do all the normal bedtime routines. Sometimes I’d watch some TV for a half hour.

Little did I know but I was crushing my circadian rhythm. I’d find myself completely wired laying awake in bed at 3am with my eyes wide open.

It really sucked.

I feel like at that time I altered my circadian rhythm drastically.

What is a Circadian Rhythm?

Humans live according to a 24 hour diurnal sleep wake cycle. Some people call it a light, dark cycle. Consider this daily cycle as something that is as important as an organ. The cycle itself is invisible and as such doesn’t command respect. But if it were physical, like your liver it could be scanned and measured. You could measure the level of enzymes its producing or how many heavy metals are stored there. You could do radio images of it and find out if it has been torn or bruised in some way.

But because our circadian rhythm isn’t something we can physically look at and measure, it gets overlooked.

Think of your circadian rhythm to be just as important as having a brain or a liver.

The main trigger to your circadian rhythm is light. It makes sense and explains why we have a sun during the day and darkness at night.

If we have an internal cycle that’s run via something external, then we must have an internal clock that can receive information from external triggers. Turns out every cell has its own circadian rhythm. Your liver cells need to be carrying out specific functions at specific times of day. Same holds true with our kidney cells, liver cells and neural cells.

They all have jobs to do at different times of the day that are different from each other. They all have their own circadian timing.

But how do they know what to do at what time?

Enter…the suprachiasmatic nucleus. Sounds pretty scientific right? The SCN is the master clock that communicates using frequencies of light to every cell in the body.

The mitochondria in our cells transmit light frequencies to the SCN and visa versa every nano second of every day.

There’s constant communication going on.

Who programs the suprachiasmatic nucleus?

Nature through sunlight does this job.

It’s a complex process but essentially UVA and UVB frequencies enter through central retinal pathway to the pineal gland in the hypothalamus of our brain and then to the SCN to let it know about our environment. All of this happens in a nano second.

If I were to snap my fingers and immediately transport you to the top of Mount Everest, it would take less than a second for the mitochondria to send signals to ever cell in your body that your environment has dramatically changed.

When the SCN is working properly melatonin gets produced which controls our circadian rhythms each day. Note that this is a 24 hour system we’re plugged into.

The good news is that we can do things every day to stay close to that system (Nature) that help us align more closely to our circadian rhythm.

So what does the suprachiasmatic nucleus have to do with the ideal time to go to bed?

Well the more connected (by connected I mean tightly aligned physically) you are to nature, your ideal time to go to bed will shift a little bit and then settle down and you’ll know exactly when that time is.

For me my ideal time to go to bed used to be 2 or 3am. Now my ideal time to go to bed is 9:30.

Ideal Bedtime For Adults

Unless you have a genetic mutation in your DEC2 gene, you probably need the normal amount of sleep for adults which is anywhere from 7-9 hours. I feel best at a minimum of 8 hours of sleep per night.

For those interested, the DEC2 gene (also called “Differentiated Embryo Chondrocyte 2” aka BHLHE41, which stands for Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Family Member E41) is a gene that if you have a mutation, would allow you to get by on much less sleep per night. I’m guessing this is what Kobe Bryant had. He would sleep for 3 or 4 hours per night and play NBA basketball games the next day.

Assuming you don’t have this genetic defect the ideal time to go to bed is as follows.

Effects of Sleep Deprivation

Based on the latest 2015 sleep recommendations from the National Sleep Foundation, here’s how much sleep you need to feel your best.

• Newborns: 14–17 hours
• Infants: 12–15 hours
• Toddlers: 11–14 hours
• Preschoolers: 10–13 hours
• School-aged children: 9–11 hours
• Teenagers: 8–10 hours
• Younger adults (18-25 years): 7-9 hours
• Adults (26-64 years): 7-9 hours
• Older adults (65+ years): 7-8 hours

If you’re not getting close to the numbers above, you’re most likely going to be having many health issues as a result of sleep deprivation.

If you’re not getting enough REM sleep, you’ll notice…

• Quicker temper
• Less able to handle your emotions (up or down)
• More depression or anxiety
• Lack of drive
• Feeling hopeless

If you’re not getting enough deep sleep (nREM) you’ll notice…

• Injuries take longer to heal
• More physical pain
• Joint pain
• Lack of energy
• Getting tired easier and earlier

Also a lack of deep sleep sets you up for blood sugar issues (diabetes) and even cancer.

Your Sleep Chronotype

According to Oxford Dictionary a chronotype is…

“a person’s natural inclination with regard to the times of day when they prefer to sleep or when they are most alert or energetic.
“teenagers and students might find their chronotype shifts as they get older”

Generally it has to do with how you are wired. Are you a night owl by nature? Are you an early riser? Or do you like to burn the candle at both ends? I don’t recommend the latter. Stress and sleep deprivation is a recipe for cancer.

Michael Breus, PhD,  developed four unique sleep chronotypes which are:

1. Lions: Early risers, Goal-oriented, Optimistic, Disciplined
2. Bears: Daytime active, Social, Easygoing, Deep sleepers
3. Wolves: Night owls, Creative, Impulsive, Risk-takers
4. Dolphins: Light sleepers, Restless, Anxious, “Wired and tired”

Which sleep chronotype are you?

Sleep Drive

Your sleep drive is also called sleep pressure. Think of it like a pot of boiling water. When you get up in the morning you turn the fire on low and over time it eventually starts to boil. Sleep drive will increase during the day, just like pressure. As the day continues your sleep drive gets stronger to the point of pure exhaustion. The pressure to sleep could also increase with circumstances that happen during the day.

Think about sitting through a 2 hour boring lecture. You’ll start yawning and dosing off. Your eyelids feel heavy as your sleep drive gets stronger. Ideally you’d like to increase your sleep drive near bedtime. This is where little sleep hacks come in like taking a magnesium bath and reading before bed really help to increase your sleep drive.

Sleep Cycles

Sleep cycles happen about every 90 minutes. You typically have 2 stages of sleep which are REM sleep and non REM sleep (nREM). Generally you’ll cycle through 4 cycles of these during a night of sleep. You’ll want to align your ideal time to go to bed with your natural cycle of falling asleep.

Tips For a Regular Bedtime

I like to work backwards when it comes to falling sleep.

Let’s say I want to be asleep by 9:30. It generally takes me about 10 minutes to fall asleep. That means I need to be in bed by 9:20. If I want to be in bed by 9:20 that means I have to get my bed time routine done before 9:20. Generally it takes me about 1 hour to get myself ready for bed.

Here’s some of what I do as my nighttime bed routine in no particular order

• Skin brush before
• Shower
• Brush teeth
• Stretch
• Read book
• Make ozone water to rinse mouth after brushing
• Neck exercises
• Skin brush
• Oil pull
• Let dogs (Charlee, Coco & Frankie) out to pee
• Get clothes ready for the morning
• Take my supplements (like my last melatonin supplement)
• Get my water ready for the morning (Immediately upon waking I drink 32 oz of water)
• Get my nightstand setup with red glasses, red flashlight and sleep mask

All that takes me a little under 1 hour.

So that means I have to start my bedtime routine at 8:20. This will allow me to get to sleep by 9:30.

Here are some things you can do to help you set a regular bedtime routine…

• Avoid drastic changes to bedtime: If it’s the weekend, try to go to bed at the same time as during the week. Avoid going to bed too early or too late.
• Watch the Sunrise daily: UV and Infrared light help set your daily circadian rhythm via the SCN
• Don’t exercise after sunset: I don’t recommend exercising indoors or in a gym. The ideal exercise is midday and outside if possible
• Don’t eat too late: I don’t recommend eating after sunset. But definitely do not go to bed on an empty stomach
• Get small bursts of sun during the day: Make sure you’re not wearing reading glasses, sunglasses or contacts.
• Block blue light: During the day use yellow glasses and after sunset use orange glasses
• Avoid caffeine & stimulants after 11am: Caffeine, sugar and other stimulants can stay in your system up to 12 hours.

Conclusion

The ideal time to go to bed is going to be different for each person at various stages of life. I like to be in bed by 9:30 (that’s the goal) but no later than 10:30. I feel best when I get at least 8 hours of sleep. If I sleep more than 9 hours per night, I feel groggy and like I overslept.

If I oversleep I need to compensate the next day by making sure I watch the sunrise, get plenty of sun, exercise and do the things that will exhaust me physically but also mentally and emotionally.

For you, you’ll have to figure out how many sleep cycles you need, how long it takes to get to bed and fall asleep. You’ll want to know what time you have to wake up and work backwards.

Questions

1. Do you keep a sleep journal?
2. Do you use a sleep calculator?
3. How much sleep do you need?
4. How long does it take to fall asleep?
5. How do you feel when you over sleep or under sleep?

Comment below.