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The Ideal Bedtime for Good Health
New research reveals the best time to go to bed
Here’s a bedtime story I think you’ll really like, one that vindicates my lifelong early-to-bed, early-to-rise ways, one I plan to make required reading for my night-owl wife so we can maybe spend more of our waking hours together.
New research reveals the ideal hour to go to bed — or, rather, to fall asleep.
Falling asleep between 10 and 11 p.m. seems to be ideal, based on a study of 88,000 U.K. adults published in the European Heart Journal: Digital Health. People who fall asleep before or after that hour were notably more likely to develop heart disease during the multiyear study:
- Before 10 p.m.: 24% more likely
- 11 p.m. to midnight: 12% more likely
- After midnight: 25% more likely
The findings relate to the simple fact that evolution has programmed us to be active during the day and sleep when it’s dark, a pattern that modern lighting and indoor jobs allow us to break at our peril.
“The body has a 24-hour internal clock, called circadian rhythm, that helps regulate physical and mental functioning,” explains study author David Plans, PhD, a psychology researcher at the U.K.’s University of Exeter. “The results suggest that early…
