

What is the best bedtime? - mck-
http://time.com/3183183/you-asked-whats-the-ideal-time-to-go-to-sleep/

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vamosago
Early sleep and early rising is not for everyone

What bugs me is people that say 'you will adjust, just go to bed earlier.'

After 15 years of rising early i still, as always, find the hours after 8pm to
be my most productive. I am very focused and energetic, and my mental clarity
is at its peak.

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youngandceo
I totally agree. It's different for each and every person. There is never ONE
optimal solution for everyone. We aren't identical machines. -Irving of
[http://www.youngandceo.com](http://www.youngandceo.com)

~~~
philh
(Btw: signing your posts is something of a faux pas here. Including your
website is worse, it makes it look like that's the real reason you posted.)

~~~
youngandceo
Thanks for the feedback. I appreciate it.

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je42
The funny thing about these articles is that they usually oversimplify the
problem. For example, they treat time as an absolute. They discard the
influence of timezones, daylight savings vs std time, length of the daylight.
At least in this article they acknowledge existence of different types of
people.

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jrapdx3
Among the people I see in my office probably 80% or more have significant
sleep disturbances, common is "night owl" syndrome, people who can't get to
sleep early enough to get adequate sleep when having to arise at 06:00 to take
care of kids, dogs and get themselves ready for work.

The problem is often not lack of tiredness, but simply feeling "not sleepy"
when one is "supposed to be". Their minds are active, they feel activated and
can't settle down. Can be a tough problem to solve. Morning bright light
treatment sometimes help. Melatonin before bedtime might help. Talk to you
health care people find out the options.

But of course, anxiety and depression are top causes of insomnia. Various
therapies are often quite helpful.

Worth pointing out that there are a huge range of conditions that cause sleep
disturbances, and many are impossible to determine without specific
evaluation. Some conditions are downright weird so don't be embarrassed if you
feel freakish on that account. Believe me, I've heard many strange sleep
histories, but I've not considered a single one of them to be unbelievable.

We should check out what's going on. I refer 2 or 3 people every week for
sleep evaluations, afterwards almost all say, "hey that wasn't a bad
experience at all."

Poor sleep can be lead to bigger health problems--it's a long list I won't go
into it now, but a good part of the time helping sleep helps alleviate other
conditions.

Basic healthy sleep rules: give an hour to wind down and to wake up. Avoid the
"blue light" body snatching phones, computers and all the rest of those evil
things ;) Especially in that PM winding-down time.

In any case, if you have frequent or continuous sleep disturbance, don't
suffer silently, talk to your primary care doc, just describe the trouble,
don't try to explain it, that's the doc's job. Don't underplay the problem, it
may be serious. It's just taking good care of yourself, and since it is _your
top priority job_ , don't wait do it.

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caisah
Meh, nothing new here.
[http://www.supermemo.com/articles/sleep.htm](http://www.supermemo.com/articles/sleep.htm)
is still far more relevant.

~~~
je42
Nice article !

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Udo
I have no doubt that these rubbish articles (probably backed by books, too)
ruin lives.

This idea that we all should adhere to the exact same rhythm is ridiculous and
it just serves to stigmatize people who despite all efforts can't fit in,
especially if they're late risers.

Personally, I'm at my best when I can wake up about 3-4 hours after sunrise,
after about 7-8 hours of sleep. I wake up without an alarm clock, I feel
refreshed and ready to start the day. I perform better during the day, and I
usually don't feel tired again until it's bed time.

Now, of course there are lots of occasions where this sleep pattern is simply
not possible, but no matter how long the disruption lasts, it always feels
grindy and awkward. Then I definitely need an alarm clock, I tend to sleep
more overall, and I often feel purged about halfway through the day. Nobody
can tell me this is what being healthy is supposed to feel like.

Of course a lot of people feel fine rising early, but the obvious mistake here
is to derive from it that everybody must do the same. Even as we move away
from an agricultural society there is still social pressure to synchronize the
entire population as if they were tilling fields.

~~~
reboog711
Did you read the article? Because it doesn't claim everyone should adhere to
the exact same rhythm.

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robwilliams88
Umm at nap naps ocklock obv

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bbunix
It's almost 4 am here and I'm still hacking away... minimum distractions in
the middle of the night... and reply #2 to a HN post :)

