The History of Bedtimes

The sun has always been considered an essential element for human survival throughout history, and many early civilizations worshiped it as the center of their religion. Humans benefit from the sun in many ways, but one of the most valuable is its ability to provide light. Our poor night vision and vitamin A deficiency demonstrate that we are not meant to be nocturnal creatures.

In the days before light bulbs, there wasn’t much you could do at night, except sleep. It would have been extremely rare for our primitive ancestors to venture outside at night unless they were on a hunting expedition or were being hunted themselves! There have been select groups of people who have stayed up late at night over the years. For example, upper-class members who attended banquets and feasts. These groups were the exception, not the rule. On average, working men and women lived by the light of the sun, with only occasional festivals and bonfires at night. It was common among farmers to rise with the sun each morning and to fall asleep with it at night.

Our society experienced a fundamental shift nearly 100 years ago when electricity became a part of our daily lives for the first time. As if by magic, the sun was replaced, and we suddenly had light on demand. While this does provide some tremendous life-saving benefits (e.g. 24 hour emergency care in the hospital), flexibility, and better reading conditions – it has largely resulted in people losing touch with their internal clocks and with the flow of night and day.

Understanding Our Natural Bedtime

India’s 6,000 year old Science of Wellbeing teaches that the hours between 6am to 10am and 6pm to 10pm are times of “kapha dosha”, or where one feels a “heaviness”. These two time periods represent slower states of existence, and are considered to be the most conducive times for deep sleep. But at 10pm, the day switches to a more active state of “pitta”, or a feeling of “being on fire” with physical energy. I think we’ve all experienced times where we’ve started to yawn and feel drowsy around 9pm. But once 10pm arrives, we start to get energized and don’t feel the need to sleep anymore.

It is possible to hack our sleep by taking advantage of one or both “heavy periods,” when our bodies naturally slow down. By adjusting your sleep patterns, you can get your body to sleep before 10pm, before it gets its “second wind,” which lasts until 2am in Ayurveda. In order to maximize the benefits of going to bed at 10pm, you must wake up before 6am. At 6am, the morning period of kapha dosha heaviness begins. If you are still lying in bed when this happens, you may find it difficult to move or even feel somewhat drowsy.

The hours from 2am to 6am, and alternately between 2pm to 6pm, represent our states of highest mental activity during the day, which are ideal for meditation, study, writing, and reading. In this regard, the more sleep you get before 2am, the better the quality will be. At 2 a.m., you usually go into a state of “mental mode,” which usually disrupts your own sleep. People tend to be most restless at this time, and that is why so many people report waking up between the hours of 2am and 3am every morning.

From this, we can conclude that human beings have a natural bedtime of ~10pm. And if you want to optimize your sleep by hacking your natural patterns, it is imperative that you are completely asleep by this time. If you mistakenly wait until 10 p.m. to finally crawl into bed, you will likely be unable to sleep since the “pitta” period has already begun, revving the brain’s engines and keeping you awake. This is the result of ancient survival mechanisms, in which staying up late after nightfall signaled an emergency to the human brain. Even today, being awake at night can trigger an ancient alarm that triggers a “fight or flight” response in the body that prevents you from falling asleep. In light of this, it’s best to be under the covers by 9:45pm at the latest. 

Preparing For Your New Bedtime

Having determined the ideal bedtime, we should now investigate how to successfully implement it in your daily life. One approach that’s proven successful is a nightly meditation routine. Many people claim they don’t have the time to meditate, yet spend hours each night tossing and turning trying to get to sleep. Ironically, if you spend just 15 minutes at night quieting your mind, you are more likely to fall asleep faster, allowing you to reinvest the time you would otherwise spend struggling to get to sleep. Practicing some deep breathing, or some other relaxing activity by 9pm, can also assist in relaxing your body. Remember that if your goal is to start settling down at 9:30pm, it may not occur until 10pm. And if you aim for 9pm, then you’ll be more relaxed and ready to sleep by 9:30pm. Better earlier than later.

As Benjamin Franklin often expressed, “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” The next step in this module is to experiment with falling asleep before 10pm so you can develop habits that will enable you to sleep longer, sleep better, and feel more energized in the morning.