"Most people hit their deepest sleep between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m.," says WebMD sleep expert Michael Breus, PhD, D, ABSM, "so it's very hard to wake up during that time."
It is very difficult to wake someone during stages 3 and 4, which together are called deep sleep. There is no eye movement or muscle activity. People awakened during deep sleep do not adjust immediately and often feel groggy and disoriented for several minutes after they wake up.
Your internal clock (circadian rhythms)
Circadian rhythms make people's desire for sleep strongest between midnight and dawn, and to a lesser extent in mid-afternoon.
The Best Time to Wake Up Depends on You
They're going to bed at 8 PM to get adequate sleep, or they're running on fewer hours than required. A 4 AM wake-up time will be good for you in the same way that an 8 AM wake-up time is. As long as you get enough restful sleep, you shouldn't worry about the best time to wake up.
Stage 3 non-REM sleep is the deepest stage of sleep and the hardest to awaken from. During this stage, heart rate, breathing, and brain waves become regular.
Sleep inertia, or wake-up grogginess, is the main reason you're unable to fully wake up in the morning or after a nap. It's a completely normal part of your sleep-wake cycle that's intensified by factors like high sleep debt and circadian misalignment (caused by sleeping in, social jetlag, and travel jet lag).
Stage 1 / N1
It's easy to wake someone up during this sleep stage, but if a person isn't disturbed, they can move quickly into stage 2. As the night unfolds, an uninterrupted sleeper may not spend much more time in stage 1 as they move through further sleep cycles.
And experts warn even those who go to bed early enough to get eight hours of sleep still may be at risk for problems if they wake up at 4 a.m., Popescu writes.
As per researchers, if you sleep early in the evening, then waking up at 3 am is good and it is also the perfect time to meditate.
America's parents start their day early: A majority of parents with children under 18-years-old wake up by 6 a.m. (56%), compared with just 37 percent of non-parents, according to a YouGov survey on American's typical daily routine.
Overall, people went to sleep at 11:14pm (S.D. = 1hr 35min) and woke at 6:32am (S.D. = 1hr 51min), achieving 7hrs and 18 minutes of sleep (S.D. = 1hr 51min).
But the majority manage to get at least 6 hours, as you can see in the list below detailing the sleep habits of 10 highly successful people: Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX: 6 hours (1am — 7am) Tim Cook, CEO of Apple: 7 hours (9:30pm — 4:30am) Bill Gates, Co-Founder of Microsoft: 7 hours (12am — 7am)
If you're naturally more of a night owl, waking up early is not going to be easy, so you have to be committed to make it a long-term habit. The first few days will probably be hard, warns Kenneally. Generally, though, most people do fine once they establish a new, healthy sleep pattern.
While early risers like Costa Rica and Colombia typically wake up before 7 AM, other average wake up time by country data reveals that some countries sleep in, including Greece and Saudi Arabia, which don't normally wake until nearly 8:30 AM.
Let's take a look at the liver. According to the Organ Clock it is the most busy during 1-3am at night.
Despite these trends, the research mostly agrees that six hours of sleep is not enough for most adults. Experts recommend that most adults need at least seven hours of sleep every night.
Contrary to most night owls' beliefs, an early wake-up call can be good for your mind, body, and overall wellness. According to the academic journal Nature Communications, early risers are less likely to develop mental health problems.
“There is no such thing as a “fixed or ideal time” to go to bed which will suit all individuals. It is generally advisable to fall asleep between 10 pm to midnight as for most people this is when the circadian rhythm is at a point that favours falling asleep.”
The majority of successful business leaders get up no later than 6 a.m., according to a new survey of CEOs from Inc. magazine's latest ranking of the fastest-growing private companies in America. The survey of 1,086 CEOs of U.S. companies on the 2022 Inc.
If your school or work schedule requires you to be up between 5:00 and 7:00 a.m., these are the suggested bedtimes: School-age children should go to bed between 8:00 and 9:00 p.m. Teens should try to go to bed between 9:00 and 10:00 p.m. Adults should try to go to sleep between 10:00 and 11:00 p.m.
How to work out the ideal bedtime. If you need to wake up by 7am then count back 7.5 hours to find that bedtime is around 11.30pm. Make sure you're in bed before then so you're relaxed ready for sleep and allow yourself 15 minutes to drop off. You can use the sleep calculator to find the ideal bedtime for you.
Set aside no more than eight hours for sleep. The recommended amount of sleep for a healthy adult is at least seven hours. Most people don't need more than eight hours in bed to be well rested. Go to bed and get up at the same time every day, including weekends.