The best time to wake up and go to bed

Not one bedtime suits all, says sleep expert and neuroscientist

Don't get too worked up on a 'time', just focus on a regular pattern (Tuomas Marttila/REX)

If you’re finally getting to sleep at past midnight and waking up to go to work at 5am, your inefficient sleeping pattern could be affecting your everyday life.

But what can you do to improve your sleeping pattern. Is waking up at the same every day the answer?

Professor Colin Espie at Nuffield Department of Clinical Neuroscience at the University of Oxford and co-founder of Sleepio has some insight.

“Getting into the habit of a pattern that works well for your personal comfort is the best strategy. We know from experience that everyday will be different, as a result of early meetings or lifestyle changes.”

He advises that whatever time you wake up, you shouldn’t skrimp on sleep, with the amount needed by each person varying from individual to individual.

Poor or insufficient sleep can affect everything in our day-to-day life.

Professor Colin Espie

“Poor or insufficient sleep can affect everything in our day-to-day life, from our mood and how we interact with people to our productivity at work.”

However when it comes to what time to go to sleep, Professor Espie explains that the rules are much vaguer.

“It’s important not to get stuck on the idea of one bedtime that suits all, because different individuals can have different chronotypes. Most of us sit in the middle between being an early bird or a night owl, but there are people who are on either extreme of this.”

He explained that each individual “should discover what they personally need and then make this a recurring habit.”