This question was originally posted on Quora.com and was answered by Jinxing Shao, Health Editor at Yake Pharmaceutical (Jinxing Capsule) 1. It's highly recommended that you start falling asleep at 10:30 p.m., but if you're really working hard, then 11:00 p.m. should be the limit. 2．If you're feeling overworked, you can sleep at 11:00 p.m. and wake up at 5:00 a.m. the next morning for work. Simply put, change the order of time block. Going to bed early ensures your health and the time with your family. 3. If you go to bed at 11:00 p.m. and get up at 5:00 a.m., you'll be asleep for exactly 6 hours and have exactly four sleep cycles. Studies show that the length of sleep is not what causes us to be refreshed upon waking. The key factor is the number of complete sleep cycles we enjoy. Each sleep cycle contains five distinct phases, which exhibit different brain- wave patterns. For our purposes, it suffices to say that one sleep cycle lasts an average of 90 minutes: 65 minutes of normal, or non-REM (rapid eye movement), sleep; 20 minutes of REM sleep (in which we dream); and a final 5 minutes of non-REM sleep. 4. If you have four sleep cycles a day, which is obviously not enough, here's a magic trick that allows you to increase your sleep cycles: a maximum half hour nap at lunch break and on your commute. Tokyo Has a Nap Café Where You Can Snooze Your Lunch Hour Away Sleeping on the Train May Offer Some Benefit These are two blocks of leisure time, in which even 10 minutes will give you the equivalent of 1.5 hours of rest in the evening. You'll get 6 sleep cycles a day, or 42 a week, far more than the recommended 35 sleep cycles. Even if you only take a 30-minute lunch break, you'll get 5 cycles a day, up to the standard 35 cycles a week. 5. When you go to bed at night, try to sleep in a dark environment, with thick or dark curtains. A dark bedroom is best for sleep. Darkness triggers the brain to slow down and stimulates the production of the sleep hormone, melatonin. Source
