Sleep cycle times
What Time Should I Go to Bed if I Wake Up at 9 AM?
To wake up at 9 AM at the end of a sleep cycle, go to bed at 1:15 AM for about 7.5 hours of sleep, or 11:45 PM for about 9. These times include about 15 minutes to fall asleep.
Go to bed atRecommended
11:45 PM
6 cycles · about 9 hours of sleep
Go to bed atRecommended
1:15 AM
5 cycles · about 7.5 hours of sleep
Go to bed at
2:45 AM
4 cycles · about 6 hours of sleep · a short night
Go to bed at
4:15 AM
3 cycles · about 4.5 hours of sleep · a short night
Making a 9 AM wake-up work
9 AM is a later schedule, closer to a Wolf's natural timing. That's fine if your days allow it. The main risk is drift: later wake times tend to slide later still, especially after late weekends.
Morning light is what holds a late body clock in place, so get outside for about 20 minutes soon after you wake, and keep evenings dim so your bedtime doesn't creep past 1:15 AM.
For a 1:15 AM bedtime, finish your last average cup of coffee by about 8:09 PM, roughly five hours before bed for an average metaboliser. The caffeine cutoff calculator works out yours from the drinks you've had today.
These times assume sleep cycles of about 90 minutes. Real cycles run from about 70 to 120 minutes and change through the night, so treat them as a starting point. For any other time, use the sleep cycle calculator.