“What’s the best time to go to bed?” is the wrong question. The right question is: what time do you have to wake up — and what does your training demand tomorrow? Build the schedule backwards from those two facts.
Step 1: Fix the wake time
Your wake time is the anchor because it’s usually the non-negotiable (work, family, training slot) — and because circadian timing keys off it. Pick the wake time your life actually requires, seven days a week. Consistency within ~30 minutes matters more than the specific hour.
Step 2: Count back in sleep cycles
Sleep runs in ~90-minute cycles (light → deep → REM). Waking at a cycle boundary tends to feel cleaner than waking mid-deep-sleep. Most trainees need 5 cycles (7.5 hrs) to 6 cycles (9 hrs) of actual sleep. Count backwards from your wake time, then subtract ~15–20 minutes of fall-asleep time.
Worked example — 5:30 a.m. wake-up, early trainer: 6 cycles → asleep by 8:30 p.m. → in bed ~8:10 p.m. 5 cycles → asleep by 10:00 p.m. → in bed ~9:40 p.m.
Worked example — 7:00 a.m. wake-up: 6 cycles → asleep by 10:00 p.m. → in bed ~9:40 p.m. 5 cycles → asleep by 11:30 p.m. → in bed ~11:10 p.m.
Treat cycles as a planning heuristic, not gospel — total sleep and consistency beat cycle-perfection. If you’re between options, choose more sleep.
Step 3: Adjust for training load
Heavy blocks / high volume: budget the extra cycle. Sleep need genuinely rises with training stress; the athletes who “need” 9 hours in a build phase aren’t being soft. Early sessions: the cost is paid at the front of the night — bedtime moves earlier, not wake time later. Protect deep sleep’s early window by getting to bed on time, not by snoozing the alarm (which mostly steals REM). Evening sessions: finish intense work ideally 2+ hours before bed; use the wind-down protocol to bring your system down on schedule.
Step 4: The two-week lock-in
Whatever schedule you choose, run it unchanged for two weeks before judging. The first days feel off because your clock is mid-move; by week two, sleepiness arrives on schedule and waking gets easier. Track readiness/HRV trend across the two weeks — that’s your verdict data.
Common traps
The weekend shift: sleeping in 2+ hours on weekends is a weekly mini jet lag (“social jet lag”) — Monday’s 5:30 alarm lands like a red-eye. Cap the lie-in at ~1 hour. Bedtime without a wake anchor: going to bed “when tired” with a drifting wake time never stabilizes. Caffeine papering over a short night: it masks sleepiness, not impairment — and late doses shorten the next night, compounding the debt (see our drinks guide).
Bottom line
Best bedtime = wake time minus 5–6 cycles, adjusted up in heavy training blocks, held within 30 minutes every day. Build it backwards, lock it for two weeks, and let the clock do the work.