There’s An Easy Rule For Falling Asleep At The Right Time—Do You Follow It?

It’s long been known that our bodies’ circadian rhythms sync with the sunrise and sunset. And according to Vora, it’s often helpful to time your bedtime to these natural lighting cues.

“There’s actually a period in the evening where we’re perfectly tired,” she explained in a recent TikTok. “It’s our sweet spot where it’s easy to fall asleep, and it’s easy to sleep deeply through the night.”

That sweet spot? Three hours after sunset.

“If we push past that point, we get what’s called ‘overtired,'” she says, adding that this causes the body to catch a second wind. “Your body says, ‘There must be some good reason we’re staying awake past the point of being tired,’ so we release our stress hormone cortisol.“

Cortisol causes us to feel wired and tired at the same time, and makes it hard to both fall asleep and stay asleep, she says.