mam

YOGURT BREAK

HAPPY HOUR

CALL HOM E

STAFF M EETING
Li - - _

... -....

HACK
YOUR
ROUTINE TO
MAKE
EVERY HOUR

BATH TIM E

START EVERY DAY HOPING it'll

be great, maybe even perfect. But
then, after snoozing, commuting,
sitting in meetings, and grabbing
junk food, we realize that, once again,
we havent exercised, engaged with
family and friends, or knocked much
of anything off our to-do list. Staying up late, hoping to be
productive, we manage only to watch TV and check Facebook before collapsingand then starting all over again.

72 Psychology Today January/February 2015

RUO a.m.

WAKE
upN o universal
wake-up time
will fit everyone,
Wright says,
but its ideal to
rise when your
body is best
prepared at the conclusion o f REM sleep. We
experience our longest nightly period o f REM
right before we naturally wake up. W hen is
that? Its so rare to wake without an alarm that
many o f us dont know, but the amount you
sleep on vacation should give you a good idea.
Then track backward: If you need 7.5 hours o f
sleep to feel your best; need to be at work by 8
a . m .; need an hour to get ready; and have a onehour commute, then a bedtime o f 10:30 p . m .,
with a wake-up time o f 6 a . m . might be best. If
you can rise without an alarm, all the better,
because when you hit the snooze button, you
coax your brain to rewind to the beginning o f
the sleep cycle, making it that much harder to
wake feeling refreshed, according to research by
Edward Stepanski o f Chicagos Rush-Presbyterian-St. Lukes Medical Center.

GETTYIMAGES, ALAMY

We can do better.
Believe it or not, m ost of us have the op portunity to get m ore done.
We actually spend m ore tim e on leisure th a n ever before, according to
the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, dedicating about five hours and
16 m inutes a day to p ursuits we perceive as pleasurable, like socializ
ing and w atching TV (although research finds no correlation betw een
the latter and feelings of satisfaction). But we increasingly experience
our free tim e in small, scattered chunks, says G eoffrey G odbey, pro
fessor em eritus of leisure science at Pennsylvania State U n iv ersity nibbled half-hours on Netflix vs. restorative w eekends away.
The foundation of any perfect or even half-decent day is adequate
rest. As you can im agine, m ost of us sta rt out behind. O ur bodies run
on an internal 24-hour chronobiological clock; w hen the retina cap
tures light, a m essage sent to th e brain suggests to th is clock what tim e
of day the body should th in k it is. Its a system th at h as served us well
for m ost of hu m an history. But over the last couple of generations,
th ese natural rhythm s have been gravely disrupted, says M ichael
Grandner, th e assistan t director of th e Behavioral Sleep M edicine Pro
gram at th e U niversity of Pennsylvania. O ur near-constant exposure
to artificial light h as m ade nighttim e effectively optional, leaving our
bodies and b rains struggling to do task s th at feel off schedule.
C an we fix our day? Absolutely. W hen Ken W right, the director of
the Sleep and C hronobiology Laboratory at the U niversity of Colorado,

took eight people cam ping for a week in the

Rockies w ith no electronic devices or m an
m ade lights, the group was exposed to about
four tim es more natural light th a n usual. We
were able to shift everyones internal clock
two hours to becom e in sync with nature
w ithin a week, W right reports, and his
cam pers began w aking up less groggy.
So th eres hope. R esearchers in sleep
health, nutrition, cognition, fitness, and
productivity are working to identify where
our m odern schedules have gone w rong and
how to b etter set ourselves up for success.
We now know th at with a handful of hacks,
both large and small, and som e changes to
preconceived notionswake-up sex and b ed
tim e baths?we can reconstruct our 16 wak
ing hours to m axim ize productivity, leisure,
and connection, while restoring alignm ent
w ith our core chronobiological instincts.
You dont need to follow this suggested
schedule to the m inute, but its consistency
and healthier routines can bring you a lot
closer to a more perfect day:

b:IOa.m .
SEX

CLOCKWISE: REINHARD HUNGER, DREAMSTIME

Surprise: Our
level of testoster
onethe hormone
that spurs desire,
our energy to
perform, and even
our generation of
fantasiesis high
est in the morning,
for both men and
women, says clinical
sexologist Kathleen
Van Kirk of the
Institute for the
Advanced Study of
Human Sexuality in
San Francisco.
We also get an
immediate boost in
circulation in the
morning, further
fostering energy and
arousal. Sexual activ
ity is a pleasurable
way to launch the
day, not least because
it causes a release
of mood-elevating,
stress-reducing hor
mones. Research on
oxytocin has dem
onstrated that the
hormone surge we
get from intimacy
can significantly
reduce our level of
the stress hormone
cortisol and mark
edly boost positive
communication
between partners.

1 :0 0

a. m .

BREAKFAST
Eat within one to two hours of waking, says psychologist and dietitian Ellen Albertson.
It may be 10 to 12 hours since your last meal, and your brain needs fuel. Your brain is only
about 2 percent of your body weight, but it consumes up to one-fifth of your bodys energy
intake, she says. When you raise blood-sugar levels with breakfast, you increase your
energy and improve mood. Bonus: Your metabolism is at its peak in the morning, so your
body efficiently uses most of what you consume, depositing less in fat stores, says Matthew
Edlund, M.D., the director of the Center for Circadian Medicine in Sarasota, Florida.
J a n u a ry/F e b ru a ry 2015 P sychology Today 73

A.M.

COFFEE

a .m

GETOUTSIDE
The best time to go outdoors and get
moving is within two hours of waking up,
says Jacqueline Olds, an associate clini
cal professor of psychiatry at Harvard
Medical School. The UV component of
sunlight is low, she says, but the bright
light sets you on a good course of wake
fulness.
The morning is a great time for a
workout at your gym as well. Brigham
Young University researcher Jam es
LeCheminant found that 45 minutes of
moderate-to-vigorous morning exercise
reduces the urge to eat throughout the
day, but if th ats not possible, he suggests
that you fit it in whenever your daytime
schedule allows, because it still provides
cognitive benefits and fosters restful
sleep. Pick the time when there are the
fewest barriers, he says, noting that this
is often in the morning because the days
events havent interfered yet.

You may be used to pouring your first cup much

earlier, but it will do more for you if you wait until
in the morning. Our circadian clock controls the
of cortisol, a hormone that makes us feel alert
and awake, Albertson says. Production is usually
highest between 8 and 9 a . m ., when most of us drink coffee, negating the
usefulness of the caffeine. This may be why regular coffee drinkers have an
average of 3.1 cups a daythe first doesnt help much. Drinking caffeine
too early can lead to too much cortisol, which can disturb our natural
circadian rhythms, Albertson adds. Its much better to drink caffeine
between 9:30 and 11:30 when you actually need it.

J A.M.

SEND
EMAILS

74 Psychology Today January/February 2015

A.M.

TACKLE YOUR WORK

Alertness follows the same trajectory as core body temperature,
Edlund says. Both steadily rise in the morning, then start to decline or
flatten by early afternoon. This means mid-to-late morning is the best
time for mentally taxing activities that take maximum alertness, says
Albion College psychologist Mareike Wieth, because were less distractible and exceptionally good at screening out irrelevant informa
tion. (This is especially true for people who are by nature early birds;
similar research finds that so-called night owls experience their cogni
tive high point in the late afternoon or early evening.)

CLOCKWISE: GETTYIMAGES (2). SHUTTERSTOCK, ISTOCKPHOTO

Messages sent
between 6 and 10 a . m .
are much more likely to be read promptly than
those sent between 10 a . m . and noon, when
people are more focused on work, says Dan
Zarrella, the author of The Science ofMarketing.
The average person spends 28 percent of
the work week managing email, one reason 26
percent of us label ourselves chronic procrastina
tors. Limiting temptation by quitting your email
app when youre not using it can be instrumen
tal in reclaiming your day. Start establishing two
times during the workday to review messages
one here, one later in the afternoon.

12:00

p .m .

LUNCH
Putting lunch
off much later can
cause your blood
glucose to decrease,
negatively affecting
your brains ability
to focus, and mak
ing you start to feel
sluggish, Albertson
says. And while
m any of us reach for
a light lunchtime
salad, saving our
appetite for a larger
dinner, its actu
ally wiser to have
the bigger meal at
noon. You want to
eat more during the
day when you need
the energy and less
at night when you
want to go to sleep.
Having a large meal
in the evening, as
we traditionally do,
signals your body
that youll be awake
for a while, she
says. Its also vital
to remember the
break part of
lunch break. Uni
versity of Toronto
researchers found
that not taking a
proper lunch, away
from your desk, can
increase fatigue
and torpedo pro
ductivity.

1 0 :2 0 am.

CLOCKWISE: REINHARD HUNGER, GETTYIMAGES

TAKE A BREAK
Workers who take the most breaks get the most accomplished. In 2014, the Draugiem Group, a
social-networking company, tracked the habits of its most productive employees. It discovered that the
creme de la creme took 17 minutes of break time for every 52 minutes of work. Yet even though 86 per
cent of us know that breaks can aid productivity, more than a quarter of us dont take any true breaks
other than lunch. The reason? One in five of us say its guilt.
When University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign researchers tested peoples ability to focus
on a repetitive task for about 60 minutes, they offered some participants brief breaks, but not others.
The individuals who got breaks maintained their focus significantly better than those who didnt
get breaks, says study coauthor Alejandro Lleras. Brief breaks, he explains, enable your brain to shift
attention to a different goal, so when you go back to your original task, the main goal is reactivated and
revitalized. A good break, he says, involves something intrinsically different from what you were doing
beforebut not playing an addictive smartphone game, because you need to be able to stop easily.

Ja n u a ry/F e b ru a ry 2015 P sych olog y Today 75

P.M.

NAP
If you work at home, or for an especially
progressive company, this is the ideal time
for a short nap. Sleep clears the brains short
term-memory storage, m aking room for
new data. University of California, Berkeley
researchers asked people to complete a task
designed to tax the hippocampus, the brain
region associated with fact-based memories.
Afterward, half the group napped. Several
hours later, when both groups completed another learning exercise, the nappers performed sub
stantially better. Limit your own nap to 20 to 40 minutes. Any longer and you risk getting into
deeper stages of sleep, which will leave you groggy and disoriented, Grandner says.
If youre in an office thats not nap-friendly, and you have paperwork, photocopying, or col
lating to doanything that doesnt require a lot of mental energythis is the time. After eating,
blood is directed to the digestive system instead of to the brain. This postprandial crash causes
focus and concentration to slide, says University of Iowa psychologist J. Toby Mordkoff, whose
research confirms that executive control is at its lowest in the middle of the day, leaving early
birds and night owls equally susceptible to distraction.

P.l\

P.M.

LASTCUP
F COFFEE

HAVE A STAFF
MEETING

By this time, your cortisol

levels are starting to dip again.
If youre feeling it, grab another cup of coffee
your final one for the day. Caffeine has a halflifethe amount of time it takes for the body
to eliminate one-half of the total amountof
between three and seven hours, Albertson says.
Time your last cup so caffeine is out of your
system before youre ready for bed.

Analysis by the online scheduling

service YouCanBook.me found that this is
the tim e that the most people will say yes
to a m eeting request. Its late enough in the
day so that all attendees can (at least theo
retically) be prepared, and its close enough
to the end of the day that people know they
cannot push the tim e much later.
The sw eetest spot for a weekly staff
meeting: Tuesday at 3 P.M. It falls right
betw een the catch-up of Monday and the
slow descent into the weekend, says Keith
H arris, chief architect and engineer of
YouCanBook.me.

2:Llb

p.m .

CALL
HOME

76 P sychology Today Ja n u a ry/F e b ru a ry 2015

P.M.

HAVE A
SNACK
During the
day, eat every three
to four hours,
Albertson says.
If you go longer,
your blood glucose
decreases, impacting
alertness and metab
olism. And dont
feel guilty about
your diet; the right
snackcombining
protein and complex
carbscan actu
ally keep you from
overeating at dinner.
Think plain yogurt
mixed with oatmeal;
hummus and veg
gies; or peanut but
ter-stuffed celery
stalks. A study pub
lished in the journal
Neuron found that
amino acids in pro
tein activate the cells
responsible for keep
ing us awake, while
sugar inhibits those
same cells.

CLOC KW ISE: S H U TTER STOC K (3). GETTYIM AGES (2)

If youre not home to

pick up your children from
school, this is the time to
call or Skype with them. Most parents use
bedtime to have talks with their children,
but its not the best idea, since kids are tired
then, says Cedarhurst, New York, child psy
chologist Laurie Zelinger. To really con
nect, talk after school while their energy is
still high. It also gives kids a chance to mull
over your questions so they can share more
during a later dinner-table or bedtime chat.

u.
,
I.U U

LH 0 p .m .

REINHARD HUNGER

CREATIVE THINKING
Innovation and creativity actually peak when were not at our best, according to a study by W ieth and colleagues.
For many of us, th ats between 4 and 5:30 p.m ., although night owls may experience the same effect between 8:30 and
9:30 a .m . We found that during the non-optimal time of day, our cognitive processes are not functioning as well, she
says. This m eans were less able to tune out irrelevant info. But having that seemingly irrelevant info in our heads leads
to new ways of thinking and innovation.

J a n u a ry/F e b ru a ry 2015 P sycholo gy Today 77

8:00

p .m .

BE SOCIAL

Early evening is when a majority of

peoplewhether larks or owlsfeel quite
alert and sociable, making it a good time for
group work if youre still at the office, or for
getting together with friends or a partner if
youre not, Edlund says. The timing may be a
holdover from our hunting-and-gathering days. Dusk is when people had
to be especially aware to stave off dangers they couldnt see, says Harvards
Jacqueline Olds. It was the time of day wed group together for safety.

THE OPPOSITE LIVES

OF NIGHT OWLS
AND EARLY BIRDS

78 Psychology Today January/February 2015

p .m .

INNER
C onsum ing food elevates body tem
perature, which signals your body to stay
awake, A lbertson says. Eating dinner less
th a n three hours before bedtim e can inter
fere with sleepand greatly increase your
chances of nighttim e reflux, according to
research reported in the American Journal
of Gastroenterology. A full postm eal stom
ach produces gastric distention, causing the
lower esophageal sphincters to relax. Cou
pled w ith lying down horizontally to sleep,
these conditions can result in reflux.

8:00

p .m

TAKE A HOT BATH

Its not a luxury: Our temperature naturally
dips at night to help us get ready for slumber.
Taking a hot bath ups body temperature, but
the rapid drop afterward prepares you for sleep,
Edlund says. To maximize the effect, make the
bath as hot as you can comfortably stand. When
you slide in, he advises, relax and do some slow
belly-breathing, and stay put for about 15 min
utes or until your forehead starts to perspire.

CLOCKWISE: GETTY1MAGES, IST0CKPH0T0, SHUTTERST0CK121, ISTOCKPHOTO

THERES NO QUESTION that some

of us like to wake with the sun and
others prefer to stay up all night.
Extreme larks and owls each make
up about 10 percent of the popula
tion, reports Matthew Edlund,
the director of the Center for Circadian Medicine in
Sarasota, Florida. Its notsimply personal preference:
Research indicates that the tendencies are at least
partly genetic, and MRI studies have found the brains of
self-identified morning people to be most engaged at
9 a .m , with that excitability slowly decreasing through
out the day. For night owls, brain function peaks at 9 p.m .
Its generally acknowledged that our 9-to-5 work
day, and even earlier school day, favors early birds. Its
probably one reason that studies find night owls to
be generally less happy and healthy than average
although they can shift their sleep-wake cycle earlier by
limiting nighttime exposure to artificial light and maxi
mizing exposure to daytime natural light.
If youre an extreme early bird, you may want to
shift our tips for constructing your perfect day 30
minutes or so earlier to take ad vantage of your cogni
tive peak, which could come as early as 8:30 a .m . And
if you tend to tire earlier than youd like, recharge with
a healthy dose of natural light in the early afternoon
to help delay production of melatonin, a hormone that
prepares the body for rest, says Jacqueline Olds of
Harvard Medical School.
Extreme nightowlsmay wanttoreversethe general
advice for timing creative thinking and problem-solving
challenges, says Mareike Wieth of Albion College in
Michigan. Nightowlsmay do their best brainstorming
around 8:30 a .m ., whentheirchronobiological clocks
render them less cognitively sharp and, significantly,
leastabletocensortheirown ideas. Night owl brains
focus may peak around 4:00 p.m ., making that the best
time to solve analytical problems at the office.

1:00

8:00

p .m

LOGON

8:30

p .m

CLOCKWISE: REINHARD HUNGER. SHUTTERSTOCK. ISTOCKPHOTO

LOGOFF
If youre a
Facebook user, post
a status update at
8 P.M. when your
chance of garnering
Likes peaks. A study
coauthored by psy
chologist Stephanie
Tobin of the Univer
sity of Queensland
found, not surpris
ingly, that all those
thumbs-up icons
positively influ
ence our sense of
belonging, m ean
ingfulness, and
self-esteem, which
can deliver a major
late-day mood
spike. While youre
online, share the
love. Youll satisfy
friends needs and
set up a positive
cycle of reciprocity,
Tobin says.
But logging off
is at least as impor
tant. According
to the 2013 Sleep
in America poll,
most of us are still
engaged with a TV,
computer, tablet,
or smartphone
within an hour of
bedtime. No matter
what youre doing
on a screen, shut
it down two hours
before you go to
sleep. Exposure to
these electronics
suppresses produc
tion of melatonin, a
hormone that helps
prepare the body
for rest. W hen you
delay that signal,
you make it harder
to fall asleep.

3:nu

p .m

READ
Reading is relaxing and helps prepare the brain for rest. It's also best
in general to read in a quiet, comfortable setting, and thats most likely
achieved at the end of the day, says psychologist Michael Masson of the Uni
versity of Victoria. W hen we read amid distractions, he says, the informa
tion being processed in our working memory is disrupted, so we retain less.

10:30

p .m

G O T O BED
Its b ad news for Jim m y Fallon, b u t since m ost of us need
seven to eight h ours of sleep to stay healthy and perform at our
best, we should tu rn in before any late-night show kicks off. But
th e re s a reaso n Fallon is so popular: Only 47 percent of us m eet
our sleep m inim um d uring th e workweek, according to th e Sleep in A m erica poll. At th e end of
th e daynowth e re s only one way to get th a t sleep: Go to bed. It m ay take a few w eeks to tu rn a
new an d im proved sleep schedule into a habit, but th e payoffa m ore perfect dayis w orth it. D
HOLLY PEVZNER is a w riter in New York City.

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