While you may not have had a “bedtime” since elementary school, the truth is that all of us have an ideal bedtime window. Consistent sleep and wake times is key to getting efficient, restorative sleep every night—and high Sleep Scores on your Oura app.

The reasoning? Going to bed at roughly the same time each night greatly impacts how much restorative deep sleep and rapid-eye movement (REM) sleep you get. Plus, your ideal bedtime is associated with your individual circadian rhythm (aka your body’s internal clock) and daily habits. This means there are certain times of the day when your body is ready to fall asleep, stay asleep, and wake up.

With Oura, you can discover the best bedtime for you and get tips on how to stick to it.

How Oura Determines Your Ideal Bedtime

When you begin wearing your ring, Oura starts looking for patterns to better understand how you sleep. What time did you go to sleep on nights when you received high Sleep Scores? Did your resting heart rate lower to optimal levels during the night, or did it stay elevated? These cues allow Oura to guide you in the right direction.

Note that perfection isn’t required—and you don’t have to hit the hay at your suggested every single night. Instead, consider Bedtime Guidance as your toolkit for accountability. If you start going to bed later while still waking up early, Oura will advise you to begin preparing for bed earlier to make up for lost sleep.

Missing Bedtime Guidance?

If you have an irregular sleep schedule or consistently low Sleep Scores, Oura may have trouble providing bedtime guidance. Keep wearing the ring and stick to a consistent sleep schedule for a week or two.

To learn more about what’s keeping your sleep quality from being at its best, keep a close eye on your Sleep insights and Sleep Score contributors, which are located on the Sleep Icon_Moon.png tab.

Learn more about using Bedtime Guidance here.