The Best Time of Day to Learn Something New

Research shows there are optimal times for activities ranging from eating and exercising to sleeping. There is also an optimal time to learn something new.

A study published in the journal Mind, Brain, and Education found that cognitive processes are strongest in the middle of the day, while the ability to retain new information dips in the mornings and evenings.

This time-sensitive window for specific activities can be attributed to your body clock.

The so-called body clock is controlled by a cluster of cells in the hypothalamus that generate your bodily rhythms, including alertness, according to Robert L. Matchock, associate professor of psychology at Pennsylvania State University.

“The circadian rhythm that the body clock generates can directly affect when we are at our best for the performance of various tasks,” Matchock says.

Working with your body clock can help you heighten productivity. For example, fatigue may actually allow your mind to wander more freely, boosting the likelihood you’ll come up with novel solutions to problems. So you might want to save creative problem-solving for the evenings.

Each person has his or her own internal timekeeper. People’s chronotypes are often referred to as larks and owls. Larks, who tend to wake up earlier and go to bed earlier, are generally most productive in the mornings. Owls wake up later and start more slowly in the mornings, and are often most productive in the evenings.

“We can optimize our performance by trying to achieve a match between our biological clocks and the time of day that we perform various tasks,” Matchock says.

If you need to be at your best during times of day inconsistent with your body clock, Matchock suggests morning light exposure to make night owls feel more alert, and advises larks to keep the lights burning during the evening.