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Glossary Data & Encoding

Sleep cycle

A sleep cycle is a roughly 90-minute pass through the stages of sleep; waking at the end of a cycle often feels easier than waking in the middle of one.

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In more detail

Five cycles are 7.5 hours (plus the roughly 15 minutes it takes to fall asleep). Cycle lengths vary between people and through the night, so treat 90 minutes as an average.

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Find the best bedtime or wake-up time based on 90-minute sleep cycles, so you wake up feeling rested instead of groggy.

See also

  • Glossary UTC
    UTC is the global reference time standard from which all time zones are defined as offsets.
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