For me, sleep before midnight is the most important factor. If I need my brain working well the next day, all I need to do is go to bed by 10PM. Even if I wake at 5:30, it will be fine.
BTW, nights were I have dream recall afterwards, are the best. Anyone else have made the same observation?
Building on this, I’ve observed nightmares (I.e., particularly intense, terrifying, or otherwise challenging dreams) guarantee a good next day.
same. but, mostly no recall lately. as I go to bed at 2:00 and sleep 6 hours max
Same, and most of the times it’s when I sleep longer. Perhaps because there’s a lot of REM sleep towards the end of the night (as my Garmin watch tells me) and/or because I’m kind of half awake at that time. So maybe dream recall indicates I slept a whole night