About SleepOTime
Understanding the science behind sleep to help you wake up refreshed and energized
Our Mission
SleepOTime was created with a simple mission: to help people improve their sleep quality by aligning their wake-up and bedtimes with their natural sleep cycles.
By waking up at the end of a sleep cycle rather than in the middle of one, you can feel more refreshed and energized - even if you've had fewer total hours of sleep. Our tool makes it easy to calculate these optimal times.
The Science Behind Sleep Cycles
During sleep, your body goes through multiple sleep cycles. Each cycle lasts approximately 90 minutes and consists of several stages:
NREM Sleep (Non-Rapid Eye Movement)
- Stage 1: Light sleep, the transition between wakefulness and sleep (1-5 minutes)
- Stage 2: Body temperature drops, heart rate slows (10-25 minutes)
- Stages 3 & 4: Deep sleep, very difficult to wake someone (20-40 minutes)
REM Sleep (Rapid Eye Movement)
This is when dreaming occurs. Your brain is highly active, but your body is temporarily paralyzed. REM sleep first occurs about 90 minutes after falling asleep and recurs about every 90 minutes.
REM sleep periods get longer through the night, from about 10 minutes in the first cycle to up to an hour in later cycles.
Waking up during deep sleep (Stages 3 & 4) can lead to sleep inertia - that groggy, disoriented feeling. By timing your wake-up to coincide with the end of a complete 90-minute cycle, you're more likely to wake up during lighter sleep stages, feeling more refreshed.
How Our Calculator Works
SleepOTime uses the following principles to recommend optimal sleep and wake times:
- Each sleep cycle lasts approximately 90 minutes
- The average person takes about 15 minutes to fall asleep after going to bed
- Most people need 4-6 complete sleep cycles per night (6-9 hours)
- Waking up at the end of a cycle helps you feel more refreshed
When you enter your desired wake-up time, we calculate backward in 90-minute increments (plus the 15-minute falling asleep buffer) to find optimal bedtimes.
Similarly, when you enter your desired bedtime, we calculate forward in 90-minute increments (plus the 15-minute buffer) to find optimal wake-up times.
Our Team
SleepOTime was created by a small team of developers and sleep enthusiasts who believe that quality sleep is essential for health and wellbeing. We're passionate about making sleep science accessible to everyone.