When is the best bedtime for senior citizens?

My dad would go to bed at 1030-1100pm.

When I was working, I could stay up late, since mostly my schedule revolved around the 2-10 PM shift toward the end, and I needed to decompress after work. If you've ever worked in customer service you'll know what I mean, because you really get to hate ALL OF MANKIND at the end of one of those workdays. Then when I retired, but hubby was still working, we ate at 6PM because that's when he got home, and went to bed around 9 PM. Now, since he got hurt and isn't working any more, we have a set schedule. Up around 6 AM then we will nibble on a piece of toast in the morning and graze a little through the day, and dinner is between 4 and 5 PM. Usually, we'll watch DVDs until bedtime for me, which is always 9 PM; he will stay up a little if there is something on TV he wants to watch, like Cosmos or 24. I tried to stay up last night, but I just can't do it. I usually read on my e-reader until he comes to bed. What's funny is that when I go to bed, the animals follow me and the dog jumps up on the bed, but as soon as hubby comes in, doggie jumps immediately off the bed and goes to his blanket. The cat used to do that, too, but since the weather is nice, she'd rather sleep in the open window. I really like this schedule, as I've always been a morning person and second shift was really jolting to my metabolism!

FIL (91) who lives with us is very irregular.....bedtime is anywhere from 8 - midnight. He gets up usually about 8 - 9 AM. Naps in his chair off and on all day. HE likes to eat supper early....4 PM but since I'm the cook it's usually 5:30. He'd prefer I did our largest meal at noon but I'm seldom here to cook that time of day. He can't eat meat more than once a day. (His rule). Very hard to please him with meals.

Best time & when I actually go to bed are never the same. I am an early riser since i have dogs who are earlies. Since retiring from work my sleep pattern has changed over the yrs which allows me to nap during the afternoon. Sometimes I am up rather late like tonight - midnight. Other times I may be in bed as early as 930 or some time after. If I am tired, I will go to sleep.

You ask about a "best time", but as you see from the answers, there is no such thing. We all have different habits and needs.

I, myself, go to bed anytime between 12:30 and 1:30, and get up anytime between 7 and 9. There are times that I wake up during the night, and have trouble getting back to sleep, so I'll read or watch TV for a while, or even have a cup of tea, and then go back to sleep.

My dinner time ranges from 5 till 10 o'clock.

That's my dream: to wake up when I feel I've slept enough, and to go to bed when I feel sleepy. Not to do either because it's what the clock or my job or my conscious dictates.

I have two meals a day, brunch (breakfast come lunch) at about 10-am and then dinner at about 5-pm. I never eat after 6-pm. Those times suit me and more importantly my IBS.

I have a very erratic sleep pattern, in fact you couldn't call it a 'pattern'. After all the years I spent as a carer when I was getting up five or six times during the night I lost my regular 10-pm to 6-am sleep pattern that I had grown up with. I've never got it back. So there are nights when I go to bed at 2-am or 4-am and even nights when I don't go to bed at all. I'm all over the place and arthritis in my spine doesn't help. But every so often I go to bed, at any time, day or night, and just collapse in a heap and sleep for up to twelve hours. I've even gone to my hide in the woods to film or write and fallen asleep there for nearly ten hours.

So, sleep-wise I am what circumstance made me.

My father was a farm worker and Early to rise was part of the job, he was always up at 5-30 am and in bed by 11-pm, unless during harvest when it might be gone 2-am when he got in. After he retired, until his latter years, when severe ill health dictated otherwise, he maintained a 10-pm to 7-am routine. It was what his body clock was happiest with.

I keep to a schedule... it's called the CHAOS schedule!

I have never liked arbitrary bedtimes and wake up times. I find it a luxury to be able to sleep until I am done. An alarm clock with a snooze button is like torture to me. I am not productive in the mornings and have always handled business as much as possible in the evenings. This started when I was in grade school, continued in High School and all throughout my work life. To this day I do not like to be awake in the early mornings, I prefer to be by myself until after lunch time when I begin to feel more friendly and able to concentrate on the task at hand. I realize my answer is almost the opposite of the well organized person who answered you question first. Questions like this in the past usually have about 1/2 organized and scheduled bedtimes, and the other 1/2 reveling in the freedom to go to sleep when they are sleepy and wake up when they are ready.

You cannot put all seniors into the same box. We are all individuals just as we have always been. The "best" time for me is not the "best" time for you.

i go at 9 p.m sleep to about 1 am. get up and watch recorded tv shows to about 3 .30 then sleep to about 8 am get up and make my beloved her coffee ,