Best time to study: how to find the right hours for you

There is no single best time to study that works for everyone. What does work is saving the most demanding tasks for the hours when you are most alert, spreading review over several days, and protecting your sleep, which plays a part in consolidating what you learn.

Some people do their best work early and others in the late afternoon or evening. That preference, often called your chronotype, shifts with age and habits: during adolescence, for example, it tends to move later. That is why it pays to watch your own pattern for a few days instead of copying someone else's schedule.

Rasch and Born (2013) reviewed research on the role of sleep in memory. Their overall conclusion is that sleeping after learning supports memory consolidation, meaning the stabilization of what you learned. Studying at an hour that forces you to sleep less can wipe out whatever advantage that time slot had.

This applies to late-night sessions too. A short review before bed can work well, as long as it does not push back your bedtime. An all-nighter before an exam costs you twice: you arrive more tired, and you lose sleep that would have helped consolidate what you studied.

Cepeda and colleagues (2006) analyzed hundreds of experiments on distributed practice and found that spreading study across several sessions improves later recall compared with packing it into one. The useful question is not only what time to study but how many times you return to a topic before the exam.

Two short blocks on different days usually do more than one long block at the perfect hour. If your best window is in the morning, use it for new and difficult material, and leave short reviews for the gaps in the rest of your day.

Sort your tasks by how much effort they take and place them according to your energy. You do not need a perfect timetable: it is enough that the hard work is not always left for when you are worn out.

An early riser with afternoon classes: from 7:00 to 8:30 a.m. she studies the new chemistry topic; from 12:30 to 1:00 p.m. she takes a practice quiz; on the bus home she reviews flashcards for 15 minutes; at 9:30 p.m. she goes over the quiz mistakes and is in bed by 11:00.

A night owl with morning classes: in a free slot at 11:00 a.m. he reviews flashcards; from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m. he works on the new topic; from 7:00 to 7:30 he solves practice problems; at 10:30 he does a short review and goes to bed at midnight, because class starts at 8:30. Both schedules are our own examples: what matters is the logic, not the exact times.

During the first week, study new material in the morning; during the second, in the afternoon or evening. At the end of each session, answer five questions without looking and note how many you got right, how long it took you to settle in, and how you slept the night before.

Compare the two weeks using the numbers, not your impressions. If your scores are similar, pick the window that fits best with your classes, your job and your rest. If one window forces you to sleep less, drop it even if it feels productive: the cost will show up over the following days.

If you work, care for someone, or have classes at shifting times, the best hour may simply be the one you have. In that case, put consistency first: a short block at the same time on most days is easier to keep up than long sessions that depend on everything going right.

Use small gaps too. Ten minutes on public transport or during a break is enough to review flashcards or answer a few questions, even if it is not enough to learn a new topic. Save the energy of your best available window, however short, for the hardest task of the week.

In Lumia AI you can set a study reminder for the time you choose, every day or only on weekdays, and change it or switch it off when your schedule changes. It helps protect the short review block, which is the one that slips most easily.

During review, rate each card Again, Hard, Good or Easy, and Lumia calculates when to show it again, so spreading your study over several days does not depend on your memory. The app does not know your best hour: that decision comes from your two-week test.