What hour is "middle of the night"?

[Zeldar]

When you say or hear "middle of the night" what hour comes to mind?

(poll on the way)

[Thudlow Boink]

It's not midnight. Midnight may be the middle of the period of time when it's dark outside, but I interpret the "night" of the phrase "middle of the night" as the period of time when people are normally in bed asleep. So I think of a time when the most people (including, usually, myself) would be in bed, like 3:00 a.m.

[Zeldar]

It's not midnight. Midnight may be the middle of the period of time when it's dark outside, but I interpret the "night" of the phrase "middle of the night" as the period of time when people are normally in bed asleep. So I think of a time when the most people (including, usually, myself) would be in bed, like 3:00 a.m.

We think alike. I wonder at the relative rarity of a 1 AM vote. But I'm not surprised at the low frequency of PM hours.

The expression came up on a Toots Shor documentary and Jackie Gleason said either 3 or 4 AM. That sounded right to me. It's rare that I'm in for the night before 11 PM or after 2 AM, so assuming a waking hour in the 6-8 AM range, 3 AM seems closest for my habits.

[blondebear]

I voted 3AM and have a sub-question: is the "middle of the night" the same as "0 dark 30"?

[Ludovic]

9 in the afternoon.

[Ludovic]

Serious answer: 3 am is the closest. But 3 am isn't the exact middle of the night. It's more like 3:30. But since 4 am is only 2 hours from dawn, 3 am is a better answer if I had to select one. Really, any time between 3 am and 4 am is the middle of the night, with 2:31 to 4:59 on the edges. (Advance an hour or so in both cases if it's a party weekend.)

[Oakminster]

I voted 3AM and have a sub-question: is the "middle of the night" the same as "0 dark 30"?

Not in my world, anyway. O-Dark-30 is the time you have to get up when you must get up way earlier than normal.

[Zeldar]

9 in the afternoon.

I'm not laughing! When I worked nights that was real close to the right answer.

I voted 3AM and have a sub-question: is the "middle of the night" the same as "0 dark 30"? Seems reasonable to me, and I have always wondered about that, too. Why not post a poll for ideas on that?

[Zeldar]

Not in my world, anyway. O-Dark-30 is the time you have to get up when you must get up way earlier than normal.

So, what hour?

[Skammer]

I said 2 am. My reasoning is that I usually sleep 11-6, so half way between those is 2:30 am. I just rounded that to 2:00 since that is usually about the time my pre-schooler wanders into our bedroom crying about a bad dream.

[Leaffan]

I picked 3:00 AM. If I woke up at 2:00 I would still have plenty of sleep time left. However, waking up at 4:00 is only a couple of hours away from wakey up time.

[Oakminster]

So, what hour?

When I was in the Air Force, it was usually about 4:00 AM. Time to shower, dress, and attend a 5:00 AM briefing for a 7:00 AM takeoff.

[tdn]

So, what hour?

Anytime you have to get up but have to say "What the hell?!? Why do I have to be up this damn early?!?"

In other words, 4am.

[Blaster Master]

I tend to stay up late most evenings anyway, and though I am even sometimes up 'til 2 or 3, even on a work night, I still think of those hours as "the middle of the night". I'd think most reasonable people would be to bed at or before midnight, and I know plenty of reasonable people waking up as early as 4:00 to get to work. So, that leaves the only real hours that one could pretty much expect a given person to be asleep, not working night shift or out partying, would be around 2-3. I think if, say, someone called me at 1:00, I'd describe it as really late, or if someone called me at 4:00, I'd describe it as really early.

[Thudlow Boink]

I think if, say, someone called me at 1:00, I'd describe it as really late, or if someone called me at 4:00, I'd describe it as really early.Ah, excellent point! So "the middle of the night" could be defined as the dividing line between "really late" and "really early."

[Johanna]

Looking at it from the Earth's point of view instead of the POV of electrically-lit humans: 12 midnight, approximately, at least if you're at the central meridian of a given time zone. Except that daylight savings time moves that to circa 1 am.

Anything else than the sun being at the midpoint between the western horizon and the eastern horizon would vary widely depending on the season, making the answer difficult to pinpoint at a fixed time, unless you're near the equator.

[Rhiannon8404]

Middle of the night: 1 - 3 AM

Wee hours: 3 - 5 AM

Early morning 5 - 7 AM

[garygnu]

I picked 2:00, but it could just as easily been 3:00. Anytime after the bars close, there's nothing but crap on TV, but it's not yet early morning.

[cmyk]

I'd say based off my own intuition of the average adult bedtime being around 10-11 pm, and the average wake time to be around 7-8 am... the middle of that would but it right in the neighborhood of 3am.

Intuitively then, I always picture 3am-ish anytime I hear that expression.

[Peremensoe]

I interpret "night" to mean the night. It has nothing to do with when I or anyone else is sleeping. I have worked a night shift--that didn't make day "night."

The hour I first thought of is that from 12 to 1, so I went with 12 as the first significant digits of that hour. ;)

[Zeldar]

Just looking at the bar graph (after 74 Voters) I'm speculating that the 12 Midnight choice is driven less by bedtime hours than by the semantic connection between MIDnight and MIDDLE of the night. If that speculation is close to the facts, I believe we have a strong sense of "middle of the night" falling between 1:30 and 3:30 AM. Maybe a more precise hour/half-hour would develop in a follow-up poll starting at 12 Midnight and going until 5:00 AM in half-hour slots.

Somebody else want to test that?

[panache45]

Definitely 3 a.m. Too late to be staying up, too early to be waking up.

[BigT]

I interpret "night" to mean the night. It has nothing to do with when I or anyone else is sleeping. I have worked a night shift--that didn't make day "night."

The hour I first thought of is that from 12 to 1, so I went with 12 as the first significant digits of that hour. ;)

Me, too. But I could have also went a lot earlier, since people (around here at least) tend to say 1:00 AM as "one o'clock in the morning." So, then, the middle of the night would be halfway between sunset and midnight.

If I'd have known most people would not be choosing midnight, I'd have went with 9:00 to show off the other way of thinking. But I wanted to be one of the popular ones :( :cool:

[Markxxx]

I think of 2am as middle of the night

[pulykamell]

I picked midnight. I almost never go to sleep until after that time, but that's the middle of the night to me. Nightfall starts at around 8:30 here right now and sunrise at 5:15 a.m. It doesn't work out perfectly, but midnight is a good, convenient midpoint. 3 a.m. is more like early early morning than the middle of the night to me. 2 a.m. is the outside edge of what I would call the middle of the night. So, I'd consider the range 12 midnight - 2 a.m. to be "the middle of the night." By that logic, I guess I should have picked 1 a.m. Now that I think about it, 1 a.m. would have been a slightly better answer.

[Peremensoe]

Nightfall starts at around 8:30 here right now and sunrise at 5:15 a.m. It doesn't work out perfectly, but midnight is a good, convenient midpoint. 3 a.m. is more like early early morning than the middle of the night to me.

If your local sunrise is 5:15, 3:00 almost is the beginning of your astronomical twilight--if you're awake and outside with good night eyes (not ruined by artificial lighting), you should literally be able to see the dawn advancing by 3:30.

[Dr. Strangelove]

I'm going with the "middle of my sleeping period" interpretation, which for me comes to 7 AM. 5 AM will have to be close enough.

[Carmady]

The expression "the middle of the night" makes me think of 2:30 am. The morning shows around here start at 3 am, and the late shows end at 2 am.

The middle of my sleeping is later than that, but I have no problem saying that I sleep through mornings.

[Dr. Strangelove]

If your local sunrise is 5:15, 3:00 almost is the beginning of your astronomical twilight--if you're awake and outside with good night eyes (not ruined by artificial lighting), you should literally be able to see the dawn advancing by 3:30.

We have quite terrible light pollution around here and I can't see how anything could notice twilight at 3:30, but somehow the local bird population has it figured out since that's when they begin their squawking.

[Sierra Indigo]

The middle of the night is somewhere around fuck-off-o'clock, which is way too late to be up and I really should be in bed.

O'dark thirty is I'm awake much too early, I don't get paid for this shit.

[YaraMateo]

I wanna say 3am, because honestly if someone (I knew!) called me at any time before 3am, I'd be cool with it. I don't really consider 3am night. It's early morning. I don't think the middle of the night should be the line between too late and too early. The middle of the night should be the period when night time is at it's height. So, I'm going with midnight. That's about 4 hours between the start and roughly the finish.