How to calculate your temperature minimum and how to use it to your advantage?

To calculate your temperature minimum, track the time you typically wake up each morning. Your body's lowest temperature during a 24-hour cycle, the temperature minimum, occurs approximately two hours before your average wake-up time. If you usually wake up at 8:00 AM, your temperature minimum would be around 6:00 AM. The specific time is what matters, not the actual temperature value.

Knowing your temperature minimum can help optimize your sleep and circadian rhythm. Adjusting light exposure is important; it's beneficial to seek light in the early part of the day or when you need to be awake. However, avoid light in the four to six hours before your temperature minimum to prevent delays in your sleep-wake cycle. Also, you can use temperature manipulation—increasing temperature to shift your clock earlier or decreasing it to delay your clock. This knowledge can also be used to schedule focused work during your ultradian cycles, which are 90-minute cycles throughout the day 1 2.