So when is the Best Time Of Day To Meditate? The simple answer is that meditating at anytime of the day can have a positive impact on your life, however, it is important to set up a routine around your meditation. It’s a good idea to pledge to yourself that you will meditate daily at a set time, be that morning, noon, afternoon, or evening.

Which bring us back to the question, “which one of those times is best for meditation?”

To discover the answer we decided to conduct a study of our own.

How did we conduct our study?

We asked our team at Eastern Science – as well as our extended network of friends, family, and Eastern Science supporters – to try meditating in the morning, noon, afternoon, and evening for one week each.

We then asked everyone to rank rate their meditation based on the following criteria:

How deeply they were able to meditate

How convenient was the meditation time

How easily they could maintain the scheduled time

The overall positive effect it had on their day

The results were very interesting and helped shed some light on the question “When is the best time to meditate?”

Why is it important to pick a time of day to meditate?

Most of us will try to commit to meditate from 15 minutes to 30 minutes, per day.

Let’s face it, making the commitment is the easy part, following through with the commitment consistently is the hard part.

Practitioners of meditation who do not set a firm time to meditate each day can face a whole slew of reasons to procrastinate. It becomes easy to push it off till later in the day, until at one point we realize there is not enough time left in the day to meditate.

If your intent is to “meditate for 20 minutes at some point today when I have time.” Before you know it, the day may rush past and you’ll find it harder and harder to find time to squeeze in a meditation.

A typical day in the life of someone who planned to meditate but couldn’t find time .

You wake up a bit late so you postpone your meditation till noon.

Then lunch comes and your boss schedules an important phone call, so you think “No problem I’ll meditate after work”

Next you finish work and your partner calls to say they need you to pick up a few groceries before dinner, so you think “no problem I’ll meditate after dinner.”

Next thing you know you’re getting tired and your partner suggest some Netflix and you think “OK I’ll meditate tomorrow. FOR SURE THIS TIME!!”

Many of us are guilty of repeating this pattern over and over again, until we commit to choosing one time to meditate every day. No Matter What!

A typical day in the life of someone who has commited to one time of day to meditate.

“I meditate for 20 minutes every morning at 8am. This gives me enough time to have breakfast, meditate, and slip out the door in time to get the subway to work.” – You are less likely to miss your meditation time. For example if a friend invites you out for coffee in the morning, you are more likely to say “No sorry, can we get coffee later, that is my time to meditate.

We are not saying you should choose mornings to meditate, just pick a time that works with your schedule and stick to it. Eventually if you miss your scheduled time it will feel a bit uncomfortable, and you are more likely to stick to a good routine.

Can I meditate at times other than my scheduled time?

YES OF COURSE!

The more time you spend meditating the better. We are saying pick a time and stick to it, but if you decide to try an evening meditation class, group meditation with friends, or just feel inspired to meditate again, that is great. Keep it up!

Many devote practitioners meditate many times throughout the day. Monks may meditate from morning to evening, rarely stopping unless the body needs nourishment, sleep, or to relieve itself.

Let’s get honest with ourselves, most of us, especially those leading busy lives in the West, do not have this much time to commit to a meditation practice that consist of meditating all day long.