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The best time of the day (or night) is to meditate is entirely dependent on your own personal schedule as well as your resonance to that time of the day. Many ardent practitioners of meditation believe that one hour before dawn is the best time to meditate as the air is fresh and you will be welcoming the sun into the sky. However this means waking up at around 5 am most mornings which isn’t a realistic ask for most people.

When I began meditating I first did so at night about thirty minutes before I went to bed. This allowed me to release all negative thoughts and feelings that had built up through the course of day. Soon I added another meditation exercise to my routine after I had woke up which put me in a calm mindset for the day.

If possible I would recommend that you follow a similar pattern, meditating soon after waking and just before you go to bed. However meditation is a deeply personal thing so you may wish to experiment with the time of the day you meditate until you find one that feels right for you.

Once you have found a time (or two, or three, etc) try to meditate at that same time every day so that you can build up a regular routine. Meditation is most definitely strengthened by regularity.

To me the length of the time you spend meditating isn’t as important as meditating regularly, at least once a day. If you are a beginner it may be that at first you can only meditate for five minutes at a time before you become bored, uncomfortable or your mind wanders to the point of complete distraction – and that is fine.

Over time, as you become more adept, you will find that you are able to meditate for longer periods of time and that the time you spend meditating feels as if it has “sped up”. That is to say that thirty minutes of meditating may feel like only ten minutes has actually gone passed.

Don’t try to push yourself too hard, meditating is just like any other skill. Just as if you were training to run a marathon you wouldn’t begin with a twenty mile run, don’t expect to be able to meditate for long periods of time to begin with. Go at your own pace and soon you will find your concentration and awareness increasing to the point where you can meditate for as long as you desire.

The only real limit is the restraints you have on your time. If you have a full time job and a family then it is probably not realistic to be able to meditate for an hour three times a day. However you may be able to meditate for fifteen minutes twice or more.

Value quality over quantity.

When someone first begins to meditate a common question is how regularly they should be doing it. Well, at first, I would recommend meditating once a day at a set time.

When I first starting meditating I did so every night just before my usual bedtime. This provided me with ideal conditions as the house was quiet and it meant that after I had meditated and I felt very relaxed and peaceful I could then go to sleep. I found that after meditating my sleep was much deeper and more fulfilling, plus it had the side benefit of helping me to remember my dreams better. So if you are new to meditating it can be a good idea to mediate once a day just before you go to bed.

Of course, with meditating, there are no hard and fast rules however I always make sure to meditate at least once a day. This helps to keep my ability sharp.

When you become more experienced and learn new meditative exercises you may expand your practice to two, three or even more times a day. The choice is yours, go with what feels right.