The daily shower is a more controversial thing than you might think. Are we showering too much? Too little? Is the water too hot, or too cold? What is that rat doing in here anyway?
But for some reason, the one that really gets people grimacing is the question of when to shower. If you’re a morning showerer, chances are you couldn’t imagine waiting until bedtime to scrub off the night’s sweat and grime; if you habitually shower in the evening, on the other hand, you likely recoil at the idea of crawling into bed still covered in the dirt and dust of the day.
So, who’s in the right? Is it better to start the day sparkling, or wind down with a wash? We looked into the science – and the answer may surprise you.
The case for a morning shower
According to a 2022 Sleep Foundation survey, 42 percent of US adults start their day with a bath or shower. That’s noticeably more than the 25 percent who wash up just before bed, and it even overshadows the 38 percent who report showering or bathing at just some point in the evening.
So, there must be something to it, right? “I shower in the morning to really wake up, to feel alive,” Cleveland Clinic dermatologist Alok Vij commented in 2023. “I just don’t feel like myself if I’m starting my day without having a clean, freshly scrubbed face.”
There are biological reasons behind this morning boost. Your body relies on certain cues to regulate its circadian rhythm, and a regular shower can serve as a signal that it’s time to wake up and become more alert. The effect may be especially strong if you opt for a cooler shower rather than a hotter one – good advice at any time of day, actually – as colder water can trigger the body to release neurotransmitters such as serotonin, cortisol, dopamine, and norepinephrine, which all play crucial roles in regulating emotions and reducing stress levels.
More than that, a daily morning shower – of any length and temperature, so long as it ended with up to 90 seconds of cold water – has been shown in at least one study to reduce a person’s number of sick days by nearly one-third, along with improving reported quality of life and energy levels. And we know: spending a minute or two under the frigid spray first thing in the morning doesn’t sound that fun – but apparently, it’s worth it, since “even though the vast majority of participants reported a variable degree of discomfort during cold exposure, the fact that 91 percent of participants reported the will to continue such routine […] is perhaps the most indicative of any health or work benefit,” the study reported.
And then, of course, there’s the ick factor. For many of us, a morning shower is less about hack our biology to harness optimum efficiency in the workplace, and more about feeling less, you know… grimy.
“Humans tend to perspire at night,” Gary Goldenberg, a dermatologist in New York and a professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, told the New York Times in 2017. “When you wake up in the morning, there’s all this sweat and bacteria from the sheets that’s just kind of sitting there on your skin.”
And that’s just the safe-for-work stuff. There’s another major activity that we tend to use a bed for at night, Goldenberg pointed out – and a quick morning shower is perfect “to wash all of that gunk and sweat off that you’ve been sleeping in all night.”
“There are so many reasons to shower in the morning,” he said.
The case for a nighttime shower
Despite being less popular than its earlier cousin, there are quite a few very good reasons to shower in the evening – not least of which is the feeling of washing away the various oils, pollutants, and basic grime that has built up on your skin throughout the day.
“A shower helps to wash off all the grit and grime, environmental toxins and pollutants that might negatively impact your skin,” Vij pointed out. “It helps you get in bed with a clean slate.”
That’s doubly true if you’re exercising after work or spending your day in physically demanding situations. Then, “obviously you want to shower before you go to bed,” Goldenberg said, “because there’s a lot of sweat – bacteria can cause acne […] And it stinks.”
Plus – and perhaps surprisingly, given their reputation for waking us up in the mornings – an evening shower can actually be very beneficial for our sleep hygiene. That’s partly for the same reason as the early showers: it acts as a circadian marker to signal to our bodies to start winding down for the day – this is actually one reason why your parents used to insist on you having bathtime before bed when you were little.
But actually, the physiology goes deeper than that. “The body naturally cools down as bedtime approaches, in sync with the circadian rhythm,” clinical psychologist and sleep expert Janet K. Kennedy told the Times. “Showering artificially raises the temperature again and allows for a faster cool down, which seems to hasten sleep.”
You don’t want to do it too soon before getting into bed, she clarified – about 90 minutes before should do it. That’s borne out by other research, too: one systematic review of the benefits of warm baths found that soaking for as little as ten minutes an hour or two before bed was related to improved sleep quality and efficiency, as well as significantly quicker dropping off times.
In other words, if you’re a bit of an insomniac, try a nice warm bath or shower before bed.
“An evening shower can be a relaxing part of a pre-bed routine,” Michael Grandner, director of the Sleep and Health Research Program at the University of Arizona, told Time Magazine in 2017.
“[It] might also have the benefit of giving you some time to think and wind down before bed,” Grandner added, “rather than distract[ing] yourself in front of the TV.”
The verdict
Listen: if showering in the morning or evening made that much of a difference, we wouldn’t need an explainer article to decide which was better. The truth is, there’s not all that much in it either way.
“There’s no definitive answer for the global population on whether to take an evening vs. morning shower,” Vij said. “But for each individual, there tends to be a right answer. And it’s all based on preference.”
Of course, there may be specific reasons that convince you one way or the other: if you need to wash your hair, for example, and can’t dry it in the hour or so before bed, then you may prefer a morning shower, since sleeping on wet hair genuinely isn’t good for your barnet.
If, on the other hand, you suffer from eczema or dermatitis, you might want to wait until the evening to scrub up: “it’s recommended that you apply your daily moisturizers and any topical prescription or over-the-counter products twice a day,” Vij explained.
“It’s not necessarily better to shower at night or morning, as long as you’re using gentle cleansers, moisturizers and prescription products as recommended,” he confirmed – but the fact is that most of us have less time for this kind of routine in the morning than the evening.
Overall, then, what’s the verdict? Well, if we had to come down on one side or the other, we’d say the nighttime showerers have the edge – but ultimately, it’s up to you. As long as you’re clean, it doesn’t really matter when you’re washing: “Experiment to find your favorite version of yourself – if you’ve always showered in the morning, maybe try the opposite for a week and see how it makes you feel,” Vij suggested. “And if it makes you feel awesome, then stick with it. And if not go back,”
“There’s no right time to shower,” he concluded. “It’s whatever makes you feel your best. It’s such a personal choice that you should do what suits you and do what makes you happy.”
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