the.com/small hours
The stretch of night where decisions feel profound and inevitably regrettable by morning.
means The hours just after midnight — roughly one, two, three o'clock — when the number on the clock is small and most of the world is asleep.
from A literal turn of phrase: in the cycle of hours, those after midnight bear the smallest numbers — one, two, three — so they became 'the small hours,' as opposed to the larger-numbered hours of the day. English has used the expression since at least the 19th century, sometimes spelled out as 'the small hours of the morning.'
- clock origin
- Named for the low numbers: one, two, three a.m.
- body math
- Cortisol bottoms out, making 3 a.m. feel like dread o'clock.
- creative window
- Many writers swear by it; the brain censors less.
- crime stat
- Most fatal car crashes cluster in these dead hours.
for instance
the small hours — between midnight and dawn, typically 1-4 am, when most people sleep