IStock Photo 3145506 © Randy Plett Photographs

The average adult goes to bed at 10:53 p.m. on a work night, according to the National Sleep Foundation. At this point, he or she has already spent more than 16 hours showering, commuting, working, shopping, cooking, and cleaning. So what does the average adult do in the hour right before bedtime? Listen to Camelot on an old Victrola, as Jacqueline and John F. Kennedy used to? Not likely. According to the National Sleep Foundation’s 2005 Sleep in America™ poll, the odds an adult listens to music within an hour of going to bed at least a few nights a week are 1 in 4.17. Having sex is a more common activity (1 in 3.7 adults choose to do that), though it is edged out by the Internet, which attracts 1 in 3.57 people.

The odds a woman will do household chores at least a few nights a week are 1 in 1.67 (59.9%), meaning housekeeping is more than twice as likely to happen as sex. A large number of both men and women (1 in 1.47, 68%) spend time with family or friends. But by far the most common activity is watching television. A vast majority of adults, 1 in 1.15 (87%), choose this before bed.

Going to sleep before 11 o’clock means that, unless he or she catches the new and earlier Leno, the average person will miss the late-night comedy shows. But if a person has cable or satellite, as 87% of American TV households (PDF) do, there are still many options. He or she might watch the end of Man vs. Wild and the beginning of Bear Feeding Frenzy. Other options include Baseball Tonight, Drop Dead Diva, 10 Grand in Your Hand, Animal Cops: Houston, or Ace of Cakes. Whatever the average adult chooses, she will turn off her television just before 11. She will flip her pillow to the cool side, switch off her bedside lamp, nestle under her comforter, and fall asleep. Then, at 5:35 a.m. on the dot, the average adult will wake up and face a new day.