“Your mind is fresh in the morning, so that must be the most efficient time to practise” sounds reasonable, but it should not be treated as a universal rule. Piano practice depends on attention and fine-motor stability, and neither varies across the day in exactly the same way for everyone. Adults also work around sleep, employment and family commitments; having time in the morning does not necessarily mean the body is at its most stable.
A small study of twenty-one piano students asked participants to play fast scales at 8 am and 8 pm. When they were grouped by chronotype, later types were more stable from trial to trial in the evening, while earlier types showed no significant difference between the two sessions. The result is useful but limited: the sample was small, the participants were students, and the researchers did not record the previous night's sleep quality. It cannot establish that evening is better. What it challenges is the idea that everyone shares one ideal practice hour.
A more practical test is to choose the same not-quite-secure passage and make one complete first attempt at several times you could realistically practise. Compare whether timing, wrong notes and tension recur consistently, rather than asking which attempt was fastest. Put technically diagnostic work in the period that proves more reliable; when tired, there is no need to demonstrate willpower through longer repetition.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3705811/
When practising with <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/scoreflow/id6796205656">ScoreFlow</a>, open the same short passage at different times and play it once, so the comparison stays centred on one musical problem rather than an idealised time on the clock.
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