Leader: Life's all go long after that magic moment

SO 8:44pm is the magic moment when we start to relax. But how late in the day can this perfect moment get – when the stresses and strains of work ease off and we can put our feet up and relax?

To earlier generations, this would seem absurdly late. Family mealtimes were much more disciplined and punctual and 7pm was the relaxation point. But we live differently now. Work is no longer an activity that stops at 5pm, but stretches much later into the evening. Travelling and commuting times are longer. And the working mum needs a break before preparing the family meal, if she has not already collapsed. Not only is 8:44pm late by previous standards, but we are also arriving at it in a more frazzled state.

And now the gin-flavoured 8:44pm moment is known, it won't be long before those irritating phone calls start to arrive – the voice from Mumbai suggesting we switch from ScottishPower to Scottish Hydro Electric, or back again, followed at 8:47 by a voice of demented rapture telling us we have won some vast sum and only have to double-glaze our homes to collect.

By 8:50 it will be the car insurance pitch and then a call urging a complete kitchen makeover. A few minutes' doze and it's the deeply depressing News at 10, followed by a quick burl to the supermarket. Nothing now really switches off until the lights do.