What is an acceptable time to call someone in the morning?

[Lady Snowdon]

My workplace rules state that it's acceptable to call people from 8 am their time to 8 pm their time.  Personally, I try to not call people before about 9 am, except in cases where I know they're likely to be up (I call my mom around 8:30 am, because she's up and usually doesn't have anything going on around that time).  9 pm is my deadline for night-time calls.  I go to bed early, and don't like being woken up by the phone!

[MrsJWine]

Unless I know someone's schedule, I don't call before 10 am or after 8 pm. I get up long before 10, but I'm getting myself and kids ready the whole time, and I'm so not a morning person that I'm just barely restraining myself from ripping everyone's faces off as it is. Throw in a phone call, and there will be a Mr. Hyde moment.

[Piratelvr1121]

Depends on the person, really.  My MIL I won't call till after 10, as I know she's not a morning person, but I wouldn't hesitate to call my best friend at 8 because she's an early bird like I am and is usually up by then during the week. Even on her days off she rarely sleeps past 8:30 my time (7:30 hers).  Even then I don't really call her in the mornings unless it's important, as we usually email each other. 

Last time I had need to call her in the morning was 14 months ago after Piratebabe was born to let her know.  I think DH did call his mom shortly after Piratebabe was born 6:20 am) and she probably said "Great!" then went back to sleep after she and DH hung up. 

[blarg314]

I would say 9am-9pm as a general rule, unless I know the person is an early bird or night owl.

That's for simple phone calls, though. If I'm calling someone for a chat, rather than a simple question, or exchange of information, I would probably phone in the evening after dinner or, on a weekend, not before about 11 am.

[Tea Drinker]

I'd say after 9 a.m. unless I knew otherwise: either that earlier was okay, or that I needed to wait until later.

Earlier than that, I think it's reasonable to ask "What's the emergency?" unless the person tells me before I can ask. Having once been awakened at 6:30 by a neighbor calling to let me know there was a fire in the building (I hadn't heard the doorbell), I know it's possible that someone really would need to wake me at that hour, even though I'm not a medical professional. But it isn't likely. And the neighbor in question didn't waste time on chit-chat.

[Winterlight]

I vote 9am-9pm if I don't know the person well. If I do, then I should know what a safe time is.

[Cosmasia]

It really depends on the person. For me, nine in the morning is waaaay too early and I will not be picking up a call from someone I know at that time regardless of whether I'm up or not, unless we've talked about it beforehand and I therefore know they'd only call because of an emergency.

If it's something "official", as in not a social call, I'll be annoyed by the time but definitely not show it. I accept that a doctor/business/government person is probably going to be making their round of calls before noon.

Luckily I don't know anyone who calls me in the morning if I did I'd have to ask them to stop, to be honest. Politely of course. But unless there's an emergency I really don't want to talk to anyone other than my partner in the morning.

As for me, I mostly just don't make social calls unless it's afternoon. My cut off in the evening depends on who I'm calling/my knowledge of their preferences. If I don't know their preference, then I'll likely not call them after 19:00-ish in the evening.

Edit: all of this also works pretty well because I'm more of a text/private message/skype chat person. I don't phone people just to have a social "how's it going?" chat and I don't like when people call me for that either, because I'm just not a talk-on-the-phone person.

[LifeOnPluto]

I think that in general, 8am is a silly time to phone someone for a chat.

If it's a weekend, chances are they'll be having a sleep in. If it's a week day, it's likely they'll be busy getting ready for work, and won't have time to talk.

I think you would have been fine in saying "I can't really talk right now. You actually got me out of bed."

[CakeEater]

I'm a bit surprised by the general consensus on 9-9. I would have said 8-8. I don't think 8am is really that early for a weekday, and I wouldn't call someone after 8pm except in emergency.

[MariaE]

I'm a bit surprised by the general consensus on 9-9. I would have said 8-8. I don't think 8am is really that early for a weekday, and I wouldn't call someone after 8pm except in emergency.

I'm really surprised people say 9-9 too, but because of the 9pm. I don't think 9:30pm is too late to call unless I know otherwise.

[Raintree]

At 8 AM, I am either sleeping or frantically rushing around getting ready for wherever I have to be, so it's too early to phone. If it's a business call, I'm thinking, "Seriously, you couldn't wait till a decent hour?" and it doesn't put that business in my good books. If it's a chatty call, then, just, like....go away. You're seriously expecting me to be chatty this time of day?

On a weekend, anything before 11 is an intrusion. Then again, I just turn off my phone before I go to bed to avoid this kind of thing.

[atirial]

I would have said 9 (unless it's an emergency or the person has told me earlier is fine), because before then most people I know are busy trying to get up, deal with work and start their day.

[Amava]

My phone and I have a good understanding with each other.
People can call / text me at any time of the day and night.
But I will pick up / reply when it is convenient to me.

Of course, that only works when you either turn off your phone or leave it somewhere where you won't hear it to wake you up(not always possible for people who are expecting emergencies).

As for the landline. My only landline phone is downstairs, it's not very loud,  and if I'm asleep it needs to seriously keep ringing for a long while to wake me up. So family /can/ reach me in case of emergency (and with emergency, I mean, someone is dying) but they know they have to keep trying. Same when I'm in my bath, or eating dinner, or up to my elbows in cooking. I am very comfortable ignoring the phone and getting back to people when it suits me.

[Penguin_ar]

In general, I would say 8am-8pm.

On a personal level, I will almost always hang up on people/ tell them to IM me if it is after 7pm because my kids have an early bedtime and the phone ringing/ me talking on it will disturb the bedtime routine and sleep.

[Isilleke]

My mother gets a lot of calls around 7 AM for her work. While I think this is way too early and she's most of the time not even awake, it is necessary so I can't really complain about that.

My window during the week would be 9AM - 8PM. During the weekend it would be from 10/11AM - 9PM.
I do need a lot of sleep (9 hours minimum) and I'm not a morning person, so even if you called me at 10 there's a good chance I'll still be sleeping. But I do think it's an acceptable hour and if I feel in the evening that I'll need my sleep I just turn my phone off.

What I actually dislike more is when people call around 6PM. Here in my country that's the normal dinner time and I just don't get why anyone would call around that hour.