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2 times a day medication schedule
Twice a day usually means one dose in the morning and one in the evening, about 10 to 14 hours apart with 12 as the target, such as 7 AM and 7 PM. A good way to choose is to tie each dose to something you already do every day, like breakfast and dinner. The schedule maker below is set up for twice a day.
The printout puts twice-a-day doses at 8 AM and 6 PM, 10 hours apart, so they share the morning and evening columns with everything else. If the label says every 12 hours, move the evening dose to 8 PM.
Twice a day, three ways
| If the order says | UF Health (2007) | UConn Health (2013) |
|---|---|---|
| 2 times a day (BID) | 9 AM, 9 PM | 9 AM, 9 PM |
| Every 12 hours (q12h) | 9 AM, 9 PM | 9 AM, 9 PM |
Here the two labels line up. Both hospital pharmacies give twice a day and every 12 hours the same times, 9 AM and 9 PM. Two doses 12 hours apart fit easily inside a waking day.
At home, the thing to watch is the gap. A Massachusetts General Hospital pharmacist told Harvard Health about a man who read twice daily as 9 AM and 1 PM, which was too close together. She says twice daily usually means once in the morning and once at night, about 12 hours apart.
Pick a first dose, get the second
Add 12 hours. Most people end up with a breakfast dose and a dinner or bedtime dose:
| First dose | Dose 2 |
|---|---|
| 6:00 AM | 6:00 PM |
| 7:00 AM | 7:00 PM |
| 8:00 AM | 8:00 PM |
| 9:00 AM | 9:00 PM |
Best time to take a medicine twice a day
Medical News Today's pharmacists suggest tying a dose to something you already do every day, like meals, brushing your teeth or going to bed. Breakfast and dinner are an easy pair.
Some medicines need specific timing, though. A few have to be taken with food or on an empty stomach, and some are better earlier in the day. If the label doesn't say, ask the pharmacist whether this one has a preferred time.
"Twice daily" and "every 12 hours" on the same counter
When the same instruction is written two ways, people tend to run two schedules. In Wolf and colleagues' 2011 study of adults aged 55 to 74, 79% didn't take an "every 12 hours" medicine at the same time as a "twice daily" one.
On the printout, both land in the same morning and evening columns. One look at the printout tells everyone in the house that they go together.
Questions about dosing 2 times a day
- How many hours apart is twice a day?
- About 10 to 14 hours, and 12 is the target. 7 AM and 7 PM, or 8 AM and 8 PM, both work.
- Is twice a day the same as every 12 hours?
- Close enough that both hospital pharmacies we checked give them the same times, 9 AM and 9 PM. If a label says every 12 hours, keep the gap as close to 12 hours as you can.
- What does BID mean?
- BID means twice a day. It comes from Latin, and pharmacists write it out in plain words on the bottle. You'll mostly see it on prescriptions and hospital papers.
- What if I take a twice-a-day pill late?
- Don't double up to catch up. What to do with a late or missed dose depends on the medicine, so check the leaflet or ask the pharmacist.
A printed schedule is right until a doctor changes a dose.
Upload the discharge papers or the after-visit summary, and KeptWell reads them and records what changed: what started, what stopped, which dose went up or down. Your whole family sees the same medication list, so everyone knows when it's time to print a new schedule. Free today.
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Other schedules: 3 times a day, 4 times a day, every 8 hours. The medication schedule builder lets you mix once a day, twice a day, every 8 hours and the other frequencies on one page, and the medication administration record is the monthly sheet where you write your initials after each dose.