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Every 6 hours medication schedule
Every 6 hours means four doses evenly spaced, such as 6 AM, noon, 6 PM and midnight. That's 18 hours from first to last, so a strict schedule either keeps you up until midnight or needs a dose in the night. On a child's medicine label, AAFP's family doctors say it generally means four times a day. The schedule maker below is set up for every 6 hours.
The printout puts every-6-hours doses at 6 AM, noon, 6 PM and midnight, the same times both hospital tables use. If the pharmacist says four times a day is fine, use the 4-times-a-day chart instead.
Every 6 hours vs. four times a day
| If the order says | UF Health (2007) | UConn Health (2013) |
|---|---|---|
| Every 6 hours (q6h) | 6 AM, noon, 6 PM, midnight | 6 AM, noon, 6 PM, midnight |
| 4 times a day (QID) | 9 AM, 1 PM, 5 PM, 9 PM | 9 AM, 1 PM, 5 PM, 9 PM |
Four doses 6 hours apart take 18 hours. That's longer than the 17 hours between 6 AM and 11 PM, so a strict every-6-hours schedule has to give somewhere: a late night, an early start or an alarm. Both hospital pharmacies use 6 AM, noon, 6 PM and midnight.
Four times a day, the gentler instruction, fits into 12 hours (9 AM to 9 PM in both tables). Which of the two a medicine needs decides whether anyone sets an alarm.
Pick a first dose, get the other three
Add 6 hours three times. Any dose that lands in the example night (11 PM to 6 AM) is marked:
| First dose | Dose 2 | Dose 3 | Dose 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6:00 AM | 12:00 PM | 6:00 PM | 12:00 AM(night) |
| 7:00 AM | 1:00 PM | 7:00 PM | 1:00 AM(night) |
| 8:00 AM | 2:00 PM | 8:00 PM | 2:00 AM(night) |
| 9:00 AM | 3:00 PM | 9:00 PM | 3:00 AM(night) |
Do you have to wake up for an every-6-hours medicine?
Often not. In their guide to giving a child medicine, AAFP's family doctors say a drug label reading "every 6 hours" generally means four times a day, for example breakfast, lunch, supper and bedtime, and that it doesn't always mean waking the child in the night. Medical News Today's pharmacists add that even "every 4 hours" most likely means while you're awake.
The exceptions are the medicines that need a steady level in the blood. UConn's pharmacy lists antibiotics, pain medicines and seizure medicines as the ones that do better at even intervals, and some antibiotics may need a dose overnight. Ask the pharmacist plainly: does this one need the midnight dose?
Pain medicine every 6 hours as needed
An every-6-hours label can also say "as needed." Medical News Today notes that overnight pain medicine is often dosed as needed, so the night dose isn't required.
Put an as-needed medicine on the chart as "as needed" and it's listed on its own, off the clock. That way nobody mistakes it for a dose that's due.
Questions about dosing every 6 hours
- What times are every 6 hours?
- Any four times 6 hours apart, for example 6 AM, noon, 6 PM and midnight, or 7 AM, 1 PM, 7 PM and 1 AM. Four doses span 18 hours, so every set has one dose very early or very late. Pick the one that costs the least sleep.
- Is every 6 hours the same as 4 times a day?
- For a child's medicine, AAFP says it generally is. But the two hospital tables we checked give them different times: 6 AM, noon, 6 PM and midnight for every 6 hours, and 9 AM, 1 PM, 5 PM and 9 PM for four times a day. Ask the pharmacist if even spacing matters for this one.
- What does q6h mean?
- q6h means every 6 hours. If it's followed by prn, it means every 6 hours as needed. Pharmacists write it out in plain words on the bottle.
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: 4 times a day, every 8 hours, 3 times a day. 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.