As a person sleeps they traverse through different stages. Scientists describe five stages of sleep, which are most commonly named stages 1, 2, 3, 4 and Rapid Eye Movement (REM).
Sleep begins as the mind phases into the first stage. Stage 1 can be described as light sleep. In this stage a person can easily be awakened. This stage is also characterized by a slowing heart rate, reduction in body movements, and a diminishing body temperature. You've likely had the experience of suddenly becoming much cooler right before you fall asleep. This is most notable and appreciated on nights when it is uncomfortably warm.
As you pass through stages 2, 3 and 4 your sleep becomes deeper and deeper, and the quality of rest grows. In stages 3 and especially 4 you become a lot more resistant to being awakened by external disruptions. Also, in stages three and four of sleep you get the most restorative sleep. Another characteristic of these late-sleep stages is that, if you are aroused from sleep while in these stages you will probably experience a lot of grogginess, disorientation, and it will probably take some time to wake up fully.
The last stage of sleep is commonly referred to as REM sleep, or Rapid Eye Movement sleep. This is because at this point of sleep the eyes move rapidly about behind their eyelids. Vivid dreaming is another prominent feature of REM sleep. Breathing and heart rate also speed up, but the body, conversely, becomes quite still.
All together, these five stages of sleep make up make up one sleep cycle. A sleep cycle, for most people, will last about 90-100 minutes. It is normal for a person to sleep through 5-6 cycles in a typical night.
You may be wondering what the value of this information is. I believe there are at least a few ways you could utilize this information to improve your sleep experience:
Most of us have to wake up to an alarm clock daily for work. If you normally wake up feeling drastically groggy, it could be because you are being awakened during the deep sleep stages of the sleep cycle, in stage three or four. By changing the time you go to bed to just a little earlier or even a little later you may find that waking up is quite a bit easier because the alarm goes off when you are only dozing lightly in stage one or two.If circumstances prevent you from getting more than a few hours of sleep at night you may actually do a lot better with a small change if you schedule the alarm to wake up during the transition to the next sleep cycle. In other words, if your normal sleep cycles last an hour and a half, you could actually feel better waking up after 4 1/2 hours of sleep than you would after 5 1/2 hours of sleep as a result of waking up gradually instead of being startled out of a deep sleep.
Small changes can have a significant impact on the restorative effects of your sleep. A small change of only 20-30 minutes of sleep on either end of the night may cause you to get through another cycle of stage 3 and 4 sleeping, which will have a much greater impact on your quality of sleep. It's a bigger bang for your buck, so to speak.
And finally, if you are interested in learning more about how to sleep better, please check out our online guide to better sleep at http://www.howtosleepbetterguide.com/.
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