There is nothing more refreshing than a good night’s sleep. However, there’s a lot more to sleep than simply closing your eyes and drifting off for 8 hours. You would have gone through many different stages of sleep. Getting enough of all the different stages is what constitutes a ‘good night’s sleep’.
The falling sleep part
Stage one of sleep is that strange feeling you sometimes get when you’re nodding off and you jump, waking yourself up. This is a sign that your brain is getting ready to switch off and is technically known as the non-rapid eye movement or NREM stage of sleep. You are still easily woken and find consciousness coming in waves.
Stage 2 of NREM
Your blood pressure drops, and your breathing slows down, you might also feel a little cold. The rapid eye movements slow down and you’re less likely to make jerky movements when in this stage. It is harder for you to be woken as your body relaxes and the brain starts to emit bigger waves less frequently. Experts believe we may spend 45% of our sleeping time in this stage.
Stage 3 of NREM
This stage is a transition between the NREM and REM state. Rapid eye movement is said to be the deepest state of sleep. During REM sleep, your brain emits slow waves known as delta waves and also very fast, tiny waves. You’ll sleep through most things and waking from this stage will leave you disorientated and woozy.
Stage 4 REM
If you’ve managed to successfully make it through the first 3 stages, then you’re into stage 4 which is the good stuff. The most restorative kind of sleep is the deepest REM sleep. Try to get more REM sleep with a new bed. For Cheap beds Gloucester, visit https://www.gloucestersofasandbeds.co.uk/
Your eyes remain highly active underneath your eyelids and your brain is carrying out the kind of functions that it does when you’re awake. This is the time when the most vivid dreams appear. As your breathing and blood pressure had steadied before, they may now become a bit irregular. Yet while your brain is going ten to the dozen, your muscles are in a totally relaxed state.
A Circle
Although there are 4 stages of sleep, you will spend the night going in and out of all the different stages. Most people spend much of the night going through stages 1-3, with only a small percentage of time in stage 4.
REM sleep will happen, but it comes in short bursts before extending to longer periods towards the end of the night. Sleep experts say that most adults experience between 5 to 6 cycles of REM sleep each night.
