Do You Know The Amazing Stages Of Sleep?
Sleep is a physiological process that the body needs regularly to rebuild the resources that you use during the day, as well as to perform the internal functions that keep the body running during the day.
There are phases and stages of sleep which, however, require the least possible distraction or interruption from external factors such as:
- Smoking
- Too much coffee
- Alcohol
- Anxiety
- Stress
In this article, we take a look at the different stages of sleep and how you can get the most out of them.
What are the physical stages of sleep?
When your eyes are closed, there are clear electrical oscillations that can be seen on an E lektro E ncefalo G rafi (EEG) while aflarate at 8-13 per second.
As the minutes go by, one can highlight changes associated with each sleep stage, depending on brain activity.
It is this way that we learn what we know about sleep today.
How are the amazing sleep stages divided?
First Stage of the Amazing Sleep Stages
- This is the easiest sleep. It is a short stage in which your brain can go in and out of the dream stage and it is easy to wake up from.
- During the first stage, REM sleep (rapid eye movement) is seen when the body’s muscles relax.
- One is also able to detect auditory and sensory stimuli during this stage. This is why one may have the feeling of falling: It is the perception of going from first to second stage of sleep.
Second stage
- During the second stage of sleep, a pattern is seen in which the rapid eye movements (REM) stop and in which the dynamic brain waves relax, leaving a single brain activity with rapid brain waves.
- On an EEG, one can see an incipient pattern in which sleep disturbances occur.
- In addition to the slow waves, this is where body temperature, heart rate and respiration begin to fall.
- At this point, the nervous system blocks sensory stimuli, making it virtually impossible to receive information from the outside.
- This can be a very refreshing part of sleep, although it does occur in small doses.
Third stage
- At this stage, brain activity decreases further than at the two previous stages. These are called delta waves, which are interrupted by fast, but smaller, waves.
- At this stage, a person is usually two or three minutes without eye movements, and it can be difficult to wake up.
- Sensory stimuli are completely blocked. When a person wakes up from this stage, he may feel disoriented and confused.
- During this period, there are no dream pictures, blood pressure is lowered and growth hormone production increases.
Fourth stage
- This stage consists almost exclusively of delta waves. It is a period of deep, intense sleep, which is much more difficult to wake up from.
- There are no eye or muscle movements. It is usually during this stage of sleep that children urinate in bed, fall asleep or experience sleep anxiety.
- During this stage of deep sleep, one does not dream. It usually takes about 20 minutes.
- Yet it is this stage that determines whether one has had a good sleep or whether one is not well rested.
Also read: Dandelion drink: A means of taking care of the bones
How many stages of sleep are there through the night?
Humans usually go in and out of REM sleep for periods of 70 to 100 minutes.
REM sleep typically lasts between 5 and 30 minutes, but the rest is non-REM sleep.
Both cycles are usually repeated every hour and a half through the night, and you usually experience between 4 and 6 cycles of REM sleep.
