A good night’s sleep is when you fall asleep quickly, don’t fully wake up during the night, do not wake up too early, and wake up in the morning feeling refreshed. However, it’s not only about the quantity of sleep you get. It’s also about the quality. While you sleep, you will experience four stages of sleep, which help provide the quality rest necessary for a healthy mind and body.
Why Is Sleep Important?
Sleep helps you maintain pathways in your brain to learn and create new memories. Furthermore, it affects how well neurons in your brain communicate and removes toxins in your brain that can build up while you’re awake.
Although the biological purpose of sleep remains unknown by researchers, sleep affects almost every system in your body. Specifically, sleep helps repair and maintain your brain, heart, lungs, immunity, mood, and metabolism. Unfortunately, poor or lack of sleep over time can increase the risk of developing some health conditions such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, depression, high blood pressure, and obesity.
The Sleep Cycle
Sleep is more than your body being in an inactive state where the brain turns off to rest and recuperate. Instead, your body goes through four to six rounds of sleep cycles. Each sleep cycle has four stages.
Sleep cycles can vary from night to night and person to person and change as you progress through your sleep. Although, this is perfectly normal in most cases. However, some factors can negatively affect your sleep, such as alcohol consumption or an underlying sleep condition. If you feel you have a sleep condition, then consult with your doctor.
The four stages of sleep are broken into two types. They are rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and non-REM sleep. Typically, your body cycles through all stages several times, with increasingly longer and deeper REM sleep occurring towards morning. Each sleep stage plays a vital role in the quality of your sleep. Let’s explore each stage and how they are important.
Sleep Stage 1 – Awake to Sleep
Stage (N1) is the time in bed just before and after falling asleep when you’re dozing off and moving in and out of consciousness. Stage 1 is a non-REM sleep where the body hasn’t fully relaxed yet. However, brain activity starts to slow with occasional body twitches.
This stage lasts for only 1 to 5 minutes on average. Also, it is easy to wake up during this stage. If you aren’t disturbed, you can quickly move into stage 2. For most uninterrupted nights, you may not spend much time in this stage throughout your sleep. Typically, you spend, on average, 2% – 5% of your entire sleep in this sleep stage.
Sleep Stage 2 – Light Sleep
Stage 2 (N2) is another non-REM sleep stage where your body enters light sleep. In this stage, your body temperature drops, muscles relax, and your heart rate and breathing slow. Overall, brain activity slows with short bursts of activity to help resist being awakened by the outside world.
The first time you enter this stage, you may stay in light sleep for 10 – 25 minutes. However, they can become longer each time you enter this stage at night. Typically, you will spend 45% – 55% on average in this sleep stage.
Sleep Stage 3 – Deep Sleep
Stage 3 (N3) is a non-REM stage where your body enters deep sleep. Your muscles, pulse, and breathing rate will decrease as your body relaxes. This stage is critical for allowing the body to recover and repair itself. Additionally, this stage may help reinforce key processes, bolster your immune system functions, and flush waste products from the brain. It will be harder to wake up during this stage. If you are awoken, you may feel groggy and disoriented.
Typically, stage 3 lasts for 20 – 40 minutes. You may spend more time in this stage early in your nightly sleep. As you continue to sleep, these stages get shorter to get more REM sleep. Generally, you will spend 13% – 23% on average in this sleep stage.
Sleep Stage 4 – REM Sleep
While in stage 4 (REM sleep), your brain activity increases to almost the same level as when you’re awake. Although you can dream at any stage, you can experience the most vivid dreams in REM sleep. Since you can act out your dreams, your body temporarily paralyzes all your muscles except your eyes and breathing muscles.
Researchers believe REM sleep is critical to memory, learning, and creativity. Usually, you don’t enter REM sleep until you’ve slept for about 90 minutes. REM sleep may only last a few minutes during the first REM sleep stage but increases up to an hour as you progress in your sleep. Typically, REM Sleep accounts for 20% – 25% of your sleep.
Monitoring Your Sleep
Many trackers, such as fitness trackers, mats, bracelets, and headbands, collect and analyze sleep data. Moreover, an app can automatically store the data to track and show charts relating to your sleep.
Tracking your sleep, especially with a wearable, can show you details such as sleep duration, how long you were in each sleep stage, how often you woke up, breathing rate, heart rate, and more. However, every wearable is different in terms of the data it collects automatically. Regardless, simply tracking the amount of sleep you get each night, how restful you feel, and any general comments about your sleep can provide insight when looking at the quantity and quality of your sleep over weeks or months.
If you suspect you are having issues with sleeping, you should contact your health provider. They can perform tests to help diagnose any possible sleep disorder.
The Takeaway
A good night’s sleep is essential for your body to recover and repair itself. Furthermore, your sleep goes through four stages of sleep, known as a sleep cycle, several times a night. Each sleep stage has its purpose and benefits to aid in your overall well-being. Monitoring your sleep is an excellent way to watch out for potential problems and adjust your sleep time to get enough quality sleep.
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Disclaimer: No content on this site should ever be used as a substitute for direct medical advice from your doctor or other qualified clinician.
