Sleep itself follows a set cycle every night; that of REM (rapid eye movement) when most dreaming occurs and non-rapid REM and we will repeat the cycle several times a night. An infant spends roughly half their sleep pattern in REM and the other half non-REM. Alternatively an average adult will spend only 20% of their sleeptime in REM sleep.
Research has shown that non-REM sleep consists of four stages before we reach REM sleep. Stage one is the time when we feel half awake and half asleep but our muscles begin to relax. After about ten minutes we reach Stage two and that lasts for around twenty minutes. This is the time we are fully asleep and our heart rate and breathing slows. While Stage two lasts the longest, we then go to Stage three and our deep sleep pattern where our heart and breathing is at their lowest begins. Finally, we reach Stage four where it is more difficult to be awakened and if we are, we are often rather grumpy! All these stages typically last up to 90 minutes before REM sleep.
REM sleep is a bit strange to describe as although we are not aware, our brain is particularly active and our eyes are exceptionally so (hence the term, rapid eye movement). You may not be aware, but apart from your body resting, your brain is far from inactive when you are asleep. Scientists can now record through the use of expensive equipment and sleep studies that different areas of the brain are certainly very active. During REM, the time when we dream and may sleepwalk, our breathing and blood pressure will begin to increase although our bodies don’t respond to this. It is suggested this is nature’s way of stopping us acting on our dreams and perhaps harming ourselves.
How much sleep we require differs between individuals, but if you don’t feel sleepy during the day, then you are probably getting enough. Sadly, many of us either do not get the opportunity for enough sleep or, when the opportunity is there we find we can’t sleep anyway!
Hopefully this quick overview about What Is Sleep will have been of help to you. If you feel you body has become ‘out of sync’, try some of the natural sleep aids reviewed on these pages.
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