Make sure you get plenty of sleep. We have all heard this for all of our lives. The doctors say it and our parents say it. When we have kids, we make sure that they get to bed early for school days. But, if getting plenty of sleep is so important, then why do so many of us neglect it?
Hopefully, after reading this, you can understand why it is so important, and begin to make time for more sleep.
Most people know about Rapid Eye Movement {REM} sleep,” or at least they have heard of it. These same people also know that without REM sleep, there can be a lot of adverse conditions that can occur, but there are very few people realize that there are actually 4 stages of sleep and that REM sleep is just one of them.
They also do not know that interrupting any of these stages can also cause unhealthy conditions to occur.
What Are The Five Phases Of Sleep
- First Stage – Stage 1 sleep is very light sleep. You can experience going in and out of sleep a few times during this stage because you can be woken up easily. Your eye movement as well as your body movement, breathing, and heartbeat all begin to slow down.
You can also experience quick movements made by the muscles in your legs or other areas of your body. This phenomenon is known as myoclonic jerks or “sleep starts.” They are caused by a sensation of falling, hence the term “falling asleep,” and are caused by multiple motor areas in the brain being stimulated spontaneously.
- Second Stage – Approximately fifty percent of your sleep cycle is spent in this stage of sleep. While in this stage your eye movement slows down as does your heartbeat and breathing. The brain waves that are produced during this stage become slower as well.
- Third Stage – This stage is the first stage in which you are in what is called “deep sleep.” Brain waves produced during this stage are called delta waves. Delta waves are actually a combination of different brain waves.
Some of these waves have slow intervals while others have rapid intervals. Someone who is in stage three of sleep may be very difficult to wake. Once they are wake up, they are usually very disoriented and groggy for several minutes.
- Forth Stage – Stage four sleep is considered a second stage of deep sleep. Stage four is also another relaxed stage lasting about a half hour or so. The brain waves have changed almost exclusively into the slow delta waves.
It is also extremely difficult to wake up people in this stage of sleep. Stages three and four are responsible for you feeling refreshed when you wake up in the morning. If you are not able to complete these stages then the sleep that you get will not feel very satisfying.
Rapid Eye Movement Or REM Sleep
This sleep phase begins about 70 to 90 minutes after you fall asleep. Rapid eye movement sleep is the stage that dreaming occurs. While you are in REM sleep, your breathing will become faster, shallower, and become irregular.
Your eyes will begin to move back and forth very quickly while your other muscles become practically immobile and your heart rate and blood pressure will increase. Some men develop erections during this stage of sleep.
Although researchers do not understand REM sleep fully, they do know that it is an important factor in creating long-term memories. If your sleep is disrupted during this stage, your next sleep cycle will not follow the normal sleeping cycle, but will usually go back to REM sleep until the lost REM time is made up and your body is rested.
This sequence of stages will occur approximately five times in a night if there are no interruptions. Usually the sequence during the night will be just like a wave itself. Your sleep will go from stages 1, 2, 3, 4, REM, 4, 3, and then begin repeating again from stage 2.
Studies have shown that people will sleep approximately eight hours and fifteen minutes when their sleep cycles remain uninterrupted throughout the night. In these studies, there were not any disturbing noises or alarm clocks to wake the test subjects up as they slept.
The eight hour fifteen minute time frame of uninterrupted sleep is believed to be the ideal amount of time that is needed for the body to properly rest and repair each night.
Conditions That Are Caused By Sleep Deprivation Or Interrupted Sleep
It is very important to get plenty of sleep. When there is a period of consistent sleep deprivation, many adverse conditions can occur. Some of these conditions are listed below.
- Impaired Glucose Tolerance – Without sleep, your central nervous system will become more active. This will inhibit adequate insulin production, which is what the body needs to digest sugars.
- Obesity – Since growth hormones are secreted during the first round of deep sleep, the lack of such sleep will reduce growth hormone levels in the body. This effect could lower the regular growth hormone levels prematurely, which in turn would accelerate the fat-gaining process.
Also, there is research that shows a lowering of testosterone as well which would cause the body to start gaining fat tissue and losing muscle mass.
- Increased Cravings For Carbohydrates – Sleep depravation delays the production of Leptin, which is the hormone responsible for letting the body know that it is full when eating.
However, with decreased Leptin production, your body will start to crave calories, especially carbohydrates, even after the daily requirement has been met. This in turn will make any diet extremely hard to continue.
- Weakened Immune System – Studies have shown that sleep deprivation adversely affects the body’s white blood cell count as well as its ability to fight off infections and illness.
- Heightened Risk Of Developing Breast Cancer – Melatonin, the primary hormone that causes drowsiness at night, is thought to be a factor in the reduction of Estrogen in the body. Since lack of sleep restricts the production of Melatonin, Estrogen levels begin to rise and too much estrogen in the body has been linked to the growth of breast cancers.
- Decreased Ability To Focus And Impaired Alertness Levels – People who were awake for 19 hours or more scored lower on performance tests and alertness scales than those who had a blood-alcohol content level, or BAC, of .08 percent. .08 percent BAC is considered legally drunk in a lot of states.
This also has led to many truck driver arrests and tickets for DUI or driving under the influence of sleepiness and has initiated tighter regulations on how many hours straight that a truck driver can drive.
- Hardening Of The Arteries – The stress on the body due to lack of sleep can cause an extremely high level of Cortisol. This imbalance can lead to the hardening of the arteries, which often leads to a heart attack as well as lead to an increase of body fat storage, lean muscle tissue loss, and bone mass loss.
- Depression and irritability – Lack of sleep can also cause a depletion of neurotransmitters in the brain. The neurotransmitters are in charge of regulating your mood. This will cause sleep-deprived people to have a “shorter fuse” with others and also get depressed easier.
Hopefully, after reading this, you can understand why it is so important, and begin to make time for more sleep.
Most people know about Rapid Eye Movement {REM} sleep,” or at least they have heard of it. These same people also know that without REM sleep, there can be a lot of adverse conditions that can occur, but there are very few people realize that there are actually 4 stages of sleep and that REM sleep is just one of them.
They also do not know that interrupting any of these stages can also cause unhealthy conditions to occur.
What Are The Five Phases Of Sleep
- First Stage – Stage 1 sleep is very light sleep. You can experience going in and out of sleep a few times during this stage because you can be woken up easily. Your eye movement as well as your body movement, breathing, and heartbeat all begin to slow down.
You can also experience quick movements made by the muscles in your legs or other areas of your body. This phenomenon is known as myoclonic jerks or “sleep starts.” They are caused by a sensation of falling, hence the term “falling asleep,” and are caused by multiple motor areas in the brain being stimulated spontaneously.
- Second Stage – Approximately fifty percent of your sleep cycle is spent in this stage of sleep. While in this stage your eye movement slows down as does your heartbeat and breathing. The brain waves that are produced during this stage become slower as well.
- Third Stage – This stage is the first stage in which you are in what is called “deep sleep.” Brain waves produced during this stage are called delta waves. Delta waves are actually a combination of different brain waves.
Some of these waves have slow intervals while others have rapid intervals. Someone who is in stage three of sleep may be very difficult to wake. Once they are wake up, they are usually very disoriented and groggy for several minutes.
- Forth Stage – Stage four sleep is considered a second stage of deep sleep. Stage four is also another relaxed stage lasting about a half hour or so. The brain waves have changed almost exclusively into the slow delta waves.
It is also extremely difficult to wake up people in this stage of sleep. Stages three and four are responsible for you feeling refreshed when you wake up in the morning. If you are not able to complete these stages then the sleep that you get will not feel very satisfying.
Rapid Eye Movement Or REM Sleep
This sleep phase begins about 70 to 90 minutes after you fall asleep. Rapid eye movement sleep is the stage that dreaming occurs. While you are in REM sleep, your breathing will become faster, shallower, and become irregular.
Your eyes will begin to move back and forth very quickly while your other muscles become practically immobile and your heart rate and blood pressure will increase. Some men develop erections during this stage of sleep.
Although researchers do not understand REM sleep fully, they do know that it is an important factor in creating long-term memories. If your sleep is disrupted during this stage, your next sleep cycle will not follow the normal sleeping cycle, but will usually go back to REM sleep until the lost REM time is made up and your body is rested.
This sequence of stages will occur approximately five times in a night if there are no interruptions. Usually the sequence during the night will be just like a wave itself. Your sleep will go from stages 1, 2, 3, 4, REM, 4, 3, and then begin repeating again from stage 2.
Studies have shown that people will sleep approximately eight hours and fifteen minutes when their sleep cycles remain uninterrupted throughout the night. In these studies, there were not any disturbing noises or alarm clocks to wake the test subjects up as they slept.
The eight hour fifteen minute time frame of uninterrupted sleep is believed to be the ideal amount of time that is needed for the body to properly rest and repair each night.
Conditions That Are Caused By Sleep Deprivation Or Interrupted Sleep
It is very important to get plenty of sleep. When there is a period of consistent sleep deprivation, many adverse conditions can occur. Some of these conditions are listed below.
- Impaired Glucose Tolerance – Without sleep, your central nervous system will become more active. This will inhibit adequate insulin production, which is what the body needs to digest sugars.
- Obesity – Since growth hormones are secreted during the first round of deep sleep, the lack of such sleep will reduce growth hormone levels in the body. This effect could lower the regular growth hormone levels prematurely, which in turn would accelerate the fat-gaining process.
Also, there is research that shows a lowering of testosterone as well which would cause the body to start gaining fat tissue and losing muscle mass.
- Increased Cravings For Carbohydrates – Sleep depravation delays the production of Leptin, which is the hormone responsible for letting the body know that it is full when eating.
However, with decreased Leptin production, your body will start to crave calories, especially carbohydrates, even after the daily requirement has been met. This in turn will make any diet extremely hard to continue.
- Weakened Immune System – Studies have shown that sleep deprivation adversely affects the body’s white blood cell count as well as its ability to fight off infections and illness.
- Heightened Risk Of Developing Breast Cancer – Melatonin, the primary hormone that causes drowsiness at night, is thought to be a factor in the reduction of Estrogen in the body. Since lack of sleep restricts the production of Melatonin, Estrogen levels begin to rise and too much estrogen in the body has been linked to the growth of breast cancers.
- Decreased Ability To Focus And Impaired Alertness Levels – People who were awake for 19 hours or more scored lower on performance tests and alertness scales than those who had a blood-alcohol content level, or BAC, of .08 percent. .08 percent BAC is considered legally drunk in a lot of states.
This also has led to many truck driver arrests and tickets for DUI or driving under the influence of sleepiness and has initiated tighter regulations on how many hours straight that a truck driver can drive.
- Hardening Of The Arteries – The stress on the body due to lack of sleep can cause an extremely high level of Cortisol. This imbalance can lead to the hardening of the arteries, which often leads to a heart attack as well as lead to an increase of body fat storage, lean muscle tissue loss, and bone mass loss.
- Depression and irritability – Lack of sleep can also cause a depletion of neurotransmitters in the brain. The neurotransmitters are in charge of regulating your mood. This will cause sleep-deprived people to have a “shorter fuse” with others and also get depressed easier.
