If sleep doesn’t come easy for you knowing how you slumber or knowing the mechanism behind what produces a healthy night’s slumber could help you resolve the problem of what is keeping you awake. Rest is not as cut and dry as you believe due to the various levels of sleep. There are a number of matters that happen once your eyes close and you fall asleep that contributes to how deeply or how softly you will sleep. Sleeping pills used to be the standard treatment for insomnia. Today, they are increasingly recognized as an appropriate treatment for short-term insomnia but not for chronic insomnia due to their side effects and loss of efficacy with continued use.
The first stage of sleep is called stage one which is characterized by drowsiness and this is where your muscles relax, you start to feel tired, and you can no longer keep your eyes open. This stage usually lasts only a few minutes usually between five and ten. Stage two of sleep is a very faint sleep and in this stage both breathing rate plus temperature drop. Your pulse will also slow down as well during this stage.
Both stage three and stage four of the sleep cycles are considered “deep sleep” and are certainly where normally you should have a problem being woken up. You might feel a bit dopey and unable to come awake promptly but this vital stage in sleep allows the brain to truly “turn off” as your circulation slows, at which time the nutrient rich blood nourishes your body. There is also an increase in immune work that occurs during these two vital stages of your good night’s rest.
Stage five is considered REM sleep and is known as the dream portion of the sleep cycle. Entering and exiting this cycle happens many times during sleep so you may find yourself having several dreams during your period of REM. This cycle is characterized by some physical breathing conditions both irregular and shallow. You may also experience a quickening of the pulse and blood pressure.
This particular portion of the entire sleep cycle is vital to helping you process certain emotions for stress reduction and giving the person a truly good night’s sleep. People who sleep lightly are trapped in stage two and cannot seem to get to stages three and four where they need to be in order to obtain the most rest possible. Those who can’t wake up so easily possibly spend a longer period of time in deep sleep and rise quickly upon waking rather than running through each stage.
Sleep stages can become random based upon how much time you spent in each cycle the evenings before, so if you spend more time in deep sleep one night you might become trapped in a light sleep the next evening. Ultimately however it balances out and you will spend about the same average over time in every stage of sleep. That’s why it is more true that it is impossible to get caught up on sleep but you can catch up on rest.
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