5 Sleep Stages: here’s what they are

The sleep it is one basic physiological state for the life of human beings: every time you fall asleep, even if you don’t realize it, your organism goes through different stages of sleep. Sleeping well and feeling fit in the morning depends on how you experienced these moments at night. Here is a complete guide to get to know you what are the stages of sleeptheir duration and their characteristics!

What is sleep? Definition and beneficial effects

Before going into the details, let’s take a small step back: what is sleep? This can be defined as one state of physical-psychological restin which consciousness is as if «suspended» and one occurs series of physiological changes. Contrary to what you may think, sleep is a active process: THE neurophysiology of sleep (the discipline that studies human behavior during rest) has shown that while you sleep, gods occur essential phenomena for your organismlike the energy recoveryThe memory consolidation short and long term and the tissue repair damaged.

The 5 stages of sleep in adults

Source: Sleep phase chart – Dr. Corrado Casu
Resting well is important, but the amount of sleep also plays a decisive role: it is not good to sleep all the time or sleep too little. A adult individual sleeps on average 8 hours every night alternated two different sleep phases:

• NREM phasenot linked to eye movement during sleep
• REM phasein which the person’s eyes move quickly even though they are sleeping.

These two phases alternate 4 to 6 times every night with cycles of rather regular duration. Sleeping less than 5 hours a night alters these balances, interfering with the natural alternation of sleep phases, with even serious psycho-physical consequences and insomnia. Overall There are 5 stages of sleepdivided between 4-stage NREM and that REM: let’s see their characteristics!

lafese says it is Niol

NREM means Not rapid eye movement and refers to the fact that, during this stage, the person’s eyes do not move quickly. The NREM phase consists of 4 different moments and has a total duration of approximately 90 minutes.

PHASE 1: falling asleep

At this moment the eyes are closed and the person can be woken up very easily, with the sensation of having rested poorly or not having slept at all. In this phase the hypnic myocloniathat involuntary jerk that is generally made with the legs. This first stage usually lasts 5 to 10 minutes. The first sleep disorders such as somniloquy, commonly called «talking in your sleep», can already appear in this phase, without the need to enter a state of deep sleep like that of REM phase.

>> Do you struggle to fall asleep? Read the article How to fall asleep quickly

PHASE 2: light sleep

In the light sleep if you participate inalternation of answers of the organism: there are times when i muscles are toned and functional, others where they are completely relaxed. The body is preparing to recharge its energy and put the muscular system to rest. You are about to enter deep sleepdecreasing body temperature and slowing the heartbeat.

PHASE 3 and 4: deep and very deep sleep

These are the deep sleep phases more or less intense, in which the electromyography records aslow and constant muscular activity. That is, the body began to really relax and he is recovering his energy. Waking up or being woken up in the middle of the night during this phase could cause a strong sense of disorientation. Passed the NREM phase we arrive at REM phaseat the end of which we return to stage 4 again (i.e. deep sleep) and so on throughout the night. This is the reason why we talk about alternation of sleep phases.

Remateal laphysato.

The REM term means Rapid eye movement and indicates rapid eye movement of the sleeping person. The first REM phase is very short and can last as little as 10 minutes, while the last can last up to an hour. The components of the REM phase there are two: tonic phase (with desynchronized electrocardiogram and poorly toned muscles) e physical phase (superimposed on the previous one, with rapid eye flashes). Who suffers from sleep disorders in this phase it can show an accelerated heartbeat and breathing as if you were awake. Here’s the reason why melatonin for sleep and other do-it-yourself remedies may not be sufficient to solve a problem that needs to be studied clinically.

Being and REM phase

If you’re wondering what the relationship between sleep phases and dreams you have to know that it’s right during REM sleep that thebrain activity becomes more intense. The subject dreams, the eyes move quickly but at the same time the voluntary muscles are paralyzed. An abrupt but spontaneous awakening at this moment can even lead to hallucinations and «strange» effects such as sleep paralysis and hypnagogic hallucinations.

The stages of sleep in newborns

It deserves a separate chapter rest of newborns: In the first month of life in fact there is a sleep cycle that is very different from that of an adult. A small child yes wakes up every 3-4 hours on averageeven at night. From the first to the fourth month of life the newborn begins to get used to the dark-light alternation and his sleep cycles begin to occur more regularly at night. TO six months the child sleeps about 6 hours a night waking up only once to eat. There total sleep duration in a day it remains quite high, on average around 14 hours. A 9 months we are witnessing an increase in nocturnal awakenings, but what is important is that, as time passes, there is a constant decrease in hours of sleep.

Proper rest to all

As we have seen, at any age respect your sleep rhythms allows the body to regenerate and to face the day at full strength. To fall asleep create a quiet and peaceful environmentand if you need it, try to reconcile sleep with white noise or ASMR videos. And for the awakening? Help in this sense can come from the use of an intelligent alarm clock, a device that monitors the alternation of sleep phases and is capable of wake up at the most appropriate time. Finally, don’t forget a fundamental component for your rest: the mattress!

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