![]() ![]() The body is entirely relaxed and blood pressure, breathing rate, and body temperature all become significantly lower during these stages. This is the deepest sleep stage, lasting between twenty and forty minutes, and is the most difficult to be woken from. Stage 3 is slow wave (or Delta wave) sleep.As such, most of our memories are formed during the second stage of sleep.Īround half the total time asleep is typically spent in Stage 2 sleep, which is important for physical and mental restoration. ![]() Sudden short bursts of brain wave activity (“sleep spindles”) occur and are believed by scientists to be important for sensory processing and the consolidation of long-term memories. Stage 2, also considered to be light sleep, transitions from dozing to legitimate sleep and lasts between ten and sixty minutes it sees the brain waves, muscle activity, and eye movements decrease as the mind prepares for deep sleep.(Waking from deeper sleep can make you feel groggy). This is partly why a power nap of twenty minutes or less can be very refreshing. The body may twitch, and it is easy to be woken from this state. The mind and body relax and become drowsy during this stage.This stage of sleep is where you “doze off” and is characterised by Alpha brain waves. For healthy sleepers, it lasts an average of only five to ten minutes. The first sleep cycle of the night is usually the shortest, and the time spent in each stage of the sleep cycle changes as the night progresses.Įach stage has its own characteristics and importance – and as such, being able to complete natural sleep cycles without waking prematurely is important for waking refreshed and feeling (and functioning at) your best. The average adult experiences four to six sleep cycles over a healthy seven-to-nine-hour night of sleep. ![]() It is based on the regularly occurring brain wave patterns which we all experience during sleep, and a normal, healthy sleeping pattern will cycle through these stages in a specific order, ideally with each cycle completed before waking.Ī single sleep cycle involves four distinct stages ( as defined by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine ) and lasts for an average of ninety minutes (but as few as seventy and as many as one hundred and twenty). The sleep cycle is a natural effect of the internal body clock. The different sleep cycle stages play important roles in the health of your body and mind – and it is important that you cycle smoothly through these for high-quality, restorative sleep. There are distinct stages of sleep, and we cycle through these, in order, several times each night if we are getting good quality sleep. The number of hours of sleep you get each night is important – but this is not the whole story. Are you getting good quality sleep ? Or are you waking up a lot through the night and feeling sluggish, groggy, or irritable in the morning? ![]()
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