Health

2 Stages of Sleep: REM vs. Non-REM Sleep Cycles

sleep-cycleWhen you sleep your body does two things. These two things are it rests for one and the other is that it restores energy levels. This is why it is vital to get a good night’s sleep every night if you can. Sleep is essential for good health and for everyday life. REM and non-REM sleep are the two kinds of sleep that happen while you sleep. Want to know more? Read on.

What is REM sleep?

This stage of sleeping is called rapid eye movement and it the stage of sleep that does come right after non-REM sleep. CPAP machines might measure this brain activity. It is the second type of sleep where the eyes do tend to move back and forth very fast. Dreaming also does take place during this unique stage of sleep that only does last for a short time. People who don’t regularly experience all of these sleep cycles one by one are often plagued by waking up tired all the time and feeling disoriented in a major kind of way.

What is non-REM sleep?

Non-REM sleep is made up of four different stages of sleep. These four stages of sleep do tend to last from anywhere from five to fifteen minutes each. Each of these four stages must be attained before reaching REM sleep. Once the REM sleep stage is progressed to, and is done, the process of sleep cycle is something that does begin all over again. Each stage of NREM is a stage that will get a bit deeper as the sleep does go along in the process stages of one through four.

What happens as you do sleep?

Sleep is something that can only be prompted along by natural cycles of activity that do happen within the brain itself. This is something that is comprised by two separate stages to achieve this. These two separate stages are no other than REM sleep and NREM sleep. People do usually start the sleep cycle off by beginning with NREM sleep. This sleeping cycle does consist of four different stages and these four different stages aren’t that long in duration. They do have to be followed through one by one, step by step, in order to reach the end result which is REM sleep. REM sleep is usually very short in length and this is when people do most tend to dream while they are sound asleep.

Why understanding sleep stages is important?

Being able to fully understand all of these sleep cycles is something that most people should want to know just because. However, if people feel that they are not getting their sleep cycles completed, or if they are being interrupted for whatever reason. They will indeed want to know the makeup of sleep cycles and any other detailed information about them. This is because not all sleeping is the same and it can be affected in various ways. This is especially true if you have slept for hours and still have awakened feeling tired. This indicates something is not right with your sleep patterns or maybe sleep cycles themselves.

What is early sleep?

The very earliest phases of sleep that do take place can indeed be hard to detect. This is because the sleeper may tend to still feel very awake even if they aren’t in actuality. Early sleep can be a tricky state in a number of ways. This is because has started to stop producing the tiny and very fast beta waves. It is instead producing the much bigger and slower alpha waves. During the period of early sleep, people do tend to feel somewhat awake, even if they are having thoughts that are almost dream-like in delivery.

There are five stages of sleep in number

There are five stages of sleep in number and each stage does follow the other stage. It is vital to go through all of these five existing stages of sleep in order to have very healthy sleep. What the REM sleep stages do is take care of mental health and the NREM does help to build and repair tissues and to develop a much healthier form of immune system for people.

Conclusion

These two sleep cycles tell one a whole lot about what does happen as you do sleep. It is very interesting sleep information to have and to know for your own knowledge of the sleeping world in general.

References
Read more Sleep Facts and Information at Consumer Health Digest
Sleep Disorders Health Center
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-rapid_eye_movement_sleep

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