Sleep is an essential routine in our daily lives. We often forget it when we have an exam the next day or when we are watching an interesting series on Netflix. In my previous post on caffeine, you saw how important it is to avoid caffeine before bed. Both sleep quantity (number of hours) and sleep quality are highly imperative. Let us dive deep and explore the different stages of sleep, how we fall asleep, and what to do when we can’t!
Sleep stages
It rarely happens that we just lay in bed and doze off. It takes time for our body to go into a complete state of deep sleep. The sleep cycle falls under three broad categories- light sleep, REM sleep, and deep sleep. Three of them involve rapid non-rapid eye movement (NREM) and one stage involves rapid eye movement (REM). We will see what REM is in a bit. Each sleep cycle typically lasts about 90 minutes and we go through four to six sleep cycles on average in one night. Let’s look at each of the stages separately.
Stage 1- light sleep. It is the first stage of non-rapid eye movement. Being a short stage lasting from one to seven minutes, it is the first few minutes after you fall asleep. At this stage, your body is not relaxed yet, but your brain activity starts to slow down a bit. If you are in this stage, one can easily wake you up. But, if left undisturbed, you can quickly promote to stage 2.
Stage 2- this is when your body actually starts to relax. A decrease in body temperature, heart rate, and your muscles relax. Most importantly, this is when your eye movement stops. Your brain starts to send out a different set of signals that resist any external stimuli that might wake you up. This stage typically lasts for 10-25 minutes.
Stage 3- deep sleep. It gets progressively harder to wake up the person and you essentially approach your deep sleep. There is a further decrease in heart rate and body temperature. You are more relaxed compared to stage 2. This stage is also known as slow-wave sleep (SWS) or delta sleep (as your brain releases delta waves). This stage is crucial to allow your body to rejuvenate and feel energized in the morning. Even though your brain activity is slowed down, this stage helps in creativity and memories. This typically lasts from 20-40 minutes. But, as you start progressing deeper into your sleep cycle, you tend to spend more time in the REM stage.
Stage 4- REM sleep. Now that you are fully relaxed, you approach the rapid eye movement stage. A distinctive feature of this stage is atonia or the temporary paralysis of your muscles, except the eye and the muscles controlling your breathing. Your eyes exhibit rapid movement, hence the name. This is where you get your sweet dreams (or nightmares!).
Having figured out how important a good night’s sleep is in order to fully rejuvenate and refresh your mind and body, having a disturbed sleep can result in sleep apnoea or insomnia (a topic to be discussed some other time!). Typical factors that affect your sleep are age, alcohol or caffeine, recent sleep patterns, and sleep disorders.
Now that you have seen the different stages of sleep, travel virtually with me as I take you through an ancient yogic technique from India- Yogic sleeping or Yoganidhra. This is even practiced by army personnel in some countries.
Yoganidhra
It is one of the most relaxing asanas or yoga poses of all. If practiced right, you will feel extremely relaxed and refreshed within minutes after practicing. It is a guided meditation practice where you lie down on your back and try to attain a state of conscious sleeping. In this technique, you will first tighten all the muscles in your body followed by relaxing every single muscle in your body from toe to head. At the end of which you will feel extremely relaxed.
Let me know in the comments if you want a separate post on Yoganidhra. Hope you did not fall asleep reading this post!
Have a very good night and sleep tight.
Great read, thanks.