The benefits of deep sleep are wide-ranging. You need deep sleep to feel refreshed in the morning because it’s the main stage in which your body and brain repair and rejuvenate themselves. It’ll be difficult to wake you up during deep sleep, but a sign that you were disrupted during this stage, or that you didn’t get enough of it, will be a groggy and tired feeling when you wake up. Overall, 13 to 23 percent of your night will be in deep sleep. You’ll usually spend more time in deep sleep earlier in the night, somewhere between 45 – 90 minutes in the first cycle, but less time in the later cycles. With the help of k-complexes you will successfully transition down from stage 2 to stages 3 and 4. They’re thought to help keep you asleep by suppressing outside stimuli, but also seem to precede delta waves. K-complexes are sudden, sharp waves, and are one of the largest events you’ll find in the brain. Delta waves are the slowest the brain produces, between 0.5 and 4 Hz.Īs mentioned in the previous section, during the earlier stage 2 sleep you’ll find sleep spindles, but you’ll also find k-complexes, which are similar short bursts of activity, but not quite the same. The Connection Between Delta Waves And Deep Sleepĭelta brain waves occur during deep “slow-wave” sleep in stages 3 and 4. Cycling through the stages takes between 80 – 100 minutes, and there are usually 4 to 6 full cycles each night. Overall, the stages of sleep are characterized by a progression from lighter to deeper sleep and back again. This is usually the stage where you will have dreams. These stages are often referred to as “slow-wave sleep” because of the slow delta brain wave activity that occurs.įinally, during REM, your brain becomes more active and your eyes will twitch (hence the name rapid-eye movement sleep). Stages 3 and 4 are the deep stages of sleep, from which it is difficult to wake. Your brain also produces “ sleep spindles,” short bursts of activity in the range of 12 – 14 Hz that are thought to play a role in learning and memory. Stage 2 continues the descent of brain waves towards theta activity, and lasts around 25 minutes. This stage typically lasts only a few minutes and is easy to be woken from. Stage 1 is the lightest stage of sleep where brain waves are beginning to slow down into alpha waves. Understanding The Sleep Cycleĭuring sleep, your brain goes through several distinct stages, each characterized by different brain waves and physiological features.Īt first, sleep was only divided into 2 stages based on their respective eye movements: non-rapid and rapid eye movement, or NREM and REM sleep, respectively.Īs we’ve learned more about sleep the NREM stage has been further subdivided into 4 stages, simply named NREM stages 1, 2, 3, and 4. To get a better understanding of what happens when you sleep, and what you can do to help ensure you’re doing so effectively, this post will delve into the depths of sleep. There is simply no remedy for poor sleep. Sleep plays a vital role in maintaining your overall physical and mental well-being. Whatever might be causing that bad night’s sleep, it’s going to affect your health. Sleep is too often neglected when there are tasks to be done, and too easily disrupted by bad habits and routines. Unfortunately, many of us don’t get there or stay there long enough. And a good night means hitting the very depths of sleep. As it turns out, the deepest stages of sleep are perhaps the most important.Įverything from your body’s repair and restoration, to brain function and memory consolidation, benefit from a good night’s rest. It’s an often repeated recommendation that we get about 8 hours of sleep a night, but the quality of that sleep matters.
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