Sleep is a fundamental part of life. Sleep rejuvenates and relaxes, leaving you fresh and ready for the next day. But what really goes on while you sleep?
There are five main stages of sleep in an average person. Stages one to four are known as Non-Rapid Eye Movement (NREM).
The first stage is a light sleep, which it is easy to be awakened from. Many people experience hypnic myoclonia (Muscle contraction), which is often heralded by the feeling of falling.
Stage two of sleep, occurs when our eye movements halt and our brain waves become slower, interspersed with the occasional sleep spindle (rapid wave).
The third and fourth stage of sleep sees very slow brain waves (called delta waves) starting to appear. During this stage of deep sleep, it is extremely difficult to wake a person up. There is no muscle or eye movement and people awakened from this stage can take a while to adjust from feeling groggy.
During Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep your eyes move quickly in different directions and some bodily movement occurs. It is also during this stage that a person often starts to dream.
However, while we slumber in bed, our brains are still ‘on’. Daniel A. Barone, MD, an assistant professor of neurology at the Weill Cornell Medical College's Center for Sleep Medicine tells us that: “they're (our brains) actually almost as active as they are when we're wide awake.”
One of the many tasks that our brain perform is the removal of “toxic byproducts” that could, if left alone, cause issues like Alzheimer’s disease.
As well as this, our brains are also busy remembering and cementing new memories, making sure to filter out any information that we don’t need from the day before.
So what is the optimum number of hours of sleep needed on average? Teenagers are recommended to get eight to ten hours of sleep, while most healthy adults require seven to nine hours of sleep.
It is important to try and follow these guidelines, especially when continual sleep deprivation can lead to issues as serious as heart disease, strokes and diabetes; to name a few.
The benefits of sleeping also include clearer skin, helping to prevent weight gain, better concentration and help to improve your mood. So what’s not to love?
The irony of this article is that I left doing it until too late and as a result am cutting back my hours of sleep to finish this before the deadline. However, here’s to hoping tomorrow night will be better!
By Kaavya Amritanand- Newstead Wood School for Girls
