Unlocking the Secrets of Your Sleep — 4 Stages of Rest
Let's Talk a bit about sleep. The only way to recharge and rejuvenate your brain from chaotic life
The most vital activity of life, sleep, is crucial to maintaining good health. Through sleep, the body rejuvenates and renews itself. But most of us neglect our sleep.
But why is it important to have a good night’s sleep? What makes our body fall asleep?
Delve into this article to have a journey of the night to a day. You will get an idea of each element involved in such an important activity.
Why is sleep important?
Your body functions like a machine, and much like a machine, it requires energy to power its workforce.
If it runs continuously, there might be some issues that would make the work less efficient. That is exactly how our body operates.
”True silence is the rest of the mind, and is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment.” — William Penn
The body consists of the cells that receive energy from food to power your actions.
However, sleep is crucial for maintaining excellent physical and mental health. It facilitates stress reduction, mood improvement, and clearer thinking.
Growth hormones are released as you sleep, aiding in the maintenance of healthy growth.
How sleep is induced in the body?
You must be familiar with the signaling system to comprehend how the body induces sleep.
Let’s use a traffic light as an example. When the signal is red, vehicles must stop, and when it is green, cars can proceed.
The same signaling system also works in our bodies. Hormones and the nervous system are key regulators of these signaling cascades.
Melatonin the “Hormone of Darkness” helps the system to induce sleep.
Melatonin is released from the pineal gland via a signaling system when light levels drop or darkness takes over our surroundings.
Thus, in this case, light is the red signal that prevents sleep, whereas darkness is the green signal that induces sleep.
The organisms receive a circadian signal from the melatonin secreted, which is a recurrent event with a set pattern and duration. When the body produces more melatonin, it causes more drowsiness.
Stages of Sleep
Sleep is broadly divided into two major segments namely Rapid Eye Movement Sleep (REM) and Non-rapid Eye Movement Sleep (NREM). NREM is further divided into three stages:
Stage N1, Stage N2, and Stage N3.
The sleep cycle can last from about 70 to 120 minutes for each stage. Let’s have a closer look at each stage of sleep:
- NREM N1 — This stage is a transition from wakefulness to sleep. The intensity of sleep is quite low here. This stage can be recognized by slow rolling eye movement. The heart rate is slow and muscles begin to relax. The person awakened from this stage does not even realize that they were asleep.
- NREM N2 — This is the lighter and lengthiest stage of sleep. This is a stage that acts as a transition from a light to a deep sleep stage but a person can be wakened up In this stage with little effort. Eye movement does not occur here and body temperature drops.
- NREM N3 — Here comes the deep stage of sleep where the person cannot be woken up easily. The body is fully relaxed with a slow heart rate. Growth and tissue repair occur in this stage and immunity is enhanced too.
- REM — Rapid Eye movement is a significant recognition of this stage. Moving from the real world to the dream occurs in this stage only. It consists of 20% to 25% of the complete sleep cycle.
Takeaway
Getting enough sleep can be beneficial not only for physical health but also for mental health. It promotes digestion, growth, and memory. Thus sleep deprivation impacts life negatively.
An energy level dip takes place in the afternoon and night that causes fatigue and in turn, signals the body to take rest.
Hence to remain healthy and away from stress, “Sleep acts as the best medicine”.
