NREM sleep and REM sleep. What's better than different stages of sleep. Phases of human sleep - the influence of slow and fast sleep What characterizes slow and fast sleep

2013-03-05 | Updated: 2018-05-29© Stylebody

Scientists have long proven that good sleep, which includes two main phases - slow and fast - is extremely important for human health and well-being. And this fact must be taken into account when creating a daily routine. There is an old folk saying that states that “the morning is wiser than the evening.” And indeed, to accept important and complex solutions It's much easier in the morning than at night. In addition, each of us has noticed how lack of sleep affects well-being and performance. A sleepless night may entail not only a sharp decline mental activity, but also headache, weakness, weakness and other unpleasant symptoms.

Physiology of sleep

The human body is designed in such a way that all processes occurring in it are tied to a certain daily time and largely depend on the change of day and night. Sleep and wakefulness constantly alternate between each other and occur at approximately the same time. And if the normal sleep-wake rhythm is suddenly disrupted, this has the most negative impact on the functioning of various human systems and organs. From chronic lack of sleep First of all, the nervous and immune systems suffer, which can lead to the gradual disabling of the entire organism.

Wakefulness and sleep are two opposite and, at the same time, interconnected states. When a person does not sleep, he actively interacts with the environment: he eats, exchanges information, and so on. During sleep, on the contrary, there is an almost complete disconnection from the outside world, although important processes in the body itself do not stop. It is estimated that sleep and wakefulness are in a 1:3 ratio, and any deviation from this norm is dangerous to health.

Scientists have been able to record changes that occur in the human brain during sleep using a research method such as electroencephalography. It allows you to make a graphic recording in the form of waves, the decoding of which provides information about the quality of sleep and the duration of its different phases. This method is mainly used for diagnosis various violations sleep and to determine the degree of their negative impact on the body.

When the mechanism that regulates the frequency of sleep and wakefulness is disrupted, various pathological conditions arise, such as narcolepsy (an irresistible desire to fall asleep that occurs during the day), as well as hypersomnia (an exaggerated need for sleep when a person sleeps much more than normal).

Sleep is characterized by a quality called cyclicity. Moreover, each cycle lasts an hour and a half on average and consists of two phases - slow and fast. For a person to get enough sleep, four to five such cycles must pass. It turns out that you need to sleep at least eight hours a day.

The main differences between the phases are:

Duration The predominant phase is the slow phase. It takes up approximately 80% of the time of the entire sleep process and, in turn, is divided into four stages. The fast phase takes significantly less time, and its duration increases in the morning, closer to awakening. Purpose The purpose of sleep phases is different. During slow phase Internal organs are restored, the body grows and develops. The fast phase is needed to activate and regulate the nervous system, to organize and process accumulated information. During REM sleep, children develop the most important mental functions - which is why in childhood we so often see vivid, memorable dreams.

Brain activity The differences between the slow and fast phases in terms of brain activity are very interesting. If during slow-wave sleep all processes in the brain slow down significantly, then in the REM sleep phase they, on the contrary, are extremely activated. That is, a person is sleeping, and his brain is actively working at this time - therefore REM sleep also called paradoxical. Dreams People see dreams throughout the entire cycle, but those dreams that occur during the fast phase are better remembered. The dynamics of dreams also strongly depend on the phase - the slow phase is characterized by restrained dreams, during the fast phase they are more vivid and emotional. Therefore, it is morning dreams that most often remain in memory after waking up.

How does the sleep process proceed?

When a person becomes drowsy and falls asleep, the first stage of non-REM sleep begins, lasting a maximum of ten minutes. Then, as the second, third and fourth stages occur, sleep becomes deeper - all this lasts approximately 1 hour 20 minutes. It is the fourth stage of the first phase that is characterized by such well-known phenomena as sleepwalking, talking in sleep, nightmares, and childhood enuresis.

Then, for a few minutes, there is a return to the third and second stages of slow-wave sleep, after which the fast phase, the duration of which in the first cycle does not exceed five minutes. At this point, the first cycle ends and the second cycle begins, in which all phases and stages are repeated in the same sequence. In total, four or five such cycles change per night, and each time the REM sleep phase becomes longer and longer.

In the last cycle, the slow phase may be exceptionally short, while the fast phase is predominant. And it’s not for nothing that nature intended it this way. The fact is that waking up during REM sleep is very easy. But if a person is woken up when slow-wave sleep is in full swing, he will feel exhausted and sleep-deprived for a long time - one can say about him that he “got off on the wrong foot.”

NREM sleep phase (4 stages)

Stage	Description	Duration
Nap	The pulse and breathing slow down, the eyes move slowly under closed eyelids. Consciousness begins to float away, but the mind still continues to work, so at this stage people often come to interesting ideas and solutions. In a state of drowsiness, a person wakes up relatively easily.	No more than 5-10 minutes.
Sleepy spindles	The name of the second stage of slow-wave sleep is associated with the encephalogram graph. During this period, the human body relaxes, but the brain still remains sensitive to everything that happens around it and reacts to the words and sounds heard.	Approximately 20 minutes.
Delta sleep	This stage precedes deep sleep. Characterized by a slight increase in heart rate, breathing is also rapid, but shallow. Blood pressure drops, eye movements become even slower. At the same time, active production of growth hormone is observed, blood flows to the muscles - thus the body restores energy costs.	About 15 minutes.
Deep dream	At this stage, consciousness is almost completely turned off, the eyes stop moving, breathing becomes slow and shallow. A person sees dreams of neutral, calm content, which are almost never remembered. Waking up during deep sleep can only be forced and occurs with great difficulty. A person awakened at this stage feels overwhelmed and lethargic.	From 30 to 40 minutes.

REM sleep phase

When a person enters the REM phase of sleep, it can be seen even from the outside. His eyeballs begin to move actively, his breathing either quickens or slows down, and facial movements may be noticeable. The devices record a slight increase in body and brain temperature and increased cardiovascular activity. During this phase, the process of exchanging information accumulated during wakefulness between consciousness and subconscious occurs, and the energy that the body managed to accumulate during slow sleep is distributed. A person sees colorful dreams that he can remember and retell after he wakes up. Waking up during REM sleep is the easiest and fastest.

How much sleep do you need to get enough sleep?

According to scientists, a person needs to sleep from 8 to 10 hours a day, which equals 4-6 sleep cycles. It should be taken into account that the duration of the sleep cycle is different people is not the same and, depending on the individual characteristics of the nervous system, can vary from 1.5 to 2 hours. And for the body to get proper rest, there should be at least 4-5 such complete cycles. How much sleep a person should have is largely determined by his age.

Here are the approximate sleep norms for different age groups:

Most long sleep for unborn babies in the mother's womb - about 17 hours a day.
Newborn babies spend 14 to 16 hours sleeping.
Babies aged 3 to 11 months need to sleep 12-15 hours.
One- and two-year-old children sleep 11-14 hours a day.
It is advisable for preschoolers to sleep at least 10-13 hours.
The body of primary school children under 13 years of age requires 10 hours of rest at night.
Teenagers are recommended to sleep between 8 and 10 hours.
Sleep duration of an adult from 18 to 65 years, depending on personal characteristics body, is 7-9 hours.
The need of people after 65 years decreases slightly - they need to sleep from 7 to 8 hours.

How to sleep less and get enough sleep

The quality of sleep is very dependent on what time a person goes to bed. Sleeping until midnight from 19.00 to 24.00 is extremely beneficial. People who are accustomed to falling asleep early feel refreshed and well-rested, even if they get up at dawn. In this case, a person can sleep less, but still get enough sleep. And the trick is that the value of sleep in a certain period of time is different.

Sleep value table by hour

Sleep period	The value of rest
19.00 — 20.00	7 hours
20.00 — 21.00	6 hours
21.00 — 22.00	5 hours
22.00 — 23.00	4 hours
23.00 — 24.00	3 hours
24.00 — 01.00	2 hours
01.00 — 02.00	1 hour
02.00 — 03.00	30 min
03.00 — 04.00	15 minutes
04.00 — 05.00	7 min
05.00 — 06.00	1 min

What time is best to get up in the morning?

It is believed that best time for waking up - from 4 to 6 am. People who rise with the sun are not afraid of fatigue, and they manage to do a lot in a day. But, of course, in order to get up early, you need to develop the habit of going to bed early. In addition, people have different biological rhythms. As you know, people are divided into “night owls” and “larks”. And if a person is a night owl, then it is better for him to wake up around 8-9 in the morning.

How to correctly calculate your wake-up time

It is very difficult to independently calculate the time for which you need to set an alarm clock in order to wake up in the REM sleep phase. As mentioned above, each person's sleep phases have an individual duration. Therefore, before making such calculations, you must first contact a medical center so that specialists can determine your personal sleep rhythm using special instruments.

Although it is possible to calculate the approximate time When is the best time to wake up? To do this you need to take average duration slow sleep phase (120 minutes), as well as the average duration of fast sleep (20 minutes). Then you should count 5 such periods from the moment you go to bed - this is the time you set the alarm clock. For example, if you fall asleep at 23:00, then the best time to wake up for you will be from 7:20 to 7:40 in the morning. If you decide to sleep longer, for example on Sunday, then the time to get up correctly will be between 09:00 and 09:20.

The importance of sleep for the body

The main purpose of sleep is to allow the body to rest and recover. Prolonged insomnia is fraught with serious health problems. Experiments on animals have shown that a complete lack of sleep after a certain time causes hemorrhages in the brain. People who chronically do not get enough sleep soon experience increased fatigue, and then problems with the cardiovascular system.
Sleep affects metabolic processes in the body. While a person is in slow-wave sleep, growth hormone is produced, without which protein synthesis cannot occur - therefore, lack of sleep is especially dangerous for children. In people who are sleep deprived, the cleansing system is also impaired. recovery processes in the body, since during sleep, organ cells are actively supplied with oxygen, and the work of the liver and kidneys, which are responsible for neutralizing and removing harmful substances, is activated.
During the fast phase, the distribution, processing and assimilation of accumulated information occurs. By the way, as it turned out, it is impossible to learn and remember anything during sleep (the method of teaching foreign languages to sleeping people has not justified itself), but the information that entered the brain immediately before sleep is indeed better remembered.
REM sleep promotes the activation of all neurohumoral processes - the human nervous system is tuned to active work. It has been noticed that a lot of nervous diseases appear from lack of sleep.

The effect of sleep on the cardiovascular system

Many of us are accustomed to regularly invigorate ourselves with tonic drinks - strong tea, coffee. Yes, this way you can really cheer yourself up for a short period of time. But then, when caffeine stops working, the person feels even more tired, drowsiness and weakness appear. Therefore, there is nothing better for vigor than normal sleep. People who systematically cut down their sleep time, thereby force their body to work under overload and lead it to exhaustion, as a result of which such problems arise. serious illnesses like ischemia, chronic, and so on.

The effect of sleep on appearance

Medical scientists unanimously claim that lack of sleep provokes oxygen deficiency in the body and inevitably leads to early aging and significant deterioration. appearance. A well-rested person, as a rule, can boast not only of vigor, but also a fresh appearance, good color faces. By the way, metabolic disorders, which can lead to chronic insomnia, often entail increased appetite and... Therefore, athletes and actors, for whom it is vital to always be in good physical fitness, strictly adhere to the sleep-wake schedule.

Sleep and human behavior

It has been noticed that in people who do not get enough sleep, such negative character traits as capriciousness, short temper, irritability, and aggressiveness become more acute. And all because their nervous system is not ready for stress and is constantly on edge. But among those who get good sleep, it prevails great mood and full psychological readiness to overcome life's problems. Therefore, if your work involves night shifts, be sure to compensate for the lack of sleep during the day. Drivers should never get enough sleep. Great amount accidents occurred due to the fact that a sleep-deprived driver was distracted or fell asleep at the wheel.

And finally, we should remember one more function of sleep - through dreams, our subconscious often sends us hints and insights that help us solve important life problems.

Contents of the article

A third of human life is spent sleeping. This is a complex and necessary process for health. Deprivation of night rest for just 3 days can lead to disruption of many functions - loss of appetite, apathy. Recover at night physical strength, immunity is strengthened, brain activity changes, daily information is taken into account. To perform all these functions, a person goes through phases of rapid and slow sleep during the night.

Physiology of sleep

During the night, the phases of slow and fast sleep alternate more than once. First comes the slow one, then comes the fast one. Each has its own goals. During slow periods, the body rests. When the fast phase begins, the body prepares to wake up, the heart begins to work actively, blood pressure increases, and vivid dreams occur.

The phases of slow and fast sleep are contained in a single cycle. It lasts from one and a half to two hours. For the whole night physiological standards 4 to 6 cycles should occur, then the person will wake up with the feeling that he has slept, rested, and gained strength.

In each subsequent cycle, the duration of the slow phase is shorter, and the duration of the fast phase is longer. In order for the full restoration of all systems to go well, you need to complete the cycles before 4 a.m. (for this you need to go to bed at about 10 p.m. the previous day). After this, the person will continue to sleep, but without the slow phase, because the recovery processes have already passed. It is better to wake up after the fast phase, as all systems are activated and ready to start working.

Although during slow stage the speed of many physiological processes decreases, but at the same time protein synthesis accelerates and hormones are produced. Sweating increases, blood supply to the brain increases, hair and nail plates continue to grow. During the slow phase, tissue and organ restoration actively occurs.

The fast phase is also necessary for the body. It allows a person to experience the emotions of those events that happened in life. This makes it possible for a person not to change over time, to remain emotionally stable, and to adapt to a changing world. For newborn children, the fast phase helps the rapid development of the brain and strengthens it with special impulses. This lasts until the age of two, then personality formation occurs.

Numerous examinations help to understand what slow and fast sleep is, the most common of which are tomography, electroencephalography, ultrasound studies, and others. modern techniques studying.

Alternation of stages

During slow-wave sleep and REM sleep, different functions are performed. Throughout the entire cycle, there are five stages with their own physiological characteristics:

Stage 1 – takes 4-5% of the time, light sleep, the process of basic actions in the body slows down, blood pressure decreases;
Stage 2 – 45-55%, there is a decrease in body temperature, slowing of breathing, decreased heart rate;
Stage 3 – from 4 to 6% of the time, the beginning of deep, sound sleep;
Stage 4 – 12 – 15%, rhythmic, unhurried breathing is observed;
Stage 5 – 20 – 25% of the time, a person dreams peaceful dreams, the brain relaxes, the heartbeat quickens.

It takes from 15 to 40 minutes to fall asleep. If this takes 1 hour, then this is a sign of insomnia, which means it is necessary to take measures to eliminate it. The first cycle, that is, alternating slow and fast sleep, takes 1 hour, then the slow phase of another cycle begins again. Each time the sleep will be deeper. In the ratio of fast and slow sleep, the latter remains up to 80% of the total night time.

After passing through all the cycles, awakening occurs. It usually takes up to 3 minutes. During this time, consciousness is connected.

The alternation of stages does not change in healthy person. The following factors can disrupt the sequence:

emotional instability;
age-related changes;
prolonged stress, depression;
mental disorders;
long-term chronic diseases;
injuries.

These disorders require treatment, as they can lead to complications. Deficiency of night rest or certain stages leads to the appearance of serious diseases.

The main differences between NREM and REM sleep

When comparing, it is difficult to answer which sleep is better - fast or slow sleep. Each phase performs its own function and is therefore needed by the body. The comparison is presented in the table, where slow and fast sleep are analyzed according to individual parameters.

Sleep characteristics	Slow	Fast
Vegetative system	There is a rapid, enhanced synthesis of hormones produced by the pituitary gland of the brain. Active growth of nails, eyelashes, hair, bones.	The heartbeat quickens, breathing becomes deeper and more active, and the pupils move faster.
Dreams	I rarely have dreams. But if this happens, then the dreams are characterized by calm content without temperamental turns.	Dreams with vivid storylines, intense experiences, strong emotions and color effects.
Subtleties of breathing	It can be rare, superficial, deep, there may be no rhythm, which occurs in the delta stage.	Uneven, sometimes delayed, frequent. This is how the reaction to dreams manifests itself.
Awakening	Upon waking up, a person feels tired and depressed. The sprinkling process will be difficult. This is the result of incomplete processes in the slow phase of sleep.	He wakes up easily, on his own. You feel freshness, vivacity, energy.
Brain temperature	Decreases.	Increased due to the influx of plasma and enhanced metabolic processes.
Eye movement	Smooth, leisurely, lasting until the end of this phase.	There is continuous, chaotic movement.

The stages of REM and NREM sleep differ from each other, but are mutually dependent and in harmony. They are equal in importance and take part in the single action of rest and restoration.

Main stages of slow-wave sleep

When falling asleep, a person finds himself immersed in a slow phase. It received this name because of the leisurely movement of the pupils at this stage. In this phase everyone calms down natural processes in body. Blood pressure decreases, the brain begins to rest, relaxes, and the heartbeat becomes less frequent.

The nightly rest cycle consists of four stages of slow-wave sleep and two stages of fast sleep. With the onset of night, slow-wave sleep has an advantage; towards the end of the rest, the share of fast sleep increases.

Wakefulness - NREM sleep (stages 1 and 2) - Delta sleep (stages 3 and 4) - REM sleep

In slow-wave sleep there are stages of drowsiness, then there are “sleep spindles”, then delta sleep follows. Real deep sleep will be observed during the deep delta sleep stage. These stages differ from each other in physiological parameters and actions occurring in the body.

When falling asleep, physiological categories change. The heartbeat decreases, blood pressure decreases, and blood moves more slowly through the vessels. When the last stage is reached, the heartbeat becomes faster and blood pressure begins to rise. At the same time, the body prepares to move on to the next fast phase. During the slow-wave sleep stage, the events of the past day are replayed in the memory, so a special rhythm of breathing and twitching of the limbs is possible.

During deep sleep, damaged cells are restored, which is why this stage is so important for maintaining youth and healing.

For an adult, the norm for slow-wave sleep is 118 minutes per night.

IN difficult situations The body independently prolongs this stage. So a person who adheres to a strict diet will feel weak and begin to sleep a lot. This body requires more time to recover. This happens in diseases thyroid gland, among professional athletes, people engaged in heavy physical labor.

The norm of deep sleep in adults should not be disturbed. If you don't get enough sleep, it will be difficult to compensate for the deficit in the slow stage of sleep. The shortage will constantly accumulate and negatively affect well-being and performance. With a prolonged disruption in the sleep schedule, for example, during a night work schedule, disturbances in the endocrine system begin. Growth hormone stops being produced, which means that a person’s fat layer on the stomach. Tissues cease to renew themselves steadily, new pathologies develop, and chronic diseases worsen.

Nap

The first stage is the slow phase, lasts up to 10 minutes. In this case, slow movements of the pupils under closed eyelids are noted. The body is in a soft, sleepy state, in which the physiological indicators of pulse, respiration, and pressure decrease. But it’s still easy to wake a person up. The brain is not resting yet, but is actively working. In this state, you can find answers to unsolvable problems. One has only to remember about them. In the morning it will not be possible to restore the chain of decisions, but the conclusion will remain in memory. If you constantly wake a person up during the slow phase, he will gradually become irritable and nervous.

Sleepy spindles

This stage lasts up to 20 minutes. It got its name from the characteristic pattern on the EEG graph. The heart rate slows down, muscle activity decreases, and the reaction to external stimuli remains. A person can wake up from a small, extraneous noise. For example, crying small child Mom will hear. Regular awakenings at the sleep spindle stage lead to scattered attention.

Delta

The stage lasts from 10 to 15 minutes. There is a gradual decrease in blood pressure, loss of consciousness, shallow, slow breathing. Most people don't dream, but people with depression may have nightmares. Data is transferred from short-term to long-term memory. With constant lack of sleep, there is an increase in errors in mathematical calculations, a decrease in memory, reaction and speed of thinking.

Deep delta sleep

This stage lasts from 25 to 40 minutes. Represents real sound deep sleep. There is no reaction to odors or other external stimuli. At this time, it is difficult to wake up a person; you need to shake him by the shoulders and loudly call him by name. During sleep, metabolism is restored and renewed at the cellular level. There are calm dreams, manifestations of sleepwalking and sleep talking are possible in people prone to such pathologies.

According to scientists, the less delta sleep, the faster the body aging. To increase the duration of this stage, you must follow the following rules:

before going to bed at night, take walks or perform simple physical exercises;
correctly alternate work and rest;
do not overeat in the evening, do not drink alcohol, caffeinated drinks, or energy drinks;
sleep in a ventilated room, preferably in darkness and silence.

By increasing the deep phase of delta sleep, it will be possible to fully restore cells. This will have a positive effect on your appearance. First of all, this will affect the condition skin. Good dream affects the smoothing of wrinkles, a healthy skin tone is acquired, and puffiness under the eyes goes away.

Fast cycle its features

Dreams that occur during the fast phase are remembered very well

During REM sleep, unusual actions begin; it is no coincidence that it is called the paradoxical cycle. Scientists do not fully understand the significance of this night phase cycle for humans. If during the slow stage there is active recovery, then in the fast phase other processes take place.

The pupils move chaotically under closed eyelids, as if they are watching some events. All indicators of a person (muscle tone, brain activity, blood pressure, heartbeat) indicate that he is awake, only his consciousness is turned off. A person often participates in his dreams. When he is woken up during the rapid phase, he remembers small details and talks about everything in detail and with emotion.

During this period, hormonal changes occur. The functioning of the organs of the endocrine system is adjusted. In the fast phase, the genital area is adjusted. During this stage, nocturnal erections, wet dreams, and orgasms occur, even in the absence of erotic dreams. Often heart attacks and strokes also occur at this time. A relaxed heart and blood vessels receive a huge load and cannot cope with it.

2 cycles included in the fast stage:

unemotional;
emotional.

They change each other throughout the night. The emotional cycle is always longer. IN fast period daily information and data are being processed, the brain adapts to the changing situation. People who do not have the opportunity to get a good night's sleep during this phase lose the ability to restore mental protection. Over time, they become irritable, whiny, absent-minded, and develop nervous disorders.

Features of awakening in each phase of sleep

Vigor and ability to work in the first half of the working day depend on the person’s awakening. If this happened from external irritating phenomena (a sharp ringing of an alarm clock, a scream, a jolt, a bright flash of light), then a certain time is needed to put the body in order. Some people do not even realize after such an awakening where they are, what they need to do. It is difficult for people with chronic low blood pressure. They are forced to accept medicines after such a morning rise.

When you wake up on your own in the fast phase, you have a chance to feel cheerful and fresh even early in the morning. The body is ready to work, all that remains is to turn on the consciousness. A person remembers his dreams and can retell them in detail.

It is important to consider the subtleties of awakening in different phases so as not to feel overwhelmed and unable to work. A good invention for taking into account the stages of sleep is “”. They are able to read the body’s readings, determine the necessary phases of REM sleep, and send a signal to wake up at exactly this time. The disadvantage of this device is the likelihood of hearing the call ahead of schedule. The alarm clock performs its functions ahead of schedule.

A smart alarm clock will help you wake up on time

We have invented a special calculator that helps calculate the phases of a person’s night rest by defining algorithms. You just need to enter your bedtime time, the program will perform the full calculation. A time will be determined when you need to get up in order to feel freshness, strength and vigor.

It is better to calculate the time of awakening through experiment. Determine the time of the fast phase, wake up and determine whether it is easy to get up, whether there is cheerfulness and activity. If you liked the sensations, then you should try to maintain this regime, it is optimal for this age and type of activity. The slow stage takes about 120 minutes, the fast stage lasts 20 minutes. After falling asleep, 4 cycles must pass to complete recovery and final awakening. If you go to bed at 22 o'clock, then 4 cycles will pass from 4:40 to 5:00. If it is too early to get up, then the next cycle will end from 7:00 to 7:20.

The time you fall asleep matters. The optimal time interval is from 19 to 20 hours. Our ancestors went to bed around this time, with the end of daylight. With the invention of electricity, life changed. People began to go on vacation much later. This has increased the number of neurological diseases, chronic fatigue, depression, and oncology.

The best time to wake up will be the first or second stage after the end of the fast phase. It is important to wake up and get up and not doze off a little more. In this case, a new cycle will begin, the slow stage will again begin, during which it will be difficult to wake up, and there will be no former vigor. REM sleep is different from slow sleep, but it is better to wake up on your own when the body is ready for it.

You can go out onto the balcony with coffee - it will wake you up / Photo nickned.livejournal.com

In order not to fall asleep again after waking up, you can have a snack to finally restore consciousness. It is useful to go for a walk or to the balcony. The morning air will invigorate you, you will have strength and vigor for a new day. After 3-4 days of such a rise, the body will get used to getting up without getting enough sleep, which only spoils the morning awakening.

For supporting good health, good appearance requires REM and NREM sleep. They have a mutual influence on the human body. One should not intrude unnecessarily into the well-established structure of nightly recovery. On the part of a person, it is required to maintain proper night sleep, avoid frequent lack of sleep, interruption of sleep in in the wrong place. Following the rules for night rest will help you maintain your health for a long time.

Night rest is a natural component of every person’s life, both for adults and children. When people get adequate sleep, they not only improve their mood and well-being, but also show significant improvements in mental and physical performance. However, the functions of night sleep do not end only with rest. It is believed that it is during the night that all information received during the day passes into long-term memory. Night rest can be divided into two phases: slow-wave sleep and fast sleep. Deep sleep, which is part of the slow phase of night rest, is especially relevant for a person, since it is during this period of time that a number of important processes occur in the brain, and disruption of this phase of slow sleep leads to a feeling of lack of sleep, irritability and other unpleasant manifestations. Understanding the importance of the deep sleep phase allows us to develop a number of tips for normalizing it for each person.

Sleep includes a number of stages that regularly repeat throughout the night.

Periods of night rest

The entire period of human dreams can be divided into two main phases: slow and fast. As a rule, falling asleep normally begins with the slow-wave sleep phase, which in its duration should significantly exceed the fast phase. Closer to the awakening process, the relationship between these phases changes.

How long do these stages last? The duration of slow-wave sleep, which has four stages, ranges from 1.5 to 2 hours. REM sleep lasts from 5 to 10 minutes. It is these numbers that determine one sleep cycle in an adult. In children, the data on how long the nightly rest cycle should last differs from in adults.

With each new repetition, the duration of the slow phase continues to decrease, and the fast phase, on the contrary, increases. In total, during a night's rest, a sleeping person goes through 4-5 similar cycles.

How much does deep sleep affect a person? It is this phase of rest during the night that ensures our recovery and replenishment of physical and intellectual energy.

Features of deep sleep

When a person experiences slow-wave sleep, he sequentially goes through four stages, which differ from each other in the features of the pattern on the electroencephalogram (EEG) and the level of consciousness.

In the first phase, a person notices drowsiness and half-asleep visions, from which one can easily awaken. Typically, people talk about thinking about their problems and looking for solutions.
The second stage is characterized by the appearance of sleepy “spindles” on the electroencephalogram. The sleeping person has no consciousness, however, he easily awakens under any external influence. Sleepy “spindles” (bursts of activity) are the main difference between this stage.
At the third stage, sleep becomes even deeper. On the EEG, the rhythm slows down, slow delta waves of 1-4 Hz appear.
The slowest delta sleep is the deepest period of night rest, which is required for the rest of sleeping people.

The second and third stages are sometimes combined into the delta sleep phase. Normally, all four stages should always be present. And each deeper phase must come after the previous one has passed. “Delta sleep” is especially important, since it is it that determines the sufficient depth of sleep and allows you to move on to the REM sleep phase with dreams.

The stages of sleep make up the sleep cycle

Changes in the body

The norm for deep sleep for an adult and a child is about 30% of the total night's rest. During delta sleep, significant changes occur in work internal organs: heart rate and breathing rate decrease, skeletal muscles relax. There are few or no involuntary movements. It is almost impossible to wake a person - to do this you need to call him very loudly or shake him.

According to the latest scientific data, it is during the deep sleep phase that normalization of metabolic processes and active restoration occur in the tissues and cells of the body, allowing the internal organs and brain to be prepared for a new period of wakefulness. If you increase the ratio of REM sleep to slow-wave sleep, the person will feel unwell, experience muscle weakness, etc.

Second most important function delta period – transfer of information from short term memory into the long term. This process occurs in a special structure of the brain - the hippocampus, and takes several hours. With chronic disturbance of night rest, people experience an increase in the number of errors when testing the efficiency of memory, speed of thinking and other mental functions. In this regard, it becomes clear that it is necessary to get enough sleep and ensure a good night's rest.

Duration of the deep phase

The average amount of sleep a person gets usually depends on numerous factors.

When people ask how many hours a day you need to sleep to get enough sleep, this is not a completely correct question. Napoleon could say: “I sleep only 4 hours a day and feel good,” and Henry Ford could argue with him, since he rested for 8-10 hours. Individual values for night's rest vary significantly between different people. As a rule, if a person is not limited in the recovery period at night, then on average he sleeps from 7 to 8 hours. The rest of most people on our planet fits into this interval.

REM sleep lasts only 10-20% of the entire night's rest, and the rest of the time the slow period continues. It’s interesting, but a person can independently influence how long he will sleep and how much time he needs to recover.

Increasing delta sleep time

Every person should strictly adhere to the regime of falling asleep and waking up. This allows you to normalize the duration of night rest and make it easier to wake up in the morning.

It is very important to maintain a sleep-wake schedule

Eating before rest is not recommended, just as you should not smoke, drink energy drinks, etc. It is possible to limit yourself to a light snack in the form of kefir or an apple a couple of hours before going to bed.
In order for the deep phase to last longer, it is necessary to give the body 3-4 hours before falling asleep physical activity adequate intensity.
Provide more falling asleep quickly and quality sleep is possible with using easy music or sounds of nature. For example, cricket singing is known to be very beneficial for deep sleep. This means that listening to music while relaxing is recommended by doctors, however, it is very important to choose it wisely.
Before going to bed, it is best to ventilate the room well and eliminate any possible sources of noise.

Sleep disorders

Woman suffering from insomnia

What percentage of people experience sleep disorders? Statistics in our country show that every fourth person experiences certain problems associated with night rest. However, the differences between countries are minimal.

All violations in this area of human life can be divided into three large groups:

Problems falling asleep;
Violations of the process of night rest;
Problems with well-being after waking up.

What are sleep disorders? These are temporary disorders of any phase of night rest, leading to disorders in various areas of the human psyche during wakefulness.

All three types of sleep disorders lead to common symptoms: during the day there is lethargy, fatigue, decreased physical and mental performance. The person is in a bad mood and lacks motivation to perform. Over a long period of time, depression may develop. At the same time, it is very difficult to identify the main cause of the development of such disorders, due to their large number.

Sleepiness during the day, insomnia at night

Causes of deep sleep disorders

Within one or two nights, a person’s sleep disturbances may not have any serious cause and will go away on their own. However, if violations persist for a long time, then there may be very serious reasons behind them.

Changes in the psycho-emotional sphere of a person, and, first of all, chronic stress lead to persistent sleep disturbance. As a rule, for such psycho-emotional overstrain there must be some kind of psycho-traumatic factor that led to disruption of the process of falling asleep and the subsequent onset of the delta sleep phase. But sometimes these are mental illnesses (depression, bipolar affective disorder etc.).
Diseases of the internal organs play an important role in the disruption of deep sleep, since the symptoms of diseases can prevent a person from fully resting during the night. Various pain sensations in patients with osteochondrosis, traumatic injuries cause constant awakenings in the middle of the night, causing significant discomfort. Men may have frequent urination, leading to frequent awakenings to go to the toilet. It is best to consult your doctor regarding these issues.

However, most often the cause of problems falling asleep is related to the emotional side of a person’s life. It is the causes of this group that occur in the majority of all cases of sleep problems.

Emotional disorders and night rest

Sleep and stress are interconnected

People with emotional disorders have difficulty sleeping because they experience increased levels of anxiety and depressive changes. But if you manage to fall asleep quickly, then the quality of sleep may not suffer, although usually the delta sleep phase in these cases is reduced or does not occur at all. Intrasomnic and post-somnic disturbances may additionally appear. If speak about major depression, then patients get up early in the morning and from the very moment of awakening are immersed in their negative thoughts, which reach a maximum in the evening, leading to disruption of the process of falling asleep. As a rule, deep sleep disorders occur together with other symptoms, however, in some patients they may be the only manifestation of the disease.

There is another category of patients who experience the opposite problem - the initial stages of slow-wave sleep can occur during wakefulness, leading to the development of hypersomnia, when a person constantly notes high drowsiness and can fall asleep in the most inappropriate place. If this condition is hereditary, a diagnosis of narcolepsy is made, which requires special therapy.

Treatment options

Identifying the causes of deep sleep disorders determines the approach to treatment for a particular patient. If such disorders are associated with diseases of internal organs, then it is necessary to organize appropriate treatment aimed at the complete recovery of the patient.

If problems arise as a result of depression, then the person is recommended to undergo a course of psychotherapy and use antidepressants to cope with disorders in the psycho-emotional sphere. Typically, use sleeping pills limited due to their possible negative impact on the quality of recovery itself at night.

Sleeping pills should only be taken as prescribed by a doctor.

It is recommended to take medications to restore the quality of night's rest only as prescribed by your doctor.

Thus, the deep sleep phase has a significant impact on a person’s waking period. In this regard, each of us needs to organize optimal conditions to ensure it adequate duration And full recovery body. If any sleep disturbances occur, you should always seek help from your doctor, since complete diagnostic examination allows you to detect the causes of disorders and prescribe rational treatment that restores the duration of delta sleep and the patient’s quality of life.

Every night we all go through phases of sleep: rapid and slow sleep. Physiologically, sleep is a complex various processes, during which we can experience several cycles of these two phases.

For a long time it was believed that there was no way to study human dreams and their influence on his physiology and psyche in any way. Initially they were studied on the basis of purely physical description processes - it was possible to determine the sleeper’s pulse, his blood pressure and his body temperature. But about assessing the influence of sleep on mental and physical activity there wasn't even any talk.

With the advent of encephalography in the twentieth century, the possibilities for understanding the processes occurring during sleep have expanded significantly.

Every night's rest is necessary for a person; to some extent we can say that sleep is for a person more important than nutrition. A person deprived of sleep for only two or three days becomes irritable and loses emotional stability, memory lapses begin. Against the background of fatigue and mental retardation due to lack of sleep, a person falls into depressive state. It is believed that the maximum time a person can live without sleep is 11 days, after which irreversible changes occur in the brain, leading to death.

The main purpose of sleep for the body is to rest all its systems. For this purpose, the body “turns off” all senses and is almost completely immobilized.

Modern science represents sleep as a special period that has behavioral characteristics of the motor sphere and the autonomic nervous system. A feature of sleep is the alternating change of two states with almost opposite manifestations. They are called slow and fast sleep.

The surprising thing is that only together both phases - fast and slow sleep - can restore both the physical and mental strength of the body. By interrupting the night at the stage when only one of the cycles will be implemented, good rest the body will not receive it. The combination of fast and slow sleep renews the brain's performance and fully processes the information received during the past day. It is the complete completion of sleep cycles that facilitates the transfer of information from short-term memory to long-term memory.

In fact, a full sleep is the final stage in solving the problems of the past day and a kind of “summing up” of its results.

Also, complete and proper rest during sleep improves the health of the whole body.

The following physiological processes occur only during night rest:

fluid balance is restored and the body is cleansed by removing excess moisture;
collagen protein is synthesized, which plays a major role in strengthening joints, blood vessels and skin;
The body absorbs calcium, which is necessary for bone and dental tissue.

These processes are quite lengthy, so for feeling normal You need to sleep about eight hours.

The duration of slow-wave sleep is equal to almost three-quarters of the total time of night rest, its features are as follows:

The slow phase is characterized by a general slowdown in metabolism, a significant decrease in the brain's response to external factors, relaxation of the entire body and general lethargy. Waking up is a very difficult time and leaves unpleasant sensations for quite a long time.

In the slow phase, muscle tissue is regenerated. It is also during this phase that the “reboot” occurs. immune system. Thus, its normal and complete completion is a guarantee of improved well-being.

Slow sleep promotes rehabilitation and healing of the body: cell renewal occurs and the functioning of all body systems improves. REM sleep is different in that it does not have such abilities.

In fact, slow-wave sleep is divided into four components, each of which has various characteristics. Let's look at the components of slow-wave sleep.

A person who falls into a state of drowsiness, despite the decrease in physiological processes, continues to work with the brain and he thinks about and improves some of the most important ideas that he dealt with during the day. The brain receives sufficient quantity oxygen and works with some excess of its capabilities: various options for solving certain situations are searched, optimal options. Often it is during the dozing phase that dreams appear that have positive and pleasant results. Final solutions to some known problems came to humanity during this phase. Mendeleev, Descartes, Bohr and many other scientists admitted that the final processing of their theories occurred precisely during dozing.

Sleepy spindles

This stage is also called the sigma rhythm due to the characteristic impulses observed on the encephalogram. Its distinctive feature is the almost complete blocking of consciousness, similar to that observed during anesthesia. The duration of this stage is half of the entire slow phase. It takes a very long time for the brain to prepare for deep sleep.

Notable is the fact that this activates special cells that separately block the channel of sound transmission to the brain

Delta sleep

A kind of “prelude” to the deep, it happens relatively quickly. During delta sleep, the amplitude of impulses in the brain decreases significantly, the impulses themselves become shorter - brain activity approaches its minimum.

From this stage, which begins about an hour and a half after the start of napping, we are already completely asleep. Brain activity is minimal, there is practically no reaction to any stimuli. It is almost impossible to wake up a person in this stage: even loud sounds, braking and quite strong pain are not able to interrupt it.

Dreams are present at this stage, but it is almost impossible to remember them - only fragments of images remain in memory. If it is possible to awaken a person during this stage, the rise will be extremely difficult and the body will finally recover to next period sleep may not come.

Another name for this phase is paradoxical or fast wave. There is a significant increase in activity life processes, primarily occurring in the brain. The transition from slow-wave sleep to fast sleep occurs quickly, and serious changes occur throughout the body.

Features of the REM sleep phase include:

Increased breathing and heart rate.
Frequent arrhythmias in the heart.
Decreased muscle tone.
A significant decrease in the activity of the muscles of the neck and diaphragm.
Promotion motor activity eyeballs with closed eyelids.
Clear memories of dreams seen during REM sleep, down to the smallest details, which is completely uncharacteristic of the slow-wave sleep phase.

With each subsequent cycle, the phases of slow and fast sleep alternate, which means that the latter has a longer and longer duration, however, its depth decreases. This happens to make it easier to get out of sleep cycles when you wake up. The prejudice that sleeping better in the morning than at night is wrong. By the third or fourth change of cycles of alternating sleep phases, it is much easier to wake a person.

The REM stage of sleep is unique in its own way. It is here that the exchange of data between consciousness and subconscious takes place, and what was thought about during dozing again enters consciousness, but now supplemented by various options that can happen.

REM sleep is usually divided into two stages: emotional and non-emotional. During the REM sleep phase, they can alternate several times, with the first phase always being slightly longer.

During REM sleep, a significant change in hormonal levels is observed. According to researchers, it is REM sleep that promotes daily reconfiguration of the endocrine system.

Thus, REM sleep seems to sum up all the mental activity of the brain for the entire day. Rest at this stage is necessary for a person so that he can adapt to possible options developments of yesterday's events.

This is why interrupting this phase sometimes leads to more undesirable consequences than interrupting slow-wave sleep. In this case, we are faced with the problem of not physical, but mental fatigue, leading to possible mental disorders. There is an opinion in the scientific community that if a person is deprived of REM sleep too often, it will undermine his psyche to such an extent that it can lead to death.

For the body, the fast phase is to some extent small stressful situation. The changes taking place in it are quite radical and can lead to some undesirable consequences. For example, most heart attacks, strokes and seizures occur during REM sleep. This is due, first of all, to the fact that the relaxed cardiovascular system is subjected to a sharp and sudden load.

It is impossible to say for sure which of the sleep phases - slow or fast - is better or more important, since each of them performs its own functions. If you try to imagine the entire dream in the form of a curved line, it will look like several “dives” into deep and slow sleep, followed by “ascents” into superficial, fast sleep. The time between such ascents and descents will be approximately one and a half to two hours.

According to physiologists, this one and a half hour time period is the main biorhythm of the human body; it manifests itself not only during rest, but also during wakefulness.

In an adult, the stages of night rest are distributed approximately according to the following ratios:

drowsiness - 12%;
sleep spindles - 38%;
delta sleep - 14%;
deep delta sleep -12%;
REM sleep - 24%.

The first four belong to the phase of slow-wave sleep, the last - to fast sleep. In addition, the phases of sleep are very different and do not replace each other immediately, but over the course of an intermediate state similar to drowsiness. It lasts about 5 minutes.

During the entire sleep period, 5-6 cycles occur full shift all stages. The duration of the stages may vary slightly from cycle to cycle. At the end of the last cycles, the intermediate state is the most sensitive and leads to normal awakening.

Awakening is an individual process and lasts from several tens of seconds to three minutes. At this time, the final recovery occurs normal functions organs and the emergence of clarity of consciousness.

The main differences between NREM and REM sleep

NREM and REM sleep serve different functions. During each phase, the human body behaves differently. Often, the behavior of a sleeping person is purely individual, however, there are characteristics that are characteristic of all people, which are presented in the table.

Characteristic		Fast phase
State of the autonomic nervous system	Active work of the pituitary gland. Accelerated synthesis of most hormones	Suppression of reflection spinal cord. The appearance of fast brain rhythms. Increased heart rate. The emergence of a “vegetative storm”
Brain temperature	Decrease by 0.2-0.3°С	Increase of 0.2-0.4°C due to blood flow and increased metabolism
Breathing Features	Loud and deep, there is a lack of rhythm	Uneven, often rapid breathing with delays due to dreams
Eyeball movements	At the beginning of the phase - slow, at the end - almost absent	There is constant rapid movement
Dreams	Dreams are rare; if they exist, they are calm character. It's hard to remember them	Bright and rich pictures and dreams, as a rule, contain a lot of active actions. Well remembered
Awakening	Associated with a depressed state, a feeling of fatigue. Difficulty waking up due to incompleteness chemical processes during the slow phase	Waking up at the beginning of the phase causes mental fatigue. In the end - light and fast, the body wakes up rested. In this case, the state is cheerful, the mood is good

Despite the rather large difference in the nature of the phases of slow and fast sleep, both have a deep physiological, functional and biochemical relationship and are the result of the joint work of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.

Regulates slow-wave sleep internal rhythms brain areas and structures, fast contributes to their synchronization and harmonious functioning.

A dream, like all beautiful things, ends sooner or later. The physical and psycho-emotional state of a person depends on at what stage of sleep the awakening occurred.

The most unpleasant thing will be to awaken in the slow phase, when it has entered the deep stage. The best time to wake up will be between the end of REM sleep and the end of the first stage of the next cycle. Standing up during the active fast phase is not recommended.

If a person has slept well, then he is full of energy, cheerful and in high spirits. This often happens at the end of the dream.

During this period, his senses are activated, and the person responds well to external irritating factors that contribute to awakening:

Light from the window.
Sounds from the street or music.
Changes in ambient temperature.

If you wake up immediately, you will feel excellent. But, if you skip this time and take a nap a little more, then the body can “delay” into another slow cycle.

We often wake up shortly before the alarm clock. This is not surprising: the body itself adjusts its “internal clock” to the daily routine and the cycles occur in such a sequence that the fast phase ends at a time close to the moment the artificial clock is triggered.

If at this moment you tell yourself that such an awakening occurred ahead of schedule, then you can fall asleep again and wake up in a deep stage, ruining your entire next day.

Therefore, the best awakening is the one that happened on its own, without any external factors. It doesn't matter what time it is. If the body symbolizes to us that it has had enough sleep, we cannot be deaf to such a message.

However, recently “ smart alarm clocks”, which are connected via wireless sensors to the human body. They read the body parameters and use them to determine the time of awakening - at the end of REM sleep or during the transition from it to an intermediate state.

In any case, even if waking up was easy, do not rush to jump out of bed. The body needs to be given a few minutes to adapt all its systems to the new day. The main thing in this process is not to fall asleep again, think about some idea, get ready for the new day and go ahead!

Content

People have always been interested in the nature of sleep, because a person devotes a third of his life to this physiological state. This is a cyclical phenomenon. During 7-8 hours of rest, 4-5 cycles pass, including two phases of sleep: fast and slow, each of which can be calculated. Let’s try to figure out how long each stage lasts and what value it brings to the human body.

What are sleep phases

For many centuries, researchers have been studying the physiology of sleep. In the last century, scientists were able to record bioelectrical oscillations that occur in the cerebral cortex during sleep. They learned that this is a cyclical process with different phases that follow each other. An electroencephalogram is taken using special sensors attached to a person’s head. When the subject is sleeping, the devices first record slow oscillations, which subsequently become frequent, then slow down again: there is a change in the phases of the dream: fast and slow.

Fast phase

Sleep cycles follow one after another. During the night's rest, the fast phase follows the slow phase. At this time, heart rate and body temperature increase, the eyeballs move sharply and quickly, and breathing becomes frequent. The brain works very actively, so a person sees a lot of dreams. The REM sleep phase activates the work of all internal organs and relaxes muscles. If a person is woken up, he will be able to tell the dream in detail, because during this period the brain processes the information received during the day, and an exchange occurs between the subconscious and consciousness.

Slow phase

Fluctuations in the slow rhythm electroencephalogram are divided into 3 stages:

Nap. Breathing and other reactions slow down, consciousness floats away, different images appear, but the person still reacts to the surrounding reality. At this stage, solutions to problems often come, insights and ideas appear.
Shallow sleep. There is a blackout of consciousness. Heart rate and body temperature decrease. During this period, the dreamer is easy to wake up.
Deep dream. At this stage, it is difficult to wake a person. The body actively produces growth hormone, regulates the functioning of internal organs, and tissue regeneration occurs. At this stage, a person may experience nightmares.

Sequence of sleep phases

In a healthy adult, the stages of dreaming always occur in the same sequence: 1 slow phase (drowsiness), then 2, 3 and 4, then reverse order, 4, 3 and 2, and then REM sleep. Together they form one cycle, repeating 4-5 times in one night. The duration of the two dream stages may vary. In the first cycle, the deep sleep phase is very short, and in the last stage it may not exist at all. The sequence and duration of stages can be influenced by the emotional factor.

Deep dream

Unlike REM sleep, the deep phase has a longer duration. It is also called orthodox or slow wave. Scientists suggest that this condition is responsible for restoring energy expenditure and strengthening the body's defense functions. Research has shown that the onset of the slow wave phase divides the brain into active and passive areas.

In the absence of dreams, the areas responsible for conscious actions, perception, and thinking are switched off. Although during the deep phase, heart rate and brain activity decrease, catabolism slows down, but memory replays already learned actions, as evidenced by external signs:

twitching of limbs;
special breathing order;
playing different sounds.

Duration

Each person has an individual norm of delta sleep (deep phase). Some people need 4 hours of rest, while others need 10 to feel normal. In an adult, the deep phase takes up 75 to 80% of all sleep time. With the onset of old age, this duration decreases. The less delta sleep, the faster the body aging. To increase its duration, you must:

create a more effective wake/rest schedule;
before a night's rest, give the body physical activity a couple of hours;
do not drink coffee, alcohol, energy drinks, do not smoke or overeat shortly before the end of wakefulness;
sleep in a ventilated room in the absence of light and extraneous sounds.

Stages

The structure of sleep in the deep phase is heterogeneous and consists of four non-rem phases:

The first episode involves memorizing and understanding the difficulties that occurred during the day. At the stage of drowsiness, the brain seeks solutions to problems that arose during wakefulness.
The second phase is also called “sleep spindles.” Muscle movements, breathing and heart rate slow down. Brain activity gradually fades, but there may be brief moments of particularly acute hearing.
Delta sleep, in which the superficial stage changes to a very deep one. Lasts only 10-15 minutes.
Strong deep delta sleep. It is considered the most significant because throughout the entire period the brain reconstructs the ability to work. The fourth phase is distinguished by the fact that it is very difficult to wake up a sleeping person.

REM sleep

REM (rapid eye movement) - the phase or from the English rem-sleep is distinguished by the increased work of the cerebral hemispheres. The biggest difference is the rapid rotation of the eyeballs. Other characteristics of the fast phase:

continuous movement of the organs of the visual system;
vivid dreams are brightly colored and filled with movement;
independent awakening is favorable, gives wellness, energy;
Body temperature rises due to vigorous metabolism and strong blood flow.

Duration

After falling asleep a person most spends time in the slow phase, and REM sleep lasts from 5 to 10 minutes. In the morning the ratio of stages changes. The periods of deep breathing become longer, and deep periods become shorter, after which the person wakes up. Fast stage much more important, so if you interrupt it artificially, it will adversely affect your emotional state. The person will be drowsy throughout the day.

Stages

The fast phase, also called paradoxical dream, is the fifth stage of dreaming. Although the person is completely immobile due to the complete lack of muscle activity, the state resembles wakefulness. The eyeballs under closed eyelids periodically make rapid movements. From stage 4 of slow-wave sleep, a person returns to the second, after which the REM phase begins, which ends the cycle.

The value of sleep by hour - table

It is impossible to say exactly how much sleep a person needs. This indicator depends on individual characteristics, age, sleep disturbance and daily routine. A baby may need 10 hours to restore the body, and a schoolchild – 7. The average duration of sleep, according to experts, varies from 8 to 10 hours. When a person correctly alternates between fast and slow-wave sleep, even in a short period every cell in the body is restored. Optimal time for rest is the period until midnight. Let's look at sleep efficiency by hour in the table:

Beginning of sleep	The value of rest

Best time to wake up

If you look at the dream value table, you can see that the time from 4 to 6 in the morning brings less benefits for rest. This period is the best for awakening. At this time, the sun rises, the body is filled with energy, the mind is as clean and clear as possible. If you constantly wake up with the dawn, then fatigue and illness will not be a problem, and you can do much more in a day than after waking up late.

What phase is best to wake up in?

The physiology of sleep is such that all stages of rest are important to a person. It is advisable that 4-5 complete cycles of 1.5-2 hours pass per night. The best time to get up varies from person to person. For example, it is better for owls to wake up between 8 and 10 am, and larks get up at 5-6 am. As for the dream stage, everything is ambiguous here too. From the point of view of the structure and classification of phases, the best time to wake up is those couple of minutes that occur at the end of one cycle and the beginning of another.

How to wake up during REM sleep

As the cycles repeat and the duration of the slow phase increases to 70% of the night's rest, it is desirable to catch the end of the REM stage to awaken. It is difficult to calculate this time, but to make your life easier, it is advisable to find the motivation to get up early in the morning. To do this, you need to learn, immediately after waking up, not to lie idle in bed, but to spend breathing exercises. It will saturate the brain with oxygen, activate metabolism, and give a charge of positive energy for the whole day.

How to calculate sleep phases

Self-calculation is difficult. You can find circadian rhythm calculators on the Internet, but this method also has a drawback. This innovation is based on average indicators and does not take into account the individual characteristics of the body. The most reliable calculation method is to contact specialized centers and laboratories, where doctors, by connecting devices to the head, will determine accurate data on signals and oscillations of the brain.

You can independently calculate the stages of a person’s sleep something like this. The duration (average) of the slow stage is 120 minutes, and the fast stage is 20 minutes. From the moment you go to bed, count 3-4 such periods and set the alarm clock so that the time you get up falls within a given period of time. If you go to bed at the beginning of the night, for example at 22:00, then safely plan to wake up between 04:40 and 05:00. If this is too early for you, then the next stage for the correct rise will be in the time interval from 07:00 to 07:20.

Video

Attention! The information presented in the article is for informational purposes only. The materials in the article do not encourage self-treatment. Only a qualified doctor can make a diagnosis and give treatment recommendations based on the individual characteristics of a particular patient.

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