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Getting good, restorative sleep is not just a matter of hitting the pillow at night and waking up in the morning. Regulated by your body clock, your nighttime journey consists of sleep cycles with specific sleep stages, all vital for your body. Understanding these sleeping needs, cycles and stages can help you get better sleep.
What happens if we don’t get enough sleep?
Many of us want to sleep as little as possible. There is so much to do that sleep seems like a waste of time. Yet sleep, an essential time of rest and rejuvenation,benefits our minds and bodies in many ways. When you continuously don’t get the amount of sleep you need, you begin to pay for it in daytime drowsiness, trouble concentrating,irritability, increased risk of falls and accidents, and lower productivity.Sleep benefits to our mood, memory and concentration
Have you ever pulled an “all nighter” to study for a final exam, only to find that you can barely remember what you studied during the test? Sleep helps to organize memories, solidify learning, and improve concentration. Proper sleep, especially sleep where you are actively dreaming (REM sleep), regulates mood as well. Lack of sleep can make you irritable and cranky, affecting your emotions, social interaction,and decision making. Sleep deprivation also affects motor skills, enough to be similar to driving while drunk if seriously sleep deprived. Driver fatigue, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, causes over 100,000 accidents and 1500 deaths each year.Sleep benefits to our immune system, nervous system and development
Immune system. It doesn’t seem fair. Right when you are exhausted after a stressful move or a big project at work, you come down with a cold. That’s no accident - sleep is essential to the immune system. Without adequate sleep, the immune system becomes weak, and the body becomes more vulnerable to infection and disease.Nervous system. Sleep is also a time of rest and repair to neurons.Neurons are the freeways of the nervous system that carry out both voluntary commands,like moving your arm, and involuntary commands, like breathing and digestive processes.
Hormone release. Many hormones, substances produced to trigger or regulate particular body functions, are timed to release during sleep or right before sleep. Growth hormones, for example, are released during sleep, vital to growing children but also for restorative processes like muscle repair.
Find out how much sleep you need
So how much sleep do you need? A rule of thumb is to consider how you normally feel after sleep. Do you feel refreshed and alert, or groggy and exhausted? If you don’t feel refreshed, chances are you’re not sleeping enough. Sleep requirements are highly individual and depend on many factors:
- your age and genetic makeup
- what you do during your waking hours, including exercise
- the quality of your sleep
| Typical Sleep Needs | |
| Group | Amount of Sleep Needed |
| Infants | About 16 hours per day of sleep |
| Babies and toddlers | From 6 months to 3 years: between 10 and 14 hours per day. Infants and young children generally get their sleep from a combination of nighttime sleep and naps. |
| Children | Ages 3 to 6: between 10 and 12 hours of sleep Ages 6 to 9: about 10 hours of sleep Ages 9 to 12: about 9 hours of sleep |
| Teenagers | About 9 hours of sleep per night. Teens have trouble getting enough sleep not only because of their busy schedules,but also because they are biologically programmed to want to stay up later and sleep later in the morning, which usually doesn’t mesh with school schedules |
| Adults | For most adults, 7 to 8 hours a night appears to be the best amount of sleep. |
| Older adults | Older adults are also thought to need 7-8 hours of sleep. However, this sleep may be for shorter time spans, is lighter than a younger adult’s, and may include a nap during the day. |
| Pregnant women | During pregnancy, women may need a few more hours of sleep per night, or find that they need small catnaps during the day. |
- Stage 1 (Drowsiness) - Stage 1 lasts just five or ten minutes. Eyes move slowly under the eyelids, muscle activity slows down, and you are easily awakened.
- Stage 2 (Light Sleep) - Eye movements stop, heart rate slows, and body temperature decreases.
- Stages 3 & 4 (Deep Sleep) - You’re difficult to awaken,and if you are awakened, you do not adjust immediately and often feel groggy and disoriented for several minutes. Deep sleep allows the brain to go on a little vacation needed to restore the energy we expend during our waking hours. Blood flow decreases to the brain in this stage, and redirects itself towards the muscles, restoring physical energy. Research also shows that immune functions increase during deep sleep.
- REM sleep (Dream Sleep) – At about 70 to 90 minutes into your sleep cycle, you enter REM sleep. You usually have three to five REM episodes per night. This stage is associated with processing emotions, retaining memories and relieving stress. Breathing is rapid, irregular and shallow, the heart rate increases,blood pressure rises, males may have penile erections, and females may have clitoral enlargement.
How can you make sure you get the sleep you need? A few extra hours here and there if you are sleep deprived might make you feel better for a short time. But it won’t get you the quality sleep you need for the best health. To consistently meet sleep requirements for both deep sleep and REM sleep, you need to set the stage for good sleep on a daily basis.
This involves:
- improving your daytime habits
- creating a better sleep environment
- avoiding food and drink that might interfere with sleep
- developing a good bedtime routine
