The 4 different stages of sleep

Each person is different, and each person has their own sleeping patterns, positions and comfort styles. Your sleep pattern is very important, and you should consider things like stages of sleep and how YOU sleep. With that in mind, it’s very important to know how you sleep and what the 4 stages of sleep really are. When you buy beds online, you must think about a variety of factors, so you get the best bed to suit your sleeping style.  Keep reading to learn more about the stages of sleep and why understanding them can help you make the most out of your sleep!

 

Simply put, you have 3 stages of NREM (Non-rapid eye movement) and 1 REM (rapid eye movement) sleep stage. The first 2 NREM stages are pertaining to light sleep, the third one is Deep Sleep and then you have REM sleep.

 

NREM (Non-rapid eye movement) stage 1 – lightest sleep

 

This appears when you decide to sleep and the eyes are closed. It’s a very short stage, usually, it will take anywhere from 1 to 10 minutes. It’s very easy to return to awareness, mainly because you are lightly asleep in the first place. The body muscles are not inhibited and the eyes roll a bit. During NREM 1 you will notice that your breathing slows down, and the blood pressure drops. Many people often twitch in this stage and can sometimes proceed by a sensation of suddenly falling.

 

NREM (Non-rapid eye movement) stage 2 – Preparing for Deep Sleep

 

During this stage, a more powerful, quality sleep kicks in. This one lasts around 20 minutes at first. The heart rate is slower and the body temperature increases. Your body will start reducing the activity as it prepares for a deeper sleep. As you can imagine, it gets harder and harder to wake up, the brain sends larger waves, and the blood pressure is lower. One thing to keep in mind is that we spend around 45% of our sleep duration in the NREM stage 2 of sleep.

 

NREM (Non-rapid eye movement) Stage 3 – Deep Sleep

During the third sleep stage, the delta waves are interspersed with some of the faster, yet smaller waves. This is known as deep sleep, and it’s one of the most complex sleep stages of the sleep cycle. It starts at around 35-45 minutes after you go to sleep! During this stage, it will be very hard for someone to wake you up. At the same time, if you wake up during this third stage for any reason, you will be quite disoriented and will struggle to figure out where you are. It will take a bit of time for you to get back to sleep if you wake up by accident.

 

REM (rapid eye movement) – Stage 4

This is the final sleep phase. The REM stage will last around 10 minutes, and you do need to be at least 90 minutes asleep for it to kick in. Your eyes will start moving in all directions, just like the name rapid eye movement suggests. This is when you start dreaming, bedwetting or sleepwalking. During this phase, you will also have an increased heart rate.

In conclusion, it’s very important to know the stages of sleep if you want to get high-quality sleep. Your sleep schedule, sleep duration and interrupted sleep has a drastic effect on the quality of sleep you get each night. Ideally, you want to create a sleep schedule and stick to it. But to do that, you need to buy a high-quality mattress and opt for the best quality; not just the cheapest. The combination of a comfortable mattress, sleeping at the same time each day and keeping your bedroom quite to avoid waking up during the night will give you the best chance of a Quality Sleep!