If you want to be healthy and happy, you must get the right amount and right kind of sleep. The importance of a good night’s sleep to your well being can not be overlooked. Even getting too little sleep for one night has negative impacts. It can cause us to not handle stress well, increase moodiness, impair our ability to concentrate, impact our brain health, and have a negative impact on our immune system.
The long term effects of sleep deprivation are more serious. Sleep not only causes changes in your brain, but can also impact your kidneys, lungs, heart and other vital organs. Some of the systems in the body negatively impacted by lack of sleep include: digestive, endocrine, circulatory, reproductive, central nervous and musculoskeletal systems. In addition, tissues in your muscles or GI tract may not be properly repaired without sufficient sleep.
Your Personal Clock
Your sleep-wake schedule is influenced by your personal body clock known as your circadian cycle. People that are early birds have a different circadian cycle than night owls. Science is finding that circadian cycles are associated with genetic variations, as well as differences in lifestyle and mood disposition, cognitive function and risks for health problems, including sleep disorders and depression.
The hormone most closely linked with the circadian system is melatonin, which is made by the pineal gland in the center of the brain. Along with sunlight, melatonin helps to set the brain’s biological clock. During the biological night, melatonin is secreted, the body temperature lowers, and you fall asleep. If all goes well, you’re on your way to a good night’s sleep.
Sleep Cycles
You may be surprised to know that your brain does not shut down when you go to sleep. It is actively involved in many processes. Sleep is made up of specific stages with distinctive characteristics of eye movement and muscle tension that are prompted by natural cycles of brain activity. The two broad categories of sleep include non–rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. A night’s sleep consists of multiple runs through the sleep stages described below. A complete run lasts about 90 minutes. It is common for people to feel that a good night’s sleep for them is a multiple of the 90 minute complete cycle. For example, some people feel their best with five cycles, or 7.5 hours of sleep.
Stage 1 and 2
The beginning of the sleep cycle is Stage 1. In Stage 1 you transition from wakefulness to light sleep. If someone wakes you up from Stage 1 sleep, you may not even believe you were really asleep. Stage 1 sleep usually makes up about 5 percent of total sleep time. Stage 2 is slightly deeper than Stage 1 sleep, but it is still a stage from which you can awaken easily. Stage 2 sleep typically accounts for 40 to 50 percent of total sleep time.
Stage 3 and 4
Stage 3 and 4 sleep is known as delta sleep and is the deepest level of NREM sleep. It usually occurs during the first third of the night. Growth hormone is secreted by your pituitary gland in the deep-sleep stage. During this stage, your body heals itself and you experience metabolic and tissue regeneration. This is when physical restoration takes place. When you get enough delta or deep sleep, you wake up refreshed and ready to face the day.
REM sleep typically happens during the last third of your stage 3 and 4 sleep. It’s during this stage that you restore your nervous system, process information, and store memories. Although dreams can occur in any sleep stage, you have your most vivid dreams during REM sleep. If you are awakened from REM sleep, you can recall vivid imagery. This is the mental restoration stage of sleep. When you get enough REM sleep, you think more quickly and creatively and are able to organize your thoughts better.
Quality Sleep
Your ability to get a quality good night’s sleep is dependent on several factors. The amount of delta or deep sleep (Stages 3 and 4) you get each night is important as is your ability to stay continuously asleep. Finally, the overall number of minutes of sleep, and whether or not you sleep at the right times in your circadian cycle.
A sufficient night of sleep should leave you feeling alert and energized throughout the bulk of the day, and ready for bed at roughly the same time every night. To ensure that you get a good night’s sleep, it’s important to maintain good sleep habits. That includes getting some daily exercise, don’t eat less than two hours before bed, avoid alcohol 3 hours before bed, eliminating caffeine 10 hours before bed, consistent bed times and wake times, a dark, cool, and comfortable bedroom, and quiet time away from bright light and electronics in the hour before bed. Give yourself ample time for sleep, and create a sleep-friendly environment and routine, and your body can tell you a great deal about how much sleep you need.
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