Contents
– Adults should sleep at least 7 hours a day, with chronic diseases it takes 9 hours a day or more. Not getting enough sleep adversely affects not only your decision-making ability, but your overall health
Fast and slow sleep phases
Human sleep includes two phases: slow and fast sleep.
Slow sleep occurs immediately after falling asleep and lasts about 90 minutes. During this period, a person has even, calm breathing. The pressure decreases, the brain shows little activity. The main task of the slow phase is to restore the body.
REM sleep follows slow sleep and lasts 10-20 minutes. During this period, the pressure rises, the heart rate increases, the brain begins to work actively. REM sleep corresponds to the dreaming phase when rapid eye movements are observed. Hence the name. The rest of the sleep time is slow-wave sleep. During this period, the information received during the day is processed.
With healthy sleep, a person goes through five cycles of slow and REM sleep.
Duration of sleep phases and stages
The duration depends on the age and on the person, even on the time of day. On average, the first stage accounts for 3-5%, the second – up to 50%, REM sleep (rapid eye movements are present) – 20-25% each. In this stage, the muscles are completely relaxed, but at the same time the brain is highly active. By morning there are more dreams.
The slow stage, which takes at least half the time from sleep, is divided into four stages:
drowsiness,
light sleep,
moderately deep sleep
deep sleep.
In what phase is it better to wake up and can it be calculated
The most physiological awakening is at the end of a dream. This explains why we remember dreams (sometimes). For daytime sleep, waking up is easier in shallow sleep. And in deep stages at any time of the day it is difficult to get up and one may encounter a feeling of “fog”, a heavy head.
The calculation of the duration for today is extremely approximate, unless polysomnography with sleep analysis is used. Therefore, you can approach from the other side: adherence to a regime with a fixed wake up time will help to adjust the stages of sleep in order to wake up 5 minutes before the alarm clock. This can take up to two weeks.
Rules of healthy sleep
The most important rule of healthy sleep is regularity, especially on weekends. You can start from the time of the rise. The second principle is not to interfere with your sleep:
limit bad habits and caffeine,
all screens and news at least 2-3 hours before bedtime,
a comfortable bedroom without allergens is only a plus.
regular intake of balanced food, but no later than 2-3 hours before bedtime,
physical activity of medium intensity up to 17 hours, on average 3 times a week at a submaximal heart rate.