A good night’s sleep is a reward for all the hard work throughout the day. During sleep, our body repairs and regrows tissues, builds muscles and bones, and slows our heart rate down. However, sleep is not a uniform process, and there are stages in the sleep cycle.
Broadly, sleep can be classified into non-REM and REM sleep. REM stands for Rapid Eye Movement. During non-REM sleep, a person slowly falls into deeper sleep over a period of ninety minutes. Non-REM sleep can be classified based on the depth of sleep. With passing time, body temperature drops and heart rate dips. After about an hour and a half, the body dives into REM sleep. In this stage, the eyes move rapidly in every direction, but no visual data is sent back to the brain. Heart rate and breathing are intensified at this stage and brain activity is kicked up by a notch. This is the stage of sleep when we can see dreams.
With passing age, the REM sleep period is trimmed down. An infant spends almost half of its sleep cycle in the REM stage, compared to only 20% in adults.
Contributors
Copyright @smorescience. All rights reserved. Do not copy, cite, publish, or distribute this content without permission.
