Whether you wake up feeling refreshed or groggy, depends on how your sleep was last night. Your sleep cycle consists of different phases and stages. Every night when you fall asleep, you go through those sleep phases and stages. Every stage has its time duration and importance. If they get disturbed, the functions associated with them get disturbed and your whole system will be altered. Your sleep cycle has mainly 2 phases – NREM (Non-Rapid Eye Movement) (consisting of deep sleep stage) and REM (Rapid Eye Movement). deep sleep for better health plays a very important role.

NREM is further categorized into three stages – N1, N2, AND N3 stages. We spend 75% of our sleeping time in NREM sleep and rest in REM sleep. REM is the last stage of the sleep cycle in which eyes show rapid movement. Your brain becomes more active during REM sleep as compared to NREM sleep. Out of the different NREM sleep stages, the last one is the deep sleep stage.

The deep sleep stage is the most important one as you will get restorative sleep during this stage. Deep sleep repairs and relaxes your body and mind. If you don’t get deep sleep, you will not feel rested and refreshed next morning. Moreover, lack of deep sleep affects your immunity, hormone regulation, and overall health. In this article, we will discuss what experts say about different sleep stages and deep sleep.

Different phases and stages of sleep

As we have discussed earlier, the human body goes through several sleep stages while sleeping. From NREM to REM, a sleep cycle lasts for up to 80-100 minutes. After completion of all the sleep stages, the sleep cycle keeps repeating itself throughout the night.

Stages of NREM Sleep

Your cardiovascular activities and heart rate slow down during NREM sleep. The parasympathetic nervous system controls your body during NREM sleep. The three stages of NREM sleep are:

N1 Stage: You first enter this stage when you fall asleep. This is a light sleep stage and you are somewhat aware of your surroundings during this stage. Your brain remains little active during this stage.

N2 Stage: In this stage temperature of your body drops down and the movement of your eyes stops. You feel relaxed during this stage. This sleep stage remains almost up to half of the total sleep time.

N3 Stage: Here comes the stage of “deep sleep” also known as slow wave or delta sleep stage. You have the lowest heart and breathing rate during this stage. Your muscles are completely relaxed and your body restores energy for the next day. In the whole sleep cycle, the deep sleep stage lasts between 45-90 minutes. According to experts, the more time you spend in the deep sleep stage, the more restorative sleep you will get.

REM Sleep stage

The next phase after the deep sleep stage, is the REM sleep phase. Your eyes show rapid movement during this phase as the name suggests. Most people get confused that the REM sleep stage is the stage of most restful and deep sleep. In contrary to the N1 stage, your sympathetic nervous system becomes active during this phase. Some studies show that most people wake up during the REM sleep stage.

Benefits of getting Deep Sleep for Better Health

The deep sleep stage is crucial for your health and well-being. It is associated with several physical and mental health benefits. It is important to get sufficient deep sleep to wake up feeling restored and stay active throughout the next day. Your body and mind get relaxed during this sleep stage. Your body repairs the tissues to build your muscles and bones.

Moreover, deep sleep for better health is associated with glucose metabolism and hormone regulation to boost your immune system. Besides these physical benefits, deep sleep comes with several mental health benefits as well. Deep sleep boosts your cognitive functions and consolidates your memory. It also improves your ability to process and learn things.

As per the sleep experts, the quantity of deep sleep decreases with age. That’s why, people have weak memory or issues with memory as they get old.

How much deep sleep for better health you should get each night?

The amount of sleep people require to stay healthy varies depending on several factors. In general, a healthy adult spends 13-25% of the total sleep in deep sleep. According to experts, this is the adequate time that one should spend in deep sleep. You can calculate your required deep sleep by noticing your total sleep duration. And 25% of your total sleep duration should be the deep sleep duration. For example, if you sleep for 8 hours each night then, 120 minutes you will spend in deep sleep.

When you sleep, you get more deep sleep during the initial hours of sleep. The duration of the deep sleep stage decreases as the night progresses. Moreover, the time you spend in deep sleep decreases with your age. That’s why, elder people get less deep sleep than teenagers and children.

The Bottom Line

It is very important to get adequate deep sleep to function well. Whether it is your physical health or mental health deep sleep is crucial for both of them. But due to several reasons, people are facing issues in getting quality deep sleep. You can fix your disturbed sleep cycle and improve the quality of sleep with different treatment methods. Along with maintaining sleep hygiene, buy sleeping tablets to get quality sleep at night. Visit our website Restfulmedsuk to explore different sleeping tablets. We have a stock of branded and quality sleep medications like zopiclone 7.5mg, zopiclone 10mg, and zolpidem 10mg.