Both quality and quantity matter when it comes to rejuvenating and restful slumbers. Our beauty sleep is a rather complicated process that is comprised of 5 phases during which the brain goes through various activity cycles. The phases progress cyclically and then begin again with phase 1. In average, the complete cycle takes from 90 to 110 minutes.
When we doze off we enter a dreamless stage of sleep which continues for about 5 to 10 minutes. We may experience a hypnic jerk during this stage feeling like we’re going to fall down. We’re asleep but can wake up in a split second. Breathing starts to slow down a little and body temperature decreases. It’s a perfect phase for a short ‘catnap’.
This is a relatively short and a fairly light stage that lasts for about 20 minutes. This is when the body prepares to fall into a deep sleep. Heart rate slows down, as well as body temperature drops. Make sure to wake up after this stage if you’re taking a ‘power nap’. Sleep for 10 more minutes and you’ll wake up feeling sluggish and groggy.
If you enter these phases, it becomes more difficult for you to wake up. This is when the deepest and most restorative sleep happens. At this period of time we react less to noises, movements and other disturbances. The brain waves slow down and become larger as we fully recharge our batteries as our muscles get completely relaxed, breathing slows down, our body repairs and regrows tissues.
At this stage the heart starts beating faster, breathing may become irregular, eyes move in different directions. This is when our brain gets most active and starts producing dreams. The brain uses our experiences to create the life-like scenarios and tricks us into thinking it’s all real. That’s why we are often under the impression that our dreams have a very long duration. In reality, however, it’s not how it is. Like in a good TV show, the REM sleep is divided into episodes or cycles. The first dream we have is the shortest (30 seconds to 10 minutes) and the last one can be up to 60 minutes long. Dreams may have the most unrealistic and peculiar settings partly because the part of our brain responsible for logic is least active at that time.
The REM stage is perhaps the most interesting one, but all the other four are equally worthy of our attention.