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Your body and mind depend on a good night's sleep for your physical and mental health, as well as your quality of life. While we sleep many important functions take place that helps the body to repair itself.
Take our free online sleep assessment to help determine if you should consider talking to a medical professional about your sleep health.
To understand why sleep is important, think of your body like a factory that performs a number of important functions. As you drift off to sleep, your body begins its night-shift work of recharging. Sleeping provides the benefits of giving your body a chance to heal damaged cells, boost your immune system, recover from the day’s activities and recharge your cardiovascular system.
REM stands for rapid eye movement and NREM stands for non-rapid eye movement. NREM sleep comes first, followed by REM sleep. Then the cycle starts again.
The first three of the four phases are part of your NREM sleep. They can last between 5 and 15 minutes.
Non-REM sleep
Stage 1: This is when your eyes are closed but it’s still easy to wake you up.
Stage 2: This is when you’re in a light sleep. As you prepare for deep sleep, your heart rate slows down and your body temperature drops.
Stage 3: This is considered the deep sleep stage. It’s harder to wake you up at this point, and if someone does, you’re more disoriented.
REM sleep
Stage 4: REM sleep typically occurs 90 minutes into your sleep and is the stage of sleep when you dream. Your brain is more active and your heart rate and breathing quicken. Adults can spend about 20% of their sleep in the REM stage while babies can spend about 50% of their sleep in this stage.
Both REM (rapid eye movement) and NREM (non-rapid eye movement) serve as important phases in sleep and for different functions in your body.
REM sleep, which is when dreaming occurs, helps our mind process emotions and memories. It is vital for stimulating the brain for learning.
NREM makes up 75-80% of total sleep each night. Many of the health benefits of sleep take place during NREM like tissue growth and repair. Also, energy is restored and hormones important for growth and development are released.
When you don’t get the sleep you need, you might find yourself:
If you’ve been practicing good sleep habits and think you’re sleeping well but still feel extra tired in the morning, then you may want to consider talking to a medical professional about your sleep health. Any concerns about your sleep health should be discussed with your doctor who may recommend a sleep test.
If you’ve worked on improving your sleep health and still find yourself struggling to get restful sleep, it could be time to look more closely at what’s going on. Sleep apnea affects 1 in 3 adults.
Source: Benjafield AV et al. Estimation of the global prevalence and burden of obstructive sleep apnoea: A literature-based analysis. Vol 7:8; 687-98. Lancet Respir Med 2019
Find out if you should consider talking to a medical professional by taking our online sleep assessment.
Try these 5 sleep hygiene tips to give yourself a better chance of getting higher quality sleep each night:
Make time for sleep
Once you know what time you need to get to bed, plan the rest of your schedule around it.
Create consistent sleep habits
Follow a pre-sleep ritual for going to bed and waking up at the same time.
Create a comfortable sleep environment
Make sure your bedroom is cool, quiet and comfortable - especially your bed and pillow.
Turn off before bed
Watching television, reading, emailing and texting can ramp up your brain activity rather than relax it. Give yourself time to unplug.
Use a sleep tracking app
Consider using a sleep tracking app to monitor your sleep patterns every night.
Getting a good night’s sleep isn’t just about going to bed on time — although that’s very important. “Sleep hygiene” is a term often used to describe habits and practices that are conducive to good sleep at night and having the energy to face the day.
Apart from practicing good sleep hygiene, you can also try building these healthy sleep habits:
Any amount is helpful, but the optimal amount is 30 minutes, which leads to 14 minutes of extra sleep per night.
Source: “Consumer Sleep Study Based on 2 Million Nights of Accurate Data Reveals Startling Trends,” SleepScore Labs National Sleep Study, May 2017, https://www.sleepscore.com/news/consumer-sleep-study-based-2-million-nights-accurate-data-reveals-startling-trends/
Naps can make it more difficult for you to get to sleep at night because they reduce your sleep debt. Believe it or not, sleep debt is a good thing because it makes you feel more tired at bedtime.
References
Source: Source: Hirshkowitz M et al., “The National Sleep Foundation’s sleep time duration recommendations: methodology and results summary,” Sleep Health, 2015;1(1):40–43. * REM is short for “Rapid Eye Movements”. REM sleep is when you’re most likely to dream.
Source: Benjafield AV et al. Estimation of the global prevalence and burden of obstructive sleep apnoea: A literature-based analysis. Vol 7:8; 687-98. Lancet Respir Med 2019
Source: “Consumer Sleep Study Based on 2 Million Nights of Accurate Data Reveals Startling Trends,” SleepScore Labs National Sleep Study, May 2017, https://www.sleepscore.com/news/consumer-sleep-study-based-2-million-nights-accurate-data-reveals-startling-trends/
Source: Morgenthaler TI et al. Complex sleep apnea syndrome: Is it a unique clinical syndrome? Sleep 2006;29(9):1203–9.
For assistance with ordering please call (833) 968-2727.