Not all sleep is created equal. Just like not all components of cooking a meal are the same. Washing produce, chopping it, cooking it and serving the meal are the different (and necessary) stages that happen for a complete meal. Each stage of sleep has a purpose and role in sleep.
Human brain function is incomplete when we miss part of a stage of sleep.
When I understood the value of each stage of sleep it made me realize how important it is to get every minute and hour of sleep my body is asking and designed for.
Allow me to break down the science for you and provide some perspective on what it all means.
nREM Stage 1 - This is light sleep and happens minimally during the night. It’s a transition stage from wakefulness into sleep. Like a warm up or cool down for exercise.
nREM Stage 2 - This sleep is interspersed with REM dreaming in the early morning. It’s when the brain cleanses information it doesn’t want to keep. Think of it like a detox.
nREM Stage 3 & 4 - This is deep sleep and when the physical body repairs. It is when short term memories are transferred into long term storage. It’s essential for learning and memory.
REM dreaming - This sleep is dominated by dreaming, even though dreams can happen in the other stages. This is the only time of the night when your body is completely paralyzed (except for your eyes).
REM sleep has been identified as beneficial to creativity, problem solving, and emotional stability. This seems to be a time when the brain compares notes from the past with new experiences and might even consider future desires.
REM sleep happens mostly in the early morning. It can get disrupted by an alarm clock that sounds before the program is complete. It’s not the alarm clock that’s the problem though. It's the late bedtime and possibly an inconsistent sleep schedule.
When you don’t get enough REM sleep, you are depriving yourself of what we understand to be the emotionally restorative sleep. Without this type of sleep it can be challenging to cope with stress when awake.
I think of all sleep as a time for your brain to compare notes with itself. During the day, each part of the brain is running its own show and at night the brain has a chance to have a master board meeting or a counseling session with a psychologist.
When you don’t sleep enough, something in this chain of sleep events gets eliminated. What? Maybe REM since it happens at the tail end.
Which portion would you sacrifice if you had a choice?
If only our brains could provide a printout in the morning to let us know what part of the program completed and which parts were not. What kind of impact would that have on bedtime choices?
Photo by Kaylee Stepkoski on Unsplash.
