Rem cycles how long should i sleep

How much sleep you need changes throughout your lifetime. An infant may need up to 17 hours of sleep each day, while an older adult may get by on just 7 hours of sleep a night.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics and the CDC , these are the general sleep guidelines for different age groups:.

Some people may need at least 9 hours of sleep a night to feel well rested, while others in the same age group may find that 7 hours of sleep is just right for them. The biggest question is how you feel when you get various amounts of sleep. Sleep deprivation is a real thing for some, especially as work and life stress builds up.

A sleep study showed that sleep deprivation doubled the odds of making placekeeping errors and tripled the number of lapses in attention. Sleep and mental health are closely connected, with sleep disorders contributing to depression and anxiety. Sleep is one of the most important factors in our overall health. When you fall asleep, your brain and body go through several cycles of sleep.

Each cycle includes four distinct stages. It takes, on average, about 90 minutes to go through each cycle. On an EEG, REM sleep, often called "active sleep," is identifiable by its characteristic low- amplitude small , high-frequency fast waves and alpha rhythm, as well as the eye movements for which it is named. Many sleep experts think that these eye movements are in some way related to dreams.

Typically, when people are awakened from REM sleep, they report that they had been dreaming, often extremely vivid and sometimes bizarre dreams. In contrast, people report dreaming far less frequently when awakened from NREM sleep. Interestingly, during REM sleep muscles in the arms and legs are temporarily paralyzed. This is thought to be a neurological barrier that prevents us from "acting out" our dreams.

In the progression from stage N1 to N3, brain waves become slower and more synchronized, and the eyes remain still. This stage is referred to as "deep" or "slow-wave" sleep. In healthy adults, sleep typically begins with NREM sleep. The pattern of clear rhythmic alpha activity associated with wakefulness gives way to N1, the first stage of sleep, which is defined by a low-voltage, mixed-frequency pattern.

The transition from wakefulness to N1 occurs seconds to minutes after the start of the slow eye movements seen when a person first begins to nod off. This first period of N1 typically lasts just one to seven minutes. As N2 sleep progresses, there is a gradual appearance of the high-voltage, slow-wave activity characteristic of N3, the third stage of NREM sleep.

This stage, which generally lasts 20 to 40 minutes, is referred to as "slow-wave," " delta ," or "deep" sleep. As NREM sleep progresses, the brain becomes less responsive to external stimuli, and it becomes increasingly difficult to awaken an individual from sleep. Following the N3 stage of sleep, a series of body movements usually signals an "ascent" to lighter NREM sleep stages.

We know that people often feel most refreshed when they wake from REM sleep after having a good night of sleep. Parts of the brain are more active in REM sleep than when awake. We get more REM sleep in the morning, especially if we are not sleep deprived.

If you go to bed sleep deprived, or sleep when your body clock is not expecting it, you may have more deep sleep rather than REM sleep in the morning and therefore wake up to your alarm feeling groggier. So the best advice for waking refreshed in the morning is to follow good sleep habits.

However, your brain will still have occasional bursts of sleep spindles, or small bursts of rapid brain waves. Stage 3. Stage 3 starts what we commonly refer to as deep sleep.

Your brain starts producing delta waves almost exclusively, and muscle and eye activity crawl to a stop. Sleepers in stage 3 are very difficult to wake up, and often experience grogginess and disorientation when awakened. For children and some adults, stage 4 is where most sleepwalking, bedwetting, and night terrors occur.

REM Sleep. Stage 4, or REM sleep, notices another physical change to the sleeper. Their breathing becomes faster, shallow, and irregular, followed by their eyes moving rapidly in various directions. Your body slips into a short-term paralysis and your heart rate and blood pressure rises. For males, this often results in penile erections. REM sleep is where dreams occur. Sleepers who awake during REM sleep usually have a better recollection of their dreams than if awakened during another stage.

Most sleepers will experience REM sleep about 70 to 90 minutes after they fall asleep.