The Sleep Cycle
How it Works: The Sleep Cycle
Sleeping
is a natural habit of human beings in which the body and the mind get rest. It
is consider a basic biological need because without rest people will not be
able to keep on a journey effectively. According to Jeff Illief (2014), “It is
something we spend about a third of our lives doing”. An entire cycle can last
around ninety minutes, and individuals can have about four to six complete
cycles throughout the night. It is extremely common that some people because of
different factors such as jet lag, use of technology, business, and personal
issues tend to lose their capacity to sleep when necessary. The previous is
because the internal biological clock get continuously use to irregular sleep
hours. What happens when we finally go to bed and our heads hit the pillow? The
sleep cycle goes through three main stages for its performance in people’s
lives.
The
first stage is the first non-rapid eye movement (NREM 1), phase one and two,
which is known as light sleep. In the first phase, the individual enters and
leaves the dream. As the name says, the eyes move slowly and also the breading
slows down. Have you felt the falling down sensation and wake up scary? This
happens in this stage; moreover, it is more often in people with irregular
sleeping habits. The muscle activities are slow except heart and diaphragm, and
the body pressure and brain temperature decreases. The second phase includes a
deeper sleep with a reduced muscle tone; in addition, the eyes movement stop
completely and the brain waves are slower. Now, your body is prepared to go
into a deeper sleep.
The
second stage is the second non-rapid eye movement (NREM 2), phase three and
four, which is known as deep sleep. In the third phase is where people’s body
really get rest. The brain waves, which consist in the electrical activities
produced by the brain, that predominate in this phase is delta. Also, in this phase
is where sleep disorders are generate as somnambulism, night terrors, and even wetting
the bed. Images can appear during fourth phase, but they are not whole stories.
According to Natural Patterns of Sleep (2007), “As NREM sleep progresses, the
brain becomes less responsive to external stimuli, and it becomes increasingly
difficult to awaken an individual from sleep”. If you are in this phase it may be more difficult that a noise or even
an earthquake wakes you up, but if you wake up during NREM 2 there is a high
possibility to feel disoriented for the first few minutes.
The
final step is the rapid eye movement (REM), lap fifth, which is known as
paradoxical sleep. The use of this term is because the brain waves during this
stage are the same as a person who is fully awake, yet the brain shows
heightened activity most of the muscles are paralyzed. In this stage people
dream as a story and also powerful dreams occur. As there are no muscle
responses; if a person wants to scream or move it is not possible. As it was
mentioned in the first stage, the only muscles active are the heart and diaphragm.
The extrinsic muscles of the eyeball are active too because the eyes movement
increase considerably in all directions. Also, the brain wave that predominates
is theta which is generate by the temporal and frontal lobe interaction. Finally, this stage is characterized by an increase in the heart rate,
respiration rate, and pressure.
By
and large, the NREM 1, NREM 2, and REM are important stages for a better
understanding of the sleep role in people’s lives. Many people understand why
it is important, yet others do not understand what all is about. It is a long
cycle that is needed for recovering from fatigue, and every stage is important
for an effective rest. According to Jeff Illief (2014), “Sleeping is especially
important for the brain even thought that it is just two percent of the body’s
mass”. It is also important to try to sleep from seven to nine hours depending
on your lifestyle, but try to not obviate your common bedtime in order to
keep a healthy sleep cycle.
Bibliography
Illif, J. (September, 2014). One more reason to get a
good night’s sleep. TEDMED. Recovered from:
Natural Patterns of Sleep. (2007, December 18). Healthy
Sleep. Recovered from: http://healthysleep.med.harvard.edu/healthy/science/what/sleep-patterns-rem-nrem
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