Understanding Sleep Better: What Are Sleep Stages, Why Do We Feel Sleepy During The Night, What's The Best Sleep Pattern For Us, Why Is Sleep So Important To Our Brain, Body And General Well-Being... And Lots More....

Sleep, yea, we all do it everyday, nothing so special, that's what most people think. Sleep is so underrated by many people, especially those that are into any sort of online business, like us steemians(smiles). Some of us do have our professional life, with family life, and we still put in time because of our love for writing, making 24 hours seem like 15 - 18 hours and hereby depriving ourselves of a good sound sleep. I know we gat to hustle more to make more cash, but it's also necessary we take care of our very selves, i.e our health, body and brain, because without them performing at their optimum level, the cash we so seek, we might not even be able to generate a means to get it. In my previous article on Exercise - The Magic Pill, I said that, better sleep results to better brain, and better brain may increase your tendency of becoming successful.

Sleep is so so essential for our general well-being. Some people normally ask themselves questions like, why do we even sleep, does our brain also take a break while we sleep, what are the implications of depriving ourselves of some good sound sleep, how many hours is proper for me to sleep, does sleep affects our brain, and so on, I gat all these questions covered in this article and also many other stuffs you need to know about sleep. So find somewhere quiet and get comfortable and read through this amazing article I made just for you(smiles).

[A Beautiful Lady Sleeping. Source: Pixabay. CCO Licensed]

Sleep

We all spend about one third of our lives sleeping(hahaha), let's imagine someone living up to 81 years of age, it simply means that, such an individual have spent about 27 years sleeping. Sleep is as important as the air we breathe and the food we eat, it is essential for our lives. Whenever you have like a two hours night sleep, how does the rest of that day seem like to you? Let me help there, it would be useless, hmmm, or let me say, it would be less productive than if you had slept well. There would be headache behind your eyes, you would feel drained, weak, unable to think clearly, your decisions during such times may not really be your best. So without enough sleep our brain's abilities would begin to decrease, we won't be able to memorize things, our attention would be greatly affected, our ability to learn would also be greatly affected, our immune system would decrease, in general, we won't be able to function at our optimal level. Our brain is not the only system or tissue in our body that sleep affects, sleep affects our heart, our immune function, our lungs for metabolism and many more, which may lead to chronic diseases and different health problems such as; high blood pressure, depression, cardiovascular diseases, obesity, diabetes and many more. Well, according to a clinical professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and a sleep specialist at the Stanford Sleep Medicine Center in Redwood City, California and Sleep experts at Harvard Medical School’s Division of Sleep Medicine, they define sleep as;

Sleep is a natural, restorative, physiological process characterized by a perceptual disengagement [meaning you tune out from whatever’s going on around you], and must be rapidly reversible. Source.

Types And Stages Of Sleep Or Let's Say Sleep Cycle

There are basically two types of sleep, the REM which in full means, Rapid Eye Movement and the NREM which means Non Rapid Eye Movement. Before we get to the REM we must first pass through the NREM sleep stages. Every night we sleep, we go through this sleep cycle like 4 to 5 times from the NREM stages to the REM stage and back to NREM then to the REM stage again, that's how our sleep cycle goes on and on every night. I know some of you guys are already wondering what stages am I talking of, don't worry I gat you covered. The stages of our sleep cycle are divided into 4 stages which include;

Stage 1

This is the first stage of sleep which is under NREM. In this sleep stage, our eye movement, breathing, heartbeat becomes slow and then our muscle would relax. During this stage you can easily wake up, because you are still a bit aware of your environment. At this stage you normally have this sensation of falling(smiles), like for example, when you are in class, and start sleeping, you are kinda of aware of your environment right, but you get this feeling like though you were falling, and when you have almost fallen, you open your eyes and you do it again(hahaha), that's an example of the first stage of sleep. During this stage, people sometimes experience short dreams, although few cases and this stage last for about 3 - 12 minutes.

Stage 2

This is also under NREM. This is a stage where you experience light sleep before entering the deeper sleep. At this stage, our body temperature drops, our eye movement stops completely and our brain activity and brain waves becomes slow, preparing us for a deeper sleep. We spend more time at this stage in all of our sleep cycles in the night than any other sleep stage.

Stage 3

This is also under NREM. This is the stage where we experience deep sleep which is needed for us to feel refreshed in the morning. Our breathing, heartbeat, and brain waves is slowest at this stage. Our muscles would be completely relaxed that it becomes quite difficult for us to wake up. It is normally during this stage that people experience sleep walking, sleep talking, and bedwetting.

Stage 4

This is the stage where we finally experience REM sleep. During this stage our eyes begins to move quickly from side to side with our eyelids closed. At this stage, our breathing rate, heart rate, brain activity and blood pressure increases. Our body muscles during this stage become temporarily paralyzed, and that is what causes Sleep Paralysis(a state of being unable to move nor speak for about few seconds or minutes), when people wake up at this stage of sleep, they mostly face Sleep Paralysis, because their body muscles are temporarily paralyzed. This is the stage where we dream. Yea, dream, some of us would say we don't dream at all, I'm sorry and also glad to tell you guys, that everyone dreams, some people do remember while others forget. Our muscles are paralyzed in this stage, so that we don't act out our blissful or horrifying dreams.

Let me give you guys an example of how our sleep cycle looks like every night;

Stage 1 (light sleep) - Stage 2 (light sleep) - Stage 3 (deep sleep) - Stage 2 (light sleep) - Stage 1 (light sleep) - REM Sleep - Stage (light sleep) - Stage 2 (light sleep) - and the cycle goes on and on throughout the night for about 4 - 5 times.

[A Creative Illustration Of REM Sleep. Source: Wikimedia Commons. Author: Lorenza Walker. CC-BY-SA-4.0]

Why Do We Feel Sleepy At Night And Why Do We Sleep For Longer Period At Times

Haven't you ever wondered why you want to sleep at night, even though you didn't have a stressful day, your body and your brain would just keep signalling you, Hey, it's time to sleep. And also haven't you wondered why some days you sleep longer. Then what is actually responsible for this? It's simply, our two internal biological sleeping mechanism, which are; circadian rhythm and sleep-wake homeostasis, they are responsible for regulating and controlling when we sleep and how deep we sleep.

Circadian Rhythm

The Circadian Rhythm is like our biological clock or let me say biological alarm, which is inbuilt in every human to regulate our feeling of sleepiness and wakefulness over a 24-hour period. The Circadian Rhythm is found in the Suprachiasmatic Nucleus (SCN) in the hypothalamus of the brain, one in each brain hemisphere. There are two major hormones that affects the Circadian Rhythm and they are; melatonin which is responsible for us feeling drowsiness and also helps to lower our body temperature which put us in the mood for sleeping and cortisol which helps to regulate our metabolism, sugar level and immune function, which is responsible for us having a feeling of wakefulness. The Circadian Rhythm helps us act as diurnal beings. Melatonin normally is secreted in our body at about 8 - 9 pm making us feel sleepy and stops at about 7 - 8 am and cortisol is then secreted making us feel awake and active. We tend to feel most sleepy around 2 - 3 am in the morning and exactly 12 hours later we also tend to feel sleepy, and that's why around 2 - 3 pm we always have the feeling of sleeping or taking a nap.

Sleep-Wake Homeostasis

The Sleep-Wake Homeostasis helps track our need to sleep and also helps to give us the drive to sleep. It is the Sleep-Wake Homeostasis that makes our desire to sleep stronger whenever we have been awake for a long period of time without any sleep and it is also responsible for giving us the desire to stay awake whenever we have over slept. Haven't you guys noticed that, whenever you sleep too much during the afternoon, it becomes so hard to sleep at night, it is the sleep-wake homeostasis that is responsible for that. Factors that can influence our Sleep-Wake Homeostasis mechanism are; our medical conditions, medications, stress, sleep environment, and what we eat and drink and the most influential is the exposure to light. We find it really difficult to fall asleep when we are exposed to light, and this keeps us awake, even though we want to sleep hereby affecting our Sleep-Wake Homeostasis mechanism.

[The Human Biological Clock. Source: Wikimedia Commons. CC-BY-SA-3.0]

What's The Best Sleep Pattern For Us

Some people have a sleep pattern of sleeping twice daily, some three times while for most of us, once, because it seems like a norm and an ideal way for us, but is it really ideal for our brain and general health in the long term? There are three major sleep pattern, which are;

Monophasic Sleep Pattern

This is the most common sleep pattern practiced by us today, it is the sleep pattern which involves sleeping once a day. It is regarded as a normal sleep pattern in our society today. It involves individuals sleeping at night for about 7 - 8 hours. Although, studies have it that, before the industrial revolution, this wasn't the sleep pattern of most people.

Polyphasic Sleep Pattern

This is the type of sleep pattern which involves the individuals sleeping multiple times ranging between 4 - 6 period sleep per day. Quite interesting right? This type of sleep pattern is mainly for business people and bloggers and not for workers, do you want to get fired(hahahaha) because you must have to sleep like twice within office hours to really practice this kind of sleep pattern. There are also different types of Polyphasic Sleep Pattern, here are the three most common types;

Everyman Sleep Pattern

This type of sleep pattern involves an individual, sleeping a long sleep of about 3 hours at night and then 3 naps for refreshment within the day. A typical Everyman Sleep Pattern sleeper would sleep from about 1 - 4am and have about 20 minutes around 9 am, 2 pm and then 9 pm, although this kind of sleep pattern can be adjusted to suit an individual but it must surely consists of 3 hours of a good night sleep, hereby completing two sleep cycles and 3 power naps of about 20 minutes within the day. You can actually read the experience of a blogger under the name of Puredoxyk, who practiced this sleep pattern for 6 months, here.

Uberman Sleep Pattern

This type of sleep pattern involves an individual sleeping only 3 hours per day in the form of six naps not exceeding 30 minutes per nap throughout the entire day. A typical Uberman Sleep Pattern sleeper would have his/her power nap from about 2 am, 6 am, 10 am, 2 pm, 6 pm and then 10 pm. This is actually the least flexible, ideal and hardest sleep pattern, because missing one nap could result to instant sleep deprivation which is bad for our health and general well-being. Although as hard as it seems a blogger named Steve Pavlina have tried out this sleep pattern and shared his experience. You can read his experience here.

Dymaxion Sleep Pattern

This type of sleep pattern involves an individual sleeping only 2 hours per day in the form of a 30 minutes power nap every 6 hours. This is far the least sleep pattern in the world for me(smiles). A typical Dymaxion Sleep Pattern sleeper would have his/her power nap from about 12 am, 6 am, 12 noon, and then 6 pm. This kind of sleep pattern is not recommended for anyone, and even if it is, I don't think anyone would be able to do it for 3 months.

Biphasic Sleep Pattern

And the third and final sleep pattern for this article is the Biphasic Sleep Pattern, which involves an individual to sleep twice per day, that is, a long night sleep of about 5 - 6 hours and a short sleep within the day for about 30 minutes which is a nap or about 90 minutes of sleep which is a siesta. Although, not common in most countries, it is the best sleep pattern you can practice for your brain and body, and that's why some countries like Spain and other Latin American countries are practicing it. Do you know why it is so good and is argued as the best sleep? Is because, you get a good night sleep of about 5 - 6 hours which is very good for you and in the afternoon, mostly after lunch we usually begin to feel sleepy which is known as the Post Lunch Dip, so having a 30 minutes nap, would completely refresh your body and brain and give you that much needed energy and refreshment to finish your day strong. Although the afternoon nap must be done appropriately, if you want to get the best result from it. It is recommended you take a nap for about 20 minutes and not exceeding 30 minutes because if you nap above 30 minutes, you might have entered the NREM stage 3 which is when you enter the deep sleep stage, which becomes difficult for you to wake from. And if you think 20 minutes is too little for you, then 90 minutes is recommended for you, as you would complete a sleep cycle and would most likely be at NREM stage 1 which is the light sleep stage and you can easily wake up from it and feel refreshed. So is either you take a 20 minutes nap or a 90 minutes siesta to get the best from Biphasic Sleep Pattern.

[A Girl Having A Good Nap. Source: Pexels. CCO Licensed]

Why Is Sleep So Important For Our Brain, Body And General Health?

Why exactly should I spend my valuable time sleeping? Is it worth it? After seeing the benefits of sleeping I gat for you guys, you would see it is totally worth it. I would give you guys some few solid importance of sleeping that might actually change the way you see sleep for the better.

And for those that think our brain rest or sleep while we sleep, I'm sorry to let you guys know that our brain never rest. There about 86,400 seconds in a day and our brain processes about 70,000 thoughts in day, which simply means that, in every 1.2 seconds, our brain process a new thought, which makes it rather impossible to sleep nor rest. So let's head straight into the importance of sleep to our brain, body and general health, but before we start, let me share with you guys a quote from Dr. Frederick R. Carrick, DC, PhD, President of the American Chiropractic Association Council on Neurology;

Sleep is one of the most important functions of the brain. Through it, our bodies recharge and renew for the next day's challenges. Sleep regulates your mood, is related to learning and memory, and is a key factor in your health, weight, and energy level. Source

Sleep Helps Us In Creating New And Consolidating Memories

Sleep helps us create new memories, studies have shown that, when we are asleep, our brain tends to create new memories from the activities of day. So, a lack of sleep would stop our brain from creating new memories and gives us that feeling of being amnesiac. Let's take for instance, your phone has no space for new inbox, any new message that comes in would be bounced out, until there is a space, right?. Same thing happens to us with our brain, when we don't sleep, the brain won't be able to create space for new memories and that is why sleep is very essential for creating new memories. Sleep also helps in consolidating memories, as we know it, our hippocampus is responsible for consolidating our memories and it is also greatly affected by sleep. When we are asleep, our brain consolidate our memories which is why it is known that sleep plays a very important role in our ability to learn. So if you are having an exam or a project to present and you want to do an all-nighter, think again, because studies have shown that, our ability to learn new things drop to about 40%, if we do not sleep. Well, according to Dr. Matthew Walker, a sleep researcher at the University of California;

We’ve learned that sleep before learning helps prepare your brain for initial formation of memories. And then, sleep after learning is essential to help save and cement that new information into the architecture of the brain, meaning that you’re less likely to forget it. Source.

[Hippocampus - The Area Of Our Brain That Is Involved In Memory Creation And Consolidation. Source: Wikimedia Commons. Author:
Henry Vandyke Carter. CC-PD-Mark]

Sleeps Helps To Prevent Us From Neurodegenerative Diseases

This is like the most important reason why we sleep, as sleep helps us from neurodegenerative diseases like Dementia, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s Diseases. Our body have a system of removing toxic materials or proteins from our body through the Lymphatic System but this lymphatic system doesn't reach our brain because our brain is like the most important organ that controls the rest of the body so it keeps itself secured from the rest of the organs so that it doesn't get infected easily. Then how does the brain get rid of toxic materials or proteins in the brain, it does this through the Glymphatic System. The question would then be, how does sleep come in here, the glymphatic system is ten times more active when we are asleep and also when we are asleep our brain cells shrinks about 60%, making the process of getting rid of a toxic protein called Beta Amyloid easier and faster. The toxic protein called Beta Amyloid is responsible for neurodegenerative diseases, so if we are not getting enough sleep, the Beta Amyloid would build up, which would therefore increase our chances of getting neurodegenerative diseases in our life.

[A Sufferer Of A Neurodegenerativ Disease - Alzheimer’s Disease. Source: Pixabay. CCO Licensed]

Sleep Can Help Boost Our Creativity

I know some of you guys might have heard the saying Sleep On It when someone is faced with complex challenges and most of us think is just a saying, I'm sorry to disappoint you guys, it's not just a saying it's true and works very well. Whenever we awake from sleep our brain feel refreshed and as we know it, our brain is working while we are asleep, so as we sleep our brain try to find some connection based on all experiences we have had to solve the complex challenges we are facing and as we wake, we would be like a-ha. The reason for this, is that our attention and focus is not that fully active while we awake, the pressure, the distraction around us might actually make it difficult for us to make the connection or the creativity but somewhere in our brain the connection is there because sleep doesn't just manufacture the connection or creativity needed. Sleep only tries to find the connection through our actual experiences and memories which we've made before. Studies have shown that, after a good sleep, people are 33% more likely to get creative and make all the necessary connections to solving a complex challenge. Sleep is very much needed for people that are into some form of creativity, like detectives, song writers, producers, bloggers(even us steemians), artist and many more.

[Sleep Can Help Boost Our Creativity. Source: Pxhere. CCO Licensed]

Sleep Helps Us To Learn And Remember How To Perform New Skillls

Are you trying to learn the piano, speak a new language, guitar, lawn tennis or any particular skill, practice it and then go to sleep and try it again, you would definitely see some improvement. How come? When we sleep and reach the REM sleep stage, our brain tends to transfer our short-term memories which are usually stored in our motor cortex to our temporal lobe, where it would then become a long-term memory. So whenever you are trying to learn a new skill, practice and then go to sleep and when you wake up, try it again. And that is why whenever you are trying to learn how to swim, know what the hours you spend learning that day, you won't see much improvement, but when you come back the next day or time, you would notice that, you could actually swim better. According to Dr. Rapoport, who is an associate professor at NYU Langone Medical Center;

If you are trying to learn something, whether it’s physical or mental, you learn it to a certain point with practice,
but something happens while you sleep that makes you learn it better. Source.

[Sleep Can Help You Learn How To Play Guitar. Source: Pxhere. CCO Licensed]

There are so many other importance of sleeping like; how it helps us make better financial decisions, how it helps us to be more productive and focused at work, how it helps us have a better immune system, how it helps us reduce our body weight and be fit and many more. You can read here and here to know more on the importance of sleep, but I have to stop here on the importance of sleep, so that the article won't be too lengthy.

Sleep Deprivation And It's Effects On Our Brain, Body And General Health

Sleep deprivation is simply not getting adequate sleep for your body and brain. In this business life that we are presently in now, where people always say time is money, so they rather stay awake than sleep. Also with new facilities like phones, internet, social media, people tend to stay awake longer, depriving themselves of quality night sleep. About 70% of people between the ages of 17 - 45 years old, sleep less than 6 hours per day. I know most of you guys reading this article are also victims of sleep deprivation. But do we really know how this affects our body, brain and general health, I suppose no? Sleep deprivation is seen as nothing to general public, just some drowsiness and weakness, that's all but that's totally wrong, sleep deprivation is becoming one of the greatest health challenges we might be presently facing, someone would ask, how come? Sleep deprivation have been proven to be linked to almost all health challenges we are currently facing around the world today, like cancer, stroke, dementia, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and many more. I know I gat your attention now(smiles). Sleep deprivation has been known to be one of the major causes of motor accidents, factory accidents and some more.

[A Sleep-Deprived Individual. Source: Pixabay. CCO Licensed]

There are so many effects that sleep deprivation have on our body, brain and general health, but I would give you guys the top three effects, because of the length of the article so far(smiles). Before I start, I hope you guys know that those importance already stated above, won't be enjoyed by anyone depriving themselves of sleep. Now let's go;

Immune System

Sleep deprivation actually affects our immune system, whenever we deprive ourselves of sleep, we reduce our anticancer-fighting immune cells which is known as natural killer cells and also our white blood cell which helps to protect our immune system is reduced alongside. And that's why sleep deprivation is known to be linked as one of the causes of cancers, cold, flu, etc, and this is why the World Health Organisation decided to classify any form of night time work as a probable carcinogen. When we sleep our body releases disease-fighting substances, which helps to prevent us from falling ill, or getting flu, so when we deprive ourselves of sleep, we actually are decreasing the availability of these much needed substances, hereby making us more susceptible to different diseases. According to Dr. Nathaniel Watson, co-director of the UW Medicine Sleep Center at Harborview Medical Center;

The results are consistent with studies that show when sleep-deprived people are given a vaccine, there is a lower antibody response and if you expose sleep deprived people to a rhinovirus they are more likely to get the virus. This study provides further evidence of sleep to overall health and well-being particularly to immune health. Source.

[Natural Killer Cells. Source: Wikimedia Commons. Author: Cacofonie. CC-BY-SA-3.0]

Reproductive System

Sleep deprivation affects our reproductive system especially in men and also reduces our libido level. Studies have shown that, men who are sleep-deprived tends to have a lower level of testosterone than men who are not sleep-deprived. The level of testosterone of a sleep-deprived person, is like that of someone who is about 10 years older than the sleep-deprived person, so in other words, sleep deprivation ages us faster. So if you are wondering if sleep deprivation affects a man's fertility, then the answer is, Yes, sleep deprivation actually affects men fertility, and funny enough a whole lot of people don't even consider sleep, as a cause of infertility. To those females, who are smiling because they think sleep deprivation doesn't affect them, bad news, it does too(winks). Sleep deprivation affects the females menstrual cycle and leptin production. A sign to indicate this, is the irregular menstruation and interruption in the production of leptin hormones, which are responsible for the proper ovulation in females and this could lead to infertility. And this is one of the reason why most night shift female workers find it difficult to conceive and even if they conceive, they normally have high chances of having a miscarriage. For men and women that are trying to get pregnant, kindly sleep healthy and have a higher chance of getting a good news soon.

[Sleep Affects An Individual's Testosterone Level. Source: Pixabay. CCO Licensed]

Cardiovascular System

Sleep deprivation also affects our cardiovascular system leading to increase in chances of getting stroke, heart attack and other cardiovascular diseases. Whenever we are sleep deprived, our body produces some hormones and chemicals which actually increases our chances of suffering from a cardiovascular disease in our life. And also when we sleep at night we enter the deep stage, where our blood pressure goes down and our heart rate also drops and that's why some sleep scientist, say sleep is the most effective way of getting blood pressure medication. And this is why individuals who are sleep-deprived always have high blood pressure and heart rate, which increases their chances of getting heart attack or stroke. Studies have shown that, during the spring season when we lose one hour of sleep, there are increased cases of cardiovascular diseases from around the world. According to Professor Francesco Cappuccio;

If you sleep less than six hours per night and have disturbed sleep you stand a 48% greater chance of developing or dying from heart disease and a 15% greater chance of developing or dying from a stroke. The trend for late nights and early mornings is actually a ticking time bomb for our health so you need to act now to reduce your risk of developing these life-threatening conditions. Source.

[Sleep Increases The Risk Of Getting Heart Attack. Source: Wikimedia Commons. CC-BY-SA-4.0]

How Many Hour Of Sleep Do We Actually Need?

The hours needed for sleep decreases as we grow older. Well, according to the guidelines from the National Sleep Foundation;

Age	Sleep Needs
Newborns (0–3 months)	14 to 17 hours
Infants (4–11 months)	12 to 15 hours
Toddlers (1–2 years)	11 to 14 hours
Preschoolers (3–4 years)	10 to 13 hours
School-age children (5–12 years)	9 to 11 hours
Teenagers (13–17 years)	8 to 10 hours
Adults (18–64 years)	7 to 9 hours
Older Adults (65 years and over)	7 to 8 hours. Source.

As you can see from the table above, as we grow older our need for sleep decreases. Yea, I know some of us are not actually meeting the 7 to 9 hours sleep recommendation, I don't actually blame you guys, the world we are in presently, requires a lot of time for us to be successful in our various fields but you must always understand that sleep is very very essential in your life, you must try and make out time to get your body and brain to rest. Although, based on other research, having a good quality sleep doesn't actually mean spending 7 to 9 hours sleeping, quality sleep is about how well you wake up. Are you refreshed, strong, and active? If your answer is, Yes, then you got a good night sleep, but if, No, you need to add in more hours. According to Dr. Pelayo;

The issue is waking up refreshed, you should never wake up tired. If you do wake up feeling tired, something is wrong. Source.

Sleep is as important, no, sleep is more important than diet and exercise. A lot of people actually don't consider sleep as a factor of good health, they consider diet and exercise only, but if you are not getting enough sleep, you would feel weak, tired, kinda of ill, or may even have stroke or heart attack, would you consider diet and exercise then? No. Don't you guys ever wonder, why would doctors recommend adequate sleep/rest whenever you are not feeling fine alongside the prescription, and especially in cases of flu, the drugs they even prescribe to you, makes you sleep more, this is because, sleep helps to restore the entire body. So find a way to always have a good quality sleep everyday.

Till I Come Your Way Next Time, Stay Safe

Thanks For Reading

References

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All images used in this article are free source licensed under the Creative Commons and are liable for commercial use.

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