Most people thought of sleep as a passive, dormant element of our daily life until the 1950s. After 70 years, we now know that our brains are extremely busy while we sleep. Furthermore, sleep has an impact on our everyday functioning as well as our physical and mental health in a variety of ways that we are only beginning to comprehend.
Almost everyone goes through a dramatic transformation every night: we leave waking consciousness and travel through a panorama of dreams and profound slumber for hours. When we wake up, we usually have little or no recollection of the previous hours. We rarely consider and appreciate the fact that we are sleeping when we are sleeping, except in exceptional circumstances.
Sleep has traditionally been categorised into four categories: Entering sleep, light sleep, deep sleep, and REM sleep. Each stage of sleep has a different impact on how you feel the next day. Each one is critical to sustaining your mental and physical well-being.
You are still quite aware and alert during the early stages of sleep. The brain creates beta waves at this moment, which are short and quick brainwaves that indicate that the brain is active and engaged. As the brain begins to relax and slow down, it lights up with alpha waves.
You may have unusual and vivid sensations during this transition into a deep sleep, such as a brief awakening during sleep. Common examples of this occurrence include the sensation of falling or hearing someone call your name.
We can easily be awoken from light sleep, which occurs when we drift in and out of sleep. Our eyes travel at a very slow pace, and our muscle activity slows as well. People who are awakened at this stage may claim that they were not truly sleeping.
During this brief period of sleep, your brain slows down, as does your heartbeat, eye movements, and breathing. Your body relaxes and your muscles may twitch. This phase lasts about five to ten minutes.
Delta waves, which are slow brain waves that arise during deep sleep, begin to emerge during this phase. This is a stage of sleep in which no amount of noise or activity in the environment is likely to disturb the sleeping individual. Your muscles are entirely relaxed, your blood pressure drops, your breathing slows, and you enter the deepest stage of sleep. During this period of profound sleep, your body begins to restore itself.
In the meantime, your brain consolidates declarative memories, such as general knowledge, facts or statistics, personal experiences, and other information you've acquired.
During REM sleep, your voluntary muscles become immobilised while your brain is stimulated by mental processes. The activity of your brain at this stage most closely mirrors that of your brain during awake hours. Your body, on the other hand, is temporarily paralysed, which is a good thing because it keeps you from acting out your dreams.
REM sleep starts about 90 minutes after you fall asleep. Your brain is active at this time, your breathing is faster and irregular, your eyes move quickly, and your dream. Memory consolidation also occurs during REM sleep.
However, this is regarded to be when emotions and emotional memories are processed and stored and is an essential stage for learning since your brain needs this period to solidify information into memory.
