During sleep, our body goes through stages. There are four in total, stages one through three are non-rapid eye movement (NREM) and stage four is REM sleep, rapid eye movement (REM).
The first NREM stage lasts 5-10 minutes, the time when you fall asleep. The second stage is when your heart begins to slow down, your body temperature drops, and your brain produces sleep spindles. It lasts about twenty minutes. The third stage is where muscles relax, blood pressure and breathing patterns drop, and deeper sleep occurs.
Finally, the fourth stage is REM, the stage where your brain wakes up again, dreams begin, and, as the name suggests, your eyes begin to move rapidly. REM sleep is important to your sleep cycle because stimulates areas of your brain that are essential for learning and creating or retaining memories .
From 90 minutes after falling asleep, certain things can interfere with this process, but there are ways to improve this phase of sleep, read more to find out how.
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Here are our tips for better sleep in general:
sleep schedule
Having a set sleep schedule is important not only for your overall health, but also for your sleep health. The Sleep Foundation advises everyone to go to bed at the same time every day (even on weekends!). Sleeping at different times each day prevents your body from letting you slip into REM.
Hydrate
It’s important to stay hydrated throughout the day to keep your body performing at its full potential, but it’s important to know when to stop. Drink most of your water early in the day so you don’t drink too many liquids before bedtime so you can stay asleep through the night and don’t have to get up often to go to the bathroom.
supplements
REM sleep is initiated by the neurotransmitter GABA. Not getting enough can be caused by a lack of magnesium in your body system. By simply taking a magnesium supplement, you can begin to see positive effects on your sleep schedule.
Exercise
Exercising, as we all know, takes a lot of energy. By doing so, you can use up a lot of energy before bedtime, making you tired and allowing you to fall into deeper sleep more easily than if you hadn’t.
Sleep problems
There are several different sleep disorders including insomnia, sleep apnea, narcolepsy, etc. It is important to diagnose and treat them in order to achieve a good sleep schedule which, in turn, allows you to have better NREM and REM sleep.
therapeutic massage
Many different factors combine to cause irregular sleep schedules, with stress being one of the main ones. Massages can help reduce the amount of cortisol, a hormone that causes stress, while increasing the amount of serotonin and dopamine. Massages can also help you feel more relaxed, which will help you fall asleep easily.
To smoke
Smoking, particularly marijuana, can disrupt REM sleep cycles. This is because by smoking marijuana you fall into a deeper sleep. In fact, long-term use has shown negative effects on the REM cycle. Reducing your intake or quitting smoking will help your body enter REM cycles more easily.
By Health Fitness Revolution. Articles in English