Sleeping well
Sleep
Today’s hectic and stressful lifestyle has left many of us with varying levels of sleeplessness. There so many levels and types of sleep disorder that it is not surprising that it is such a widespread problem.It affects people of all types, all ages (especially teenagers – believe it or not!) and all levels of fitness. Sleep deprivation due to stress, shift work, caring for children or sick family members takes a toll on our wellbeing making it even more difficult for us to cope with the many demands on our time. Broken sleep patterns can become difficult to re-establish, so it is important to use all the available techniques to prevent the odd night of restlessness becoming an upsetting problem.
Stage 1
A brief stage which lasts only a few minutes but which can easily be disrupted. The body drifts off to sleep. Brain waves are mostly high amplitude, slow waves and occasional alpha waves (like those we have when awake).Stage 2
Heartbeat and breathing begin to slow and the sleep deepens. Slow wave sleep continues with occasional peaks of brain waves occurring.Stage 3 and 4
Our deepest sleep when the brain waves are slow, muscles are relaxed. Dreams are common and sleepwalking and talking may occur in some people.Stages 1 – 4 are non REM sleep and the brain is ‘quiet’, but during this time hormones are released into the bloodstream and the body repairs itself after the wear and tear of the day.
REM Sleep
One of the most important types of sleep is called Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep. REM sleep comes and goes throughout the night lasting from as little as ten minutes to as long as an hour. During REM sleep the brain is very active, our eyes move rapidly from side to side and we dream most vividly. Brain waves resemble those during waking. When deprived of REM sleep we tend to be less adept at problem solving and creative thinking.We sleep differently at different times of our lives depending on our individual body’s needs. For example, athletes are said to spend more of their sleep in stages 3 and 4 when the body repairs itself. Babies and children experience a larger portion of REM sleep than adults.
Sleeping Beauty
After a really good night’s sleep we also look and feel a lot better – that’s because the body needs time to regenerate itself. Cell renewal increases as we sleep and the body deals with the toxins that have built up during the day. The good news is that whilst we are sleeping our skin is one of the organs that are renewing themselves.How much sleep is enough?
Generally speaking this depends on how old you are and how much exercise you take. Babies tend to sleep for about 17 hours a day – they have a lot of growing to do!Older children need around 9 or ten hours and most adults need between 7 and 8 hours a night. This reduces as we get older and sometimes people find it harder to go to sleep later in life.
If we go without sleep, most of us tend to feel drowsy during the day, we find it more difficult to concentrate for any length of time and we may become irritable. We can usually get by with these symptoms occasionally unless we are driving or working with machinery. However, prolonged time of insomnia may begin to create other symptoms such as depression, anxiety and physical aches and pains.
