Levels of Sleep Issues
There are times that you can’t get yourself to sleep because you are worried or bothered by a particular issue. But there are also moments when you can’t get yourself to rest and you do not know the reason why. Still, there are moments that you find so tired and your eyes are truly worn out and sore and, yet, you just find it hard to get yourself to sleep. You keep tossing in bed, ruffling your pillows but sleep remains tough and you wonder what is really developing to you. And just as when the sun is already shining and you’re supposed to be getting up to begin your day, all of a sudden, you fall asleep.
Insomnia – This is the inability to fall asleep, or the disturbance of sleep patterns, such as waking up after a few hours of sleep and it could be sleep deprivation symptoms.
A lot of us have the wrong notion that our mind and body is in a passive state when we are asleep. On the other hand, it’s just a state of mindset or dynamic exercise which gives our body time to rest and develop strength while the brains continue to work.
Sleep has five developments. While in the first level, nap is light and can be simply awakened. At this stage, the eyes progress very slowly as well as muscle movement. Many times, when a person is awakened, sudden muscle contractions occur as if you are falling off. At level 2, eye movement’s stop and brain waves turn slower with irregular burst of rapid waves known as “sleep spindles”. In level 3, delta waves begin to appear. These are extremely slow brain waves interspersed with smaller, faster waves. During level 4, only delta waves are being produced by the brain. You will have a hard time waking up anyone whose sleep is already at stages 3 or 4 or in deep sleep where there is no more eye movement or muscle activity. People who are awakened during deep sleep experience temporary disorientation. It is also during deep sleep level that children encounter bed wetting, night terrors, or sleepwalking.
REM sleep is the final level where inhaling and exhaling becomes faster, shallow and irregular. The eyes jerk quickly in various directions with the limb muscles getting paralyzed for a short time. During this level, the heart rate increases, blood pressure increases, and penile erections occur among men. Dreams are suffered during REM sleep level.
These stages repeat in a cycle. A total sleep cycle takes about 90 to 110 minutes on average. The first sleep cycle each night is characterized by short REM periods and long periods of deep sleep. But as the night goes by, REM sleep periods become longer while deep sleep periods get shorter. In the morning, people spend their sleep time in stages 1, 2, and REM sleep stages. Base to research, we spend 50% of our sleep time in level 2 sleep, about 20% in REM sleep, and 30% in other sleep stages. In comparison, toddlers spend half of their sleep time in REM sleep. Research the net to study more about sleep deprivation and how to get rid of it like sleep tracker review.
Sleep and being awake are affected by various neurotransmitter signals in the brain. When food and medicine change the balance of these signals, we start to feel alarm or slow. In addition it affects the way we sleep. Coffee and other caffeinated drinks as well as weight loss diet pills can cause insomnia by stimulating some parts of the brain. A lot of people suffering from insomnia try to induce sleep by taking over the counter sleeping pills. Some people resort to alcohol which only leads to light sleep, but deprive them of REM and deeper, more restorative stages of sleep.
