How to know your correct time to wake up. In what phase of sleep is it better to wake up. How to calculate the best time to wake up
While we sleep, various processes take place in our body, our brain is active, and sleep can be divided into stages: REM sleep and slow sleep. During sleep, these stages are repeated sequentially, on average, 4-5 cycles of REM and non-REM sleep pass per night.
The brain works differently at each stage, in some the limbs can move, in others the body remains motionless.
Generally speaking, during the summer months, naps become smaller and shorter in duration, and sleep becomes more consolidated during the night. By the age of six or seven, many children have stopped completely napping. Their sleep is felt as strongly as it is through adulthood: in one consolidated block most often at night.
In many cultures, naps are still a normal part of daily life for young and old alike. This practice, called siesta in Spanish-speaking countries, tends to be more common in the tropics than in more temperate latitudes. Sighs in these cultures usually occur in the middle of the day and coincide with the hottest time of the day, as well as a lull in the brain's alarm signal that works to counteract the drive to sleep.
REM sleep phase. During this phase, the activity of the brain increases, the muscles are in a relaxed state, a sign of this phase is the rapid movement of the eyeballs. The first episode of REM sleep occurs 70-90 minutes after falling asleep and lasts 5-10 minutes. The duration of each subsequent phase increases.
This phase lasts an average of 90-120 minutes per sleep cycle.
It is believed that the dreams that we remember fall just in the phase of slow sleep, during the last cycles. It is assumed that REM sleep provides the functions of psychological protection, processing of information, its exchange between consciousness and subconsciousness.
As a consequence of these regular daytime naps, nighttime sleep is often pushed to a later hour than for societies or people who don't nap during the day. Although it may appear from the outside, sleep is not completely inactive. During sleep, brain activity changes in characteristic ways during the night. These patterns were divided into two main types of sleep: REM sleep and eye movement non-specific sleep. These stages are characterized by increasingly larger and slower brain waves.
Some of them are strong enough to wake a child from sleep. In early adulthood, the amount of non-REM sleep begins to decline. Older adults usually have relatively short periods of non-REM sleep and fewer of them. In other words, sleep is lighter and fragmented with brief awakenings or longer awakenings throughout the night. Sleep stages and other patterns are described in more detail in Natural Sleep Patterns.
Phase of slow sleep. The deepest stage of sleep lasts 80-90 minutes. Comes right after falling asleep.
Within the non-REM sleep phase, there are 4 sub-phases or periods:
1. Beginning of sleep or nap. In this phase, falling asleep, you may feel cramps in the limbs, a feeling of falling. During this phase, our brain continues to analyze the information received during the day, during this period there may come an awareness of how to solve problems or bursts of creativity.
2. Light sleep, taking up almost half the time. During this phase, there are small bursts of brain activity, turning off the consciousness of "sleep spindles" in the pauses between the spindles (and they occur about 2-5 times per minute), it is easy to wake a person up.
3. The third stage of non-REM sleep is intermediate, it does not have any striking differences from the others. A person during this stage is difficult to wake up, if he woke up, then for some time he feels disoriented.
4. Stage of sound sleep, deep sleep. In this stage, most often there are bouts of sleepwalking, talking, enuresis in children. It is at this stage that it is most difficult to wake up, you will feel tired and overwhelmed.
Sleep problems become more common as we age, often starting in teenagers. As children move into adolescence, both sleep stages and the sleep cycle remain largely unchanged. However, one thing that makes a difference is the timing of their sleep. Humans have an internal 24-hour clock, also called the circadian pacemaker, which partly determines when people fall asleep and when they wake up, as well as their level of alertness while they are awake.
Interestingly, due to developmental changes, the preferred times for falling asleep and waking are usually delayed in adolescents. This results in many high school students staying up relatively late at night because their internal clock keeps them from feeling sleepy until very late. However, school start times are usually much earlier than typical teenage preferred wake times. As a result, many students must wake up unusually early in their internal circadian cycle and after inappropriate napping.
So how can we put into practice knowledge about the physiological laws of our body, what time to go to bed in order to feel light and rested in the morning? The calculation of the sleep phase will help you to be more cheerful in the morning!
Sleep phases can be calculated based on their duration and brain activity during these periods.
The non-REM sleep phase lasts an average of 2 hours, the REM sleep phase lasts 20 minutes. As mentioned above, the greatest activity of the brain falls on the phase of REM sleep, this state of the brain is similar to the state of wakefulness.
That is, every 2 hours and 20 minutes you can wake up quite easily. The average duration of sleep, in order for the body to be able to restore its strength, is 6-8 hours, you, based on the patterns of sleep phases, can easily count 4-5 intervals of 2 hours and 20 minutes and set the alarm at the right time.
However, there are certain nuances. This timing assumes accuracy. There is no guarantee that you will immediately be able to fall asleep, if you are very tired physically, then the time spent in the non-REM sleep phase increases.
Also, exposure to artificial indoor light in the evening fools the internal clock into thinking it's earlier than it actually is, which can make this problem even worse. Many students try to catch up with their sleep by sleeping late on the weekends, but this only pushes their internal clock further out of phase with the weekday schedule.
Another important change with aging is the way in which the two systems that regulate sleep time, the sleep homeostat and the internal clock, interact with each other. Under normal circumstances, these two systems keep us going throughout the day and allow us to sleep through the night. However, as people age, the window during which the internal clock allows sleep narrows. This may explain why older people tend to wake up early in the morning and fall asleep earlier in the evening, as well as why they are unable to take a nap earlier in the day.
Sleep plays one of the most important roles in human life. But, unfortunately, many neglect it, preferring work or entertainment. It has long been scientifically proven that lack of sleep cannot be filled with anything else, as it has a great impact on productivity, health and much more.
How much sleep does a person need?
Probably everyone has asked this question. To answer it, an experiment was specially conducted: 48 people were collected who did not have any pronounced health deviations and who regularly slept for 7-8 hours a day. They were divided into 4 groups: the first 12 were forbidden to sleep for 3 days, the other 12 were allowed to sleep for 4 hours, the third group for 6 hours, and the last group slept for 8 hours a day. The last three groups had to hold out with this regimen for 2 weeks. During this experience, the participants and their physical condition were observed.
Given what we know, late childhood may be the "golden age" of sleep throughout life. At the age of 11 or 12, sleep disturbances begin to creep in. In fact, nearly 7 out of every 10 adults experience problems that affect sleep quality.
Some sleep problems are especially important for older women. Half of them report sleep disturbances during menstruation; three-quarters of expectant mothers report that sleep is more disturbing during pregnancy; and many experience menopausal sleep disturbance, due in part to nocturnal "hot flashes."
As a result of the experiment, people who continued to sleep for 8 hours did not notice any deviations. While in people sleeping 6-4 hours a day, health deteriorated markedly, namely reaction, memory and cognitive functions. If we look at the results in more detail, it was noticeable that the performance of people who slept for 4 hours differed noticeably for the worse even from the group of people who spent 6 hours sleeping. People who slept 6 hours periodically fell asleep during the day, and after a two-week experiment, their health indicators became the same as those of people who did not sleep for 3 days.
Learning to sleep well
Good sleep habits help balance the biological factors that make it harder to achieve healthy sleep as you get older. Find out what you can do today to improve your sleep in twelve easy tips to improve your sleep. And if your sleep difficulties don't improve with good sleep hygiene, you may want to see a doctor or sleep specialist. Learn more about when to seek treatment.
These steps will be explained in more detail below. Sleep stages replace each other in stages of approximately 5 hours, and most people repeat it 4-6 times during the night. The quality of sleep is divided into two types. The subjective quality of sleep is the feeling that he was rested and slept well. A more scientific, objective quality of sleep is determined by measuring the various phases. How long a person is in the deep stages of sleep and how many times they wake up at night is especially considered.
During this experiment, 2 important conclusions were made:
- Lack of sleep is cumulative, meaning that the more often we sleep less than the allotted time, the more the need for sleep increases.
- we do not notice how our health deteriorates when we do not get enough sleep, so we think that everything is in order, but in fact it is not.
Summing up, we note that an average person needs to sleep from 7 to 7 and a half hours a day. To achieve high performance during the day, this time can be extended up to 9 hours. There is no such time when it is better to fall asleep. It is best to choose a certain regime for yourself and try to stick to it. But there is such a thing as sleep cycles. You can calculate them, but it will not bring much benefit.
This stage is sometimes referred to as drowsiness or somnolence. Your eyes close and your body finds peace under the covers. At this stage, you doze off and wait for dreams to come. However, there is still a long way to the dream. First of all, the brainwaves must go through a complete sleep cycle.
As we move from dream sleep to actual sleep, brain waves change from alpha waves to theta waves. Electric currents in the brain fall from 8-12 hertz to 4-7 hertz. The muscles in your body relax and you may experience small, involuntary bumps and jerks in your limbs. These movements are most likely caused by the fact that the body has difficulty controlling the transition from tension and wakefulness to complete relaxation.
Calculation of sleep cycles
In total, there are 2 phases of sleep: fast, which lasts about 20 minutes, and slow, lasting about 2 hours. During the entire time you sleep, these phases constantly alternate. First, a person plunges into a phase of slow sleep, and then it changes to a phase of REM sleep. And that's how the whole process goes. So if there is a need to calculate the phases of sleep, then it is not so difficult to do this, although the result will not be as accurate, since the intervals may differ slightly.
Sleep problems in a child
This first phase of sleep is usually quite short, and after 5-10 minutes you begin to slip into the second phase of sleep. When we are there, there is no doubt about it: the dream has come. At this stage of sleep, people will always reply "I'm dreaming" when asked if they are awake. Brain waves begin to show the characteristic signs of sleep. So-called sleeping spindles happen every time. These spindles are bursts of brain activity that help us sleep.
Timing of sleep phases
Spin hairpins are sometimes called sigma bands or sigma waves. In the second stage of sleep, the person no longer has anything to do with their consciousness. In adults, the second stage takes up about half of the night's sleep. The third stage of sleep is deep sleep. The brain waves are very slow and delta waves of 1-2 hertz occur. This is where you really sleep and your body regenerates.
There are many different special calculators that will help you calculate your sleep cycles. But you can do all this on your own. This is usually needed when you want to calculate the easiest time to wake up. For example, if you are at 11:00 pm, then it will be easiest to wake up at the following time:
- 01:20 (2 hours 20 minutes sleep);
- 03:40 (4 hours 40 minutes sleep);
- 06:00 (7 hours of sleep);
- 08:20 (9 hours 20 minutes sleep);
- 10:40 (11 hours 40 minutes sleep);
- 13:00 (14 hours of sleep).
faster?
It is at this stage that a person may sleep, talk in their sleep, or wet their bed. During this stage, people will feel very tired and sleepy. Waking up not knowing where you are is common. It is much more difficult to wake a person from this stage, and the brain will be working at half power approximately ½ hour after waking up.
A good start to the day has many benefits.
Sometimes people claim they can slip right into this sleep stage, such as parents with babies and elite soldiers. The reason is that when you are tired, you sleep better and are closer to the later stages of sleep from the start. These people simply make better use of their sleep and achieve true sleep faster.
But in order for such calculations to be accurate, it is desirable to fall asleep quickly, which is not always possible. In order to make the process of falling asleep easier, it is necessary to follow some rules that are relevant for both adults and children.
- Firstly, it is extremely important to stick to the regime, as the body gets used to the time when you usually go to bed. But for its observance it is necessary to wake up earlier. In order to make this easier, you can calculate the phases of sleep when it is better to wake up.
- The best sleeping pill is an active day. If during the day you worked hard, then by the evening you will definitely fall asleep.
- Overeating is often a barrier to falling asleep quickly, so it's best to avoid large meals before bed.
- A walk in the fresh air before bed is a very good option to relax, which will also help you fall asleep faster.
Unusual sleep patterns
- The cycle of the superman. This mode is a rather unusual distribution of time: sleep should take 20 minutes every 4 hours. In total, it turns out that you need to sleep 6 times a day. According to the impressions of people who have tried to do this, such a routine has a positive effect on the body, namely, health improves, more energy and strength appear, moreover, vivid dreams are dreamed. But with this mode, it is extremely important to strictly monitor the time and not miss a single break for sleep. This implies the main disadvantage: such a specific regimen can interfere, since it is not always possible to postpone all business and go to bed.
- Biphasic cycle. It is not much different from the usual, but still more effective. Its essence follows from the name: the division of sleep into two times a day, namely 4-4.5 hours at night and a couple of hours during the day. Switching to this mode will be quite difficult for those who are not used to this. But many schoolchildren and students actively use such a schedule, since due to daytime sleep, energy is added, and a little less time is spent.
NREM sleep
The stage is also known as REM sleep, as the brain appears to be awake in the sleeping body. Scientists once believed that sleep was a passive state, a time when a person's brain and body shut down at night to rest and recover. But researchers now know that sleep is a very active time, a period during which the brain and some physiological processes can be hard at work.
For example, some hormones involved in growth in children, cell repair, or digestion are increased during sleep. Brain pathways associated with learning and memory are also increasing, according to the National Institutes of Health. In fact, the brain is sometimes more active when a person is asleep than when he or she is awake, according to Harvard Medical School. But sleep can also slow down many other physiological processes, from heart rate and breathing to body temperature and blood pressure.
During this time, the body completely relaxes, breathing becomes slower, the brain loses sensitivity to external stimuli, which makes awakening more difficult. It is this phase that is of great importance for the whole organism, since it is during this period of time that cells are renewed and restored due to the production of a hormone that is responsible for tissue growth and muscle renewal. There is also such a fact that it is at this time that the immune system is restored. If we summarize all the knowledge, we can conclude that the slow phase of sleep is extremely important for the physical state of the body.
The stage of sleep a person enters also affects the activity of the brain and body. Stuart Quan, clinical director of sleep and circadian disorders at Brigham and Women's Hospitals in Boston. This sequence changes somewhat between the first and second halves of sleep.
Living Science asked Kuan for a more detailed explanation of what happens in the body and brain during each of these four stages of sleep. This is a relatively light form of sleep that lasts about 5-10 minutes. At this stage, the heart rate and breathing begin to slow down, eye movements also slow down, and the muscles relax. The body temperature decreases and the brain waves, if seen on an electroencephalogram in a sleep lab, will be slow.
REM sleep
REM sleep has a different meaning. During it, the brain is activated and begins to sort information, due to which a person sees dreams. At this time, unnecessary information is forgotten, as a result of which memory performance improves. Also, the experience gained over the past 24 hours seems to be combined with the existing one, which means that learning is facilitated and even neural connections are strengthened. This sleep phase usually occurs 3 to 5 times a night for a short period of time. During it, there is an increase in temperature, blood pressure and increased heart rate. Thus, there is no specific phase of sleep when it is better to sleep. Both cycles are equally important and necessary for the body, and neither of them should be neglected. Similarly, there is no specific sleep phase when it is best to go to bed and wake up. The basis of healthy sleep in any case is compliance with the regime, from which the body itself will know when it's time to sleep. To do this, it is not at all necessary to calculate your sleep cycles. You can calculate them only for your own interest.
It's a sudden, brief muscle jerk that can occur along with a falling sensation when the person is in, he said. When this happens, this sudden movement may or may not wake the sleeper. This is also considered a period of light sleep.
During this stage, eye movement stops, heart rate slows down, brain waves slow down, and muscles relax even further. Blood pressure drops and body temperature drops even more slowly. Muscle activity decreases and there is no eye movement.
Kuan explained that blood pressure was dropping, but not to a dangerous degree. Although this eye movement does not occur all the time, scientists do not know exactly why it occurs, although some have suggested that it is related to dreaming. Body temperature drops to its lowest point during sleep.
The effect of age on sleep
Based on both human experience and scientific statements, one can be convinced that the older a person is, the more difficult it is for him to fall asleep. This phenomenon even has a name - delayed sleep. In addition, there is also a reduction in the time calculated for sleep phases.
Calculating sleep cycles for a child is not so difficult, but it should also be taken into account that the proportion of REM sleep decreases with age. The deep sleep of a child is much stronger than that of adults. At this time, children may not react in any way to any external factors. Deep sleep lasts about 20 minutes. At this time, the body restores strength and replenishes the energy spent. Deep sleep takes the most time in the first half of the night. In the second half, predominantly fast or superficial sleep is noted.
Awakening
The easiest way to wake up is at the end at the end of the REM sleep phase, but it is not always possible to accurately calculate this time. Therefore, to make your life easier, just find the motivation to wake up early in the morning. It is not necessary to get up immediately after you wake up. Probably, every person likes to lie in the morning, and you don’t need to deny yourself this. At this time, you can lie down and think about something good, for example, about the people you love. You can also do breathing exercises. Just take a few deep breaths. This will help oxygenate the brain. Another useful morning ritual is a glass of clean water. This actually has a lot of benefits, since by doing this you activate the metabolism and replenish the lack of fluid in the body.
