Short phase of deep sleep. Sleep phases

The bedroom should be dark, fresh and quiet. Use thick curtains or shades to block light from passing through windows. Cover electronic TV or computer screens to prevent light from entering the bedroom. You can also use a sleep mask to prevent ambient light from irritating your eyes.

• If you find it difficult to sleep due to noise outside the window or your partner's snoring, you can buy earplugs or a noise absorber.

Do not consume caffeine or alcohol 4-6 hours before bedtime. Almost half of the dose of caffeine that entered the body at 19:00 is still in the body at 23:00. Caffeine is a known stimulant that can reduce REM sleep and is found in coffee, chocolate, soft drinks, non-herbal tea, diet pills and some painkillers. Reduce the number of cups of coffee in the afternoon or avoid caffeine entirely.

Everything written above is about me. A few years ago in the background severe stress I started having insomnia. She left along with the problems, but these night awakenings and morning weakness remained.

A little theory. Our sleep is divided into cycles, each of them lasts one and a half to two hours and includes two phases - slow and fast. The cycle ends with the fast phase; it is in this phase that we see dreams (this is about 20% of the cycle). And it all starts with a slow phase. In it, first there is a short drowsiness, then that same superficial sleep, then a sleep of moderate depth and, finally, a deep one.

Surprisingly, light sleep is the longest part of the cycle, 50%. Moderately deep and deep sleep is half as long as shallow sleep, but these are the most important minutes. It is deep sleep that allows the body and, first of all, the brain to recover. Therefore, if there is no deep sleep or not enough of it, a person wakes up exhausted - even if he spent the required eight hours in bed.

Most somnologists, sleep specialists, agree on simple rules restoring the sleep cycle. Follow the routine strictly and get enough sleep. Before going to bed, do not eat heavily, do not drink alcohol, and avoid heavy exercise. Ideally, don’t read, don’t watch movies, drink warm milk and go to bed until midnight.

By following these wonderful recommendations, you will definitely learn to sleep like a baby. Only I'm not a baby. I need to work, sometimes after hours. Meeting friends - and our parties rarely end by midnight. Can dancing in a club be considered not too serious a load?.. Planes and trains do not adjust their schedule to my sleep schedule. In a word, an adult active person following these recommendations is quite difficult.

About alternative rules a friend told me about deep sleep. Two years ago she gave birth to a son. During the first months, my mother cannot sleep properly, this is understandable. But my friend continued to suffer shallow sleep, and when the son stopped lifting her at night. These rules, proposed by the British medical portal, they helped her. They seemed more feasible to me, and I decided to start an experiment: the return of calm, deep sleep was promised after just seven days.

Rules for deep sleep:

1. Get up at the same time, no matter what time you go to bed. Even if you slept less than your norm and didn’t get enough sleep, you still get up.

2. Do not sleep during the day and do not doze off in the evening, for example, on the sofa in front of the TV.

3. Don't drink coffee in the afternoon.

4. If you can’t sleep, get up and get busy, rather than counting sheep.

I set my wake-up time at seven in the morning and kept a diary all week.

Night 1, Wednesday

I went to bed at midnight and fell asleep for about an hour. At about two I woke up: it seemed to me from the squeak of a mosquito. I don’t remember how long I lay awake. When the alarm rang at seven, I didn’t feel much joy. It was boiled for half a day.

Night 2, Thursday

In the evening I went to a bar with friends. I gave up not only cocktails, but also tea! I drank cocoa (at a bar, yes). Left at 11, went to bed at midnight. I didn’t wake up at night. I got up at seven with an alarm clock - I can’t say I got enough sleep.

Night 3, Friday

“Great” day for an experiment. First the party and then night train to St. Petersburg. At the party I didn’t refuse cocktails (but no cola, only juice!). The train left at two in the morning. I went to bed at three and fell asleep immediately. The alarm clock rang at the appointed seven, which made the neighbors in the compartment incredibly happy.

Night 4, Saturday

Another night on the train - I’m returning to Moscow. Despite being tired, I can’t fall asleep. “Getting up and doing business,” as the rules advise, is problematic on the train. I decided to take this opportunity and think through some questions and plans. I fell asleep around three and woke up at night. I had to wake up at 6.30: at seven the train was already arriving at the station.

Night 5, Sunday

Two nights in a row on trains took their toll. I fell asleep at about 10 pm, slept like the dead, woke up at seven in the morning quite cheerfully.

Night 6, Monday

Fell asleep at 12, got up at seven. I didn’t wake up at night, I felt fine during the day.

Night 7, Tuesday

Last night of the experiment. I fell asleep at two. I slept great. And at seven... I didn’t hear the alarm clock and overslept.

Conclusions. It was not possible to thoroughly follow all the rules, but in 90% of cases I followed them. And it was pretty easy even with my schedule. I slept well the last three nights. Of course, this could be the result of fatigue from trains, but previously even severe lack of sleep did not prevent me from having problems with night awakenings and shallow sleep.

And yet, a week is clearly not enough to restore normal deep sleep. There are successes - that's a fact. I’ll follow the rules for at least another 2-3 weeks and we’ll see. Do you have your own secrets for healthy sleep?

Every day the human body requires night rest. Human sleep has its own characteristics and is divided into slow-wave sleep and fast-moving sleep. What is best for the human body was determined by scientists who proved that both cycles are necessary for good rest.

Human sleep: its physiology

Daily sleep onset is a necessity. If a person is deprived of rest for three days, he becomes emotionally unstable, attention decreases, memory loss, and mental retardation occur. Psycho-neurotic overexcitation and depression predominate.

During sleep, all organs along with human brain resting. At this time, people’s subconscious is switched off, and performance procedures, on the contrary, are launched.

To answer the question - slow sleep and fast sleep: which is better, you should first understand what is meant by these concepts

IN modern science the concept of sleep is interpreted as a periodic, functional period with specific behavior in the motor and autonomic spheres. At this time, immobility and disconnection from the sensory influence of the surrounding world occurs.

In this case, two phases alternate in a dream, with characteristic opposite characteristics. These stages are called slow and fast sleep.

Slow and fast cycle together restore mental and physical strength, activate the brain’s performance for information processing of the past day. In this case, the processed information is transferred from short memory, for a long time.

This activity allows you to resolve problems accumulated during the day, as well as absorb the information that was received in the evening.

In addition, proper rest helps to improve the health of the body. When a person sleeps, he loses moisture, which is explained by slight weight loss. IN large quantities Collagen is produced, which is necessary to strengthen blood vessels and restore the elasticity of the skin.

That's why, To look good you need at least 8 hours of sleep. While a person sleeps, his body cleanses itself in preparation for the next day.

There is no clear answer to the question of whether slow or fast sleep is better - only ¾ of sleep time is spent on slow sleep, but this is enough for proper rest.

Slow sleep cycle, its features

Features slow sleep are:

• increase and decrease in pressure;
• preservation of average pulse rhythm;
• decline motor functions organs of vision;
• muscle relaxation.

During the slow phase, the body relaxes, breathing slows down, and the brain loses sensitivity to external stimuli, which is an indicator of a difficult awakening.

In this phase, cell restoration occurs due to the production of a hormone responsible for tissue growth and renewal of the muscular body. During the slow phase, the immune system is also restored, which indicates the importance of slow sleep for physiological state.

The main components of slow-wave sleep

NREM sleep is divided into 4 phases with diverse bioelectrical characteristics. When a person falls into slow-wave sleep, the body's activity decreases, and at this time it is difficult to wake him up. In the deep stage of slow-wave sleep, heart rate and breathing increase, and blood pressure decreases.

Slow sleep rehabilitates and heals the body, restores cells and tissue, which improves the condition internal organs, REM sleep does not have such features.

Nap

When a person falls into a state of drowsiness, there is conjecture and revision of those ideas that appeared during daytime wakefulness. The brain is looking for a solution and possible correct exits from the current situations. Often people have dreams in which problems are solved with positive result.

Sleep spindles

After dozing, the sleep spindle rhythm begins. The disabled subconscious alternates with a threshold of significant hearing sensitivity.

Delta sleep

Delta sleep has it all characteristic features the previous stage, to which the delta oscillation of 2 Hz joins. The amplitude increase in the rhythm of oscillations becomes slower, and the transition to the fourth phase occurs.

Delta sleep is called the transitional stage to the deepest rest.

Deep delta sleep

This stage during slow-wave sleep is characterized by dreams, dull energy, and heavy lifting. A sleeping person is practically impossible to awaken.

Deep phase Delta sleep occurs 1.5 hours after going to bed. This final stage slow sleep.

Rapid sleep cycle, its features

Fast night sleep called paradoxical or fast wave. At this time there are changes in human body. REM sleep has its own distinctive features:

• clear memory of visible dream, which cannot be said about the slow-wave sleep phase;
• improved respiratory rate and arrhythmia of the cardiovascular system;
• loss of muscle tone;
• the muscle tissue of the neck and oral diaphragm stops moving;
• pronounced motor character of the apples of the visual organs under closed eyelids.

REM sleep with the onset of a new cycle has longer duration, but at the same time, less depth, despite the fact that wakefulness is approaching with each cycle, it is difficult to wake a person during fast-wave sleep.

REM sleep has only two cycles: emotional; unemotional.

During the period of accelerated sleep, messages received the day before before rest are processed, data is exchanged between the subconscious and the mind. A quick night's rest is necessary for a person and the brain to adapt to changes in the surrounding space. Interruption of the sleep phase in question threatens mental disorders.

People who do not have proper rest are deprived of the possibility of rebirth protective functions mental health, as a result: lethargy, tearfulness, irritability, absent-mindedness.

Sequence of sleep stages

Slow sleep and REM sleep - which is better cannot be answered unequivocally, since both phases perform various functions. The slow cycle begins immediately, followed by deep rest. During REM sleep, it is difficult for a person to wake up. This occurs due to disabled sensory perceptions.

Night rest has a beginning - it is a slow phase. First, the person begins to doze, this lasts a little less than a quarter of an hour. Then stages 2, 3, 4 begin gradually, this takes about another 60 minutes.

With each stage, sleep deepens, and a fast phase begins, which is very short. After it there is a return to phase 2 of slow-wave sleep.

The change between fast and slow rest occurs up to 6 times throughout the night.

After completing the stages under consideration, the person awakens. Waking up occurs individually for everyone; the awakening process takes from 30 seconds to 3 minutes. During this time, clarity of consciousness is restored.

Scientific research has shown that a person who is frequently deprived of REM sleep can end up dying.

The reason why self-destruct occurs is unknown. Other studies show that in some cases, when there is a lack of the fast phase, treatment of depressive conditions is noted.

What is the difference between slow and fast sleep?

The body behaves differently during one sleep phase or another; the main differences between the cycles are shown in the table.

Slow sleep and REM sleep, which cannot be better defined, because there is a chemical, physiological, functional dependence between them, in addition, they participate in a single balanced process of rest of the body.

During a slow night's rest, internal rhythms in the brain structure are regulated; a quick rest helps to establish harmony in these structures.

When is it better to wake up: in the NREM or REM stage of sleep?

The general state of health and well-being of a person depends on the phase of waking up. The worst time to wake up is during deep sleep. Having awakened at this moment, a person feels weak and tired.

The best time to wake up is the first or second stage after REM sleep ends. Doctors do not recommend getting up during REM sleep.

Be that as it may, when a person has had enough sleep, he is cheerful and full of energy. Usually this happens immediately after the dream, he reacts to sound, lighting, temperature regime. If he gets up immediately, then his condition will be excellent, and if he still sleeps, a new cycle of slow sleep will begin.

Waking up during slow-wave sleep, which usually occurs when the alarm clock rings, a person will be irritated, lethargic, and sleep-deprived.

That's why The best moment of awakening is considered to be the one when a person did it on his own, no matter what time is on the clock, the body is rested and ready to work.

It is impossible to judge which sleep is better; slow sleep is needed to restart, reboot and rest the body. REM sleep is needed to restore protective functions. Therefore, it is better to have a full sleep, without lack of sleep.

Video in sleep phases, slow and fast sleep

What is sleep, as well as what is meant by the concepts of “slow sleep” and “rapid eye sleep”, which is better - you will learn about all this from the video below:

Check out these tips on how to get good, healthy sleep:

A sleep-deprived person often faces problems feeling unwell, lack of strength. It loses efficiency, and the functionality of all body systems deteriorates. Night rest - physiologically complex process. It consists of 5 constantly changing slow and fast phases. At this time, a person has time not only to relax, but also to rethink the information accumulated during the day. It is important for everyone to know what slow-wave sleep is, since it is what allows you to fully restore strength.

The first experiments to study night rest, how physiological process, consisted in its interruption in certain time. After this, the subject’s sensations were recorded. They made it possible to establish that night rest consists of phases that change sequentially. The first scientist to study sleep was A.A. Manaseina. She determined that sleep at night is more important for a person than food.

In the 19th century, the scientist Kelschutter found that sleep is stronger and deeper in the first hours after falling asleep. Closer to the morning it becomes superficial. Maximum informative research began to be used after they began to use an electroencephalogram, which records electrical waves emitted by the brain.

Distinctive features of slow-wave sleep

The slow phase takes up about 85% of the total sleep volume. It's different from fast stage holiday with such features:

1. Consists of 4 stages.
2. At the moment of falling asleep, the movements of the eyeballs are smooth. At the end of the stage they freeze.
3. Dreams at this stage do not have a vivid plot. For some people they may be completely absent.
4. Disruption of the slow-wave sleep phase is accompanied by a person's irritability; he gets up tired and cannot get enough sleep. His performance declines and his health deteriorates. This happens due to the fact that not all neurochemical processes are completed.
5. Breathing and pulse become slow, blood pressure and body temperature drop.
6. At this stage, complete muscle relaxation occurs.

Advice! As for REM sleep, a person wakes up at this stage without consequences for the body. Everyone is being activated life processes: increased heart rate, breathing. This rest phase is shorter.

The value of deep sleep

In order for a person to get enough sleep, he must rest properly. During slow sleep, growth hormone is synthesized and cells are intensively restored. The body is able to relax well and renew its energy reserves. At this stage, the rhythms of all brain structures are regulated.

An adult has the opportunity to restore his immune system. If you sleep correctly, sufficient quantity time, the metabolism and removal of toxins from body tissues improves. In the slow-wave sleep phase, active processing of information received during the day occurs, consolidation of the learned material.

Elements constituting the Orthodox phase

The slow-wave sleep stage consists of several elements, which can be read about in the table:

These stages have a certain percentage:

1. Napping: 12.1%.
2. Sleep spindles: 38.1%.
3. Delta sleep: 14.2%.
4. Deep delta sleep: 23.5%.

REM sleep takes up 23.5% of the total time.

Duration of the slow stage per night

Many users want to know how long slow-wave sleep should last per night to prevent sleep deprivation. This cycle begins immediately after the sleeper transitions into unconsciousness. Next comes the deep phase. Sensory perception is switched off and cognitive processes are dulled. Normally, the nap period can last 15 minutes. The last three stages take about an hour. Total duration the slow phase (excluding alternation with REM sleep) is 5 hours.

The length of this period is affected by age. In a child, this phase lasts 20 minutes, in adults under 30 years old – 2 hours. Further, it decreases: from 55-60 years - 85 minutes, after 60 years - 80. Healthy rest should take at least 6-8 hours a day.

It should be noted that the amount of sleep per night is different for each person. Some people can sleep quickly and 4-5 hours will be enough for them, while for others 8-9 hours will not be enough. Here you need to pay attention to your feelings.

Important to know! Determining the exact time required for a night's rest is done by trial. This will take 1-2 weeks. But we must not allow constant disruption of the slow phase.

The human condition during deep sleep

At night, the deep stage will be accompanied by complete relaxation muscular system, brain. Conductivity changes nerve impulses, dulls sensory perception. Metabolic processes and the functioning of the stomach and intestines slow down.

During this period, the brain requires less oxygen, blood flow becomes less active. Proper night's rest will be characterized by slowing down the aging process of tissues.

Reducing the slow phase: what is the danger

Depending on how long the slow phase of sleep lasts, a person will feel good and work. Its reduction is fraught with the emergence serious problems with health: clarity of consciousness is lost, appears constant drowsiness. Regular disruption of the normal duration and structure of sleep leads to chronic insomnia. A person has the following problems:

• increased fatigue;
• immunity decreases;
• irritability increases, mood often changes;
• are violated metabolic processes, mental functions and attention are dulled;
• the functioning of the endocrine system becomes problematic;
• the risk of developing heart and vascular diseases increases;
• performance and endurance decrease;
• Insulin synthesis fails.

Attention! Decreased sleep leads to the development of atherosclerosis, diabetes mellitus, oncological pathologies. Comparative analysis showed that the slow and fast phases of night rest are equally important, although their characteristics will differ.

Regardless of whether a man or woman has a disturbed sleep structure, or how much a person sleeps, if he does it incorrectly, he will not get rest desired result. To improve its quality, you need to follow the following recommendations from experts:

1. Stick to a bedtime schedule. It is better to go to bed no later than 11 pm. At the same time, it is advisable to wake up no earlier than 7 am (this indicator varies from person to person).
2. Before going to bed, you need to ventilate the room. The temperature in the bedroom should not exceed 22 degrees. To improve your sleep quality, you can: evening walk in the fresh air.
3. A few hours before rest, you should not eat food that requires a long digestion time. IN as a last resort, you can drink a glass of warm milk.
4. Night rest should include the period after midnight to 5 am.
5. Drinking coffee, strong tea or alcohol in the evening is strictly prohibited.
6. If a person has difficulty falling asleep, then he can drink tea using soothing herbs (motherwort, valerian), take a relaxing bath with sea ​​salt. Aromatherapy often helps you fall asleep.
7. It is important to choose a comfortable resting position.
8. Preference should be given to orthopedic devices for rest. The mattress should be flat and hard. Do not use a high headboard.
9. The room should be quiet and dark at night.
10. After waking up it is better to take contrast shower or do light exercises.

Proper night's rest, respecting its structure, is the key to good health and wellness. A person wakes up rested, productive, and in a great mood. Systematic lack of sleep will lead to serious violations functionality of the body that is not easy to get rid of.

For a long time it was believed that during sleep the body simply switches off and rests. Only through research into the phenomenon of sleep did it become clear that the brain and life support systems actively function during sleep and perform necessary work during its corresponding periods. Yes, it is not homogeneous and consists of certain phases of sleep, each of which has its own characteristics and serves specific purposes. Understanding sleep phases (or stages of sleep) will help us see how important it is to follow the recommendations to achieve maximum effective rest on the one hand, and the active functioning of our brain and body on the other.

Sleep phases and their characteristics

What is it sleep phases, what do they depend on and how are they determined? First of all, it should be noted that each sleep phase is associated with a specific type of waves electrical activity in the brain. There are two main stages of sleep:

• REM sleep phase(REM sleep stage)
• deep sleep phase(NREM sleep stage)

Deep sleep is divided into 3 types.

Typically, sleep begins with stage 1 deep sleep. Next comes the deep sleep phase 2, followed by the deep sleep phase 3. And only after passing through all three phases of deep sleep is a transition to the REM sleep phase possible. Consider each of the phases in more detail:

Deep sleep phase 1.

Our journey begins from this stage of slow-wave sleep. Our sleep in this deep sleep phase is easily disturbed and we are awakened by any noise or other disturbance. During this phase of sleep, our muscles relax, our heartbeat and breathing slow down. There are slight eye movements under the eyelids.

Deep sleep phase 2.

This stage of sleep is characterized by our slow brain waves with occasional bursts of fast wave activity. Eye movements stop. We spend about the first half of our night in stage 2 NREM sleep.

Deep sleep phase 3.

In stage 3 sleep, the speed of the waves becomes even lower and the brain begins to reproduce almost only very slow waves (Delta waves). This is a very deep stage of slow-wave sleep, and it is not easy to be awakened during it.

REM sleep phase.

This stage of sleep intersperses periodically with phases 2 and 3 throughout the night. The first appearance of the REM stage of sleep begins approximately an hour and a half after we fall asleep. This stage is characterized by rapid eye movements under the eyelids, intermittent, uneven breathing and heartbeat. The muscles of the arms and legs are periodically paralyzed. The REM sleep phase is also different in that it is here that we dream. We spend about one-fifth of the night in REM sleep (the same amount as in stage 3 deep sleep).

The duration of a particular sleep phase changes with age. For example, an infant spends up to 50% of all sleep time in REM sleep, while in an adult it is only 20%. In addition, the distribution of sleep stages can be influenced by both external conditions, and the internal state of a person. The impact of medications cannot be discounted - Prozac, which is quite popular in the United States, can prevent the full course of the REM sleep phase. Drinking alcohol before bed also affects the REM sleep phase, pushing it to a later time in the overall cycle.

Irregular and irregular sleep has a negative impact on the orderly flow of all phases of sleep. routine sleep. The phases are confused, which means the brain is not able to complete all planned processes in order to maintain the healthy functioning of the entire body.

Sleep structure

Now to practical side. Since sleep has a cyclical structure, sleep phases are repeated throughout the night in the following order G1-G2-G3-G2-G1-B. This is one cycle. Average duration The first cycle is slightly shorter than the subsequent ones and ranges from 70 to 100 minutes, the second and further from 90 to 120 minutes. In many sources you can find that an average value of 90 minutes is taken as a cycle. It is important to remember that 90 min. - this is an approximate figure, and when calculating the total sleep time (number of cycles per night), you must definitely focus on your well-being. You can read more about recommendations for sleep patterns. So, the first recommendation:

RECOMMENDATION 1: The total duration of sleep should be a multiple of a full cycle (from 90 to 120 minutes)

However, our good health, easy and pleasant awakening is associated not only with the number of hours allocated to sleep, but also with the phase in which awakening occurs. If we follow the rule of dividing the total sleep time into cycles (the duration of the first cycle varies from 70 to 100 minutes, the second and subsequent ones from 90 to 120 minutes), then we automatically comply with the conditions for awakening at the beginning of the sleep cycle. In other words, for good health and easy awakening we should wake up at the end of the REM stage of sleep or at the beginning of the first stage of deep sleep.

RECOMMENDATION 2: Awakening should occur at the end of the sleep cycle (at the end of slow-wave sleep or at the beginning of stage 1 deep sleep)

But how to wake up at the end of the cycle? How do we know that now is the best moment to wake up, because we are sleeping? There are several options for solving this problem.

Calculating the time to wake up.

1. Calculate the wake-up time in multiples of cycles of 90-120 minutes. Since there is a range, we can try to set it to 90 minutes first and see how we feel when we wake up. If there is discomfort, try a different cycle length, for example, 100 minutes, etc. Do not forget that the cycle is when we have already fallen asleep. We do not include the time we need to go to sleep (we have already gone to bed, but are still awake - the stage of falling asleep) in the cycle, but take into account “from above” (20 minutes - falling asleep + 5 * 90 = 7 hours 50 minutes of sleep )
2. Go to bed for a long period of time (from a month) at the same time and get up without an alarm clock. Our body itself must begin to wake up at the most opportune moment)
3. Use special programs for tablets and smartphones. You start before sleep starts this program and place the phone face down next to you on the pillow. The program analyzes your sleep throughout the night and determines the best moment to wake up from the time interval you previously set. Programs are available for different platforms, one of the varieties is SleepTime.

Take a nap during the day.

Well, let's not forget about short naps, not very common in northern cultures, but very popular in hot countries. There is much debate about whether napping is beneficial and what effect it has on subsequent sleep stages during the night. Some of the latest research results were announced by Professor Tomohide Yamada from Tokyo (University of Tokyo, Japan) at the annual conference of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes. According to research by a Japanese specialist, too much napping during the day (considered 60 minutes or more) increases the risk of diabetes by 46%. According to the study, the recommended and harmless daytime sleep time is no more than 40 minutes.

Another study on a similar topic was conducted in China. The main goal was to identify the effect of daytime sleep on older people. The study involved 25,184 people ( middle age 63.6 years). The study found that prolonged daytime sleep (90 minutes or more) negatively affects women primarily and contributes to the development of metabolic syndrome.

So, we have recommendations that daytime sleep should not exceed 40-60 minutes. This is entirely consistent with knowledge functional features sleep phases If we take up to 40 minutes to rest during the day, our sleep does not have time to move into the deep stages of sleep, which will make waking up more difficult and can leave us feeling tired and “gross.”

RECOMMENDATION 3: Daytime naps should not exceed 40-60 minutes

Knowing what phases our sleep consists of and their functional meanings- This practical information which will help us organize our sleep in the best possible way. Let's appreciate our body and help it delight us with its performance, health and strength for many, many years.