What Happens When I'm Asleep?

Sleep is more than your brain and body shutting off.  While you’re asleep, your brain remains active, overseeing many maintenance tasks that help keep you running for the next day.  Without enough sleep, you wouldn’t be able to work, learn, or communicate properly.  Mental and physical breakdowns can be a result of irregular sleep patterns. 

It’s more than the number of hours in bed that matters.  The quality of those hours is just as important.  If you allow yourself to get a decent amount of sleep, but you still have problems staying alert all day, you probably aren’t spending enough time in the different stages of sleep.  There are 5 stages of sleep in the cycle.  They are:

• Stage One:  This is the lightest stage of sleep.  It’s the transition between wakefulness and slumber.  It usually lasts for about 5-10 minutes, and if you wake someone during this time, they often claim that   
• Stage Two:  This is where your brain begins to make rapid activity known as sleep spindles.  During these 20 minutes, your body temperature and heart rate begin to decrease.
• Stage Three:  This is when you begin to transition between light sleep into a very deep sleep.  Slow brain waves called “delta waves” are produced during this stage.
• Stage Four:  This stage lasts for 30 minutes, and the delta waves continue to happen.  Sleepwalking is most likely to occur at the end of this stage.
• Stage Five:  This stage is commonly known as REM (rapid eye movement) sleep.  REM is characterized by eye movement, increased brain and breathing rates.  During this stage, the brain becomes more active, muscles are relaxed, and voluntary muscles often become paralyzed. Dreaming happens most during this last part of the cycle. 

It’s important to know that these stages do not progress in order.  Sleep begins in the first stage, and moves into 2, 3, and 4.  Once the fourth stage is complete, we move back to the third and then the second before entering the fifth stage.  Once the fifth stage is over, the body usually returns back to the second stage.  This happens about 3-4 times a night.