Apnea Effects Sleep Helpful Article
If you are having a tough time getting to sleep it is essential that understanding rest mechanism and what produces up a healthy night of rest could be helpful in comprehending why you have a slumber disorder. Sleep is not as easily fathomable as you think because you are either up, asleep, or someplace in between. Your body engages in several procedures once your head rests on the pillow and you shut your eyes that ensures how relaxing that sleep is to you.
The first stage of sleep is called stage one which is characterized by drowsiness and at this time your muscles will go limp, you will feel yourself get weary, and your eyes may be heavy enough to close on their own. This stage usually lasts only a few minutes somewhere around ten full minutes. The next stage is light stage often called stage two and at this point your respiratory system and body temperature fall considerably. Your heart rate should also lag during this stage.
Stages three and four are easily determined to be deep sleep and are where you may have difficulty waking up. You may feel groggy and be unable to adjust quickly but this vital stage in sleep allows the brain to truly “turn off” as your circulation slows, after which it is redirected to the body in order to help restore the body. There is also a heightened level of immune action during these two stages of sleep.
REM sleep is stage five and is generally considered the dreaming period of a good night’s rest. Drifting in and out of stage five happens often so there may be several minutes or hours during your period of REM. This part of the sleep process is defined by some physical breathing conditions both irregular and shallow. You may also experience a quickening of the pulse and blood pressure.
This important time in the sleep stage is designed to assist in the processing of emotions and to help relieve stress with each of the sleep cycles giving the person a truly good night’s sleep. People who sleep lightly are usually in stage two and rarely go into three and four where the best benefits of sleep reside. For those who have a hard time arousing from sleep likely are stuck in the deeper parts of sleep and awake suddenly rather than come awake through the various stages of sleep.
The stages of sleep also change based on how much time you spent in each cycle the evenings before, so if you spend more time in deep sleep one night the next night you may spend more time in REM or light sleep. Your body adjusts over time and you will spend about the same average over time in every stage of sleep. This is one of the reasons why it is stated that it is impossible to get caught up on sleep but you can always make up on lost rest.