Now that you know the basics of how sleep works, we can explore how deep the rabbit hole really goes :o) What is quality sleep?
Well, first you may want to understand that the sleep stages explained above don’t happen only once during sleep. They happen multiple times during sleep in what are called sleep cycles.
During a sleep cycle, we progress from stage 1 to stage 5 multiple times. It would seem really complicated to write out how this works, and because I want you to understand this and grasp this concept clearly, I’ve drawn it out for you! Aren’t I Great? Refer to the graph below, and then we’ll go over it in detail.
The above graph shows an example of how we progress through the sleep stages, and how much time we spend in each stage while sleeping. Note: this graph is just an example, on average we experience about 6-7 of these cycles every night.
So what’s happening here? Well, the typical way we travel through our sleep stages in sleep cycles is as follows:
1, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2, REM, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2 REM 2, 3, 4, 3, 2, REM, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2 REM……
On average, each one of these cycles takes about 60 - 100 minutes, varying from person to person.
As you study the graph carefully, you may notice a couple of other things happening
1. Notice how the first period of deep sleep is the longest. Notice how the stages of deep sleep get shorter and shorter, and eventually non existent towards the end of the night.
2. Notice how the first duration of REM sleep is very short; notice how these periods get longer towards the end.
The understanding you may get out of this is that sleep gradually gets lighter as the night progresses. You may have also realized that we don’t spend an equal amount of time in each stage of sleep. You’re right, and this is where we’ll answer the “What is Quality Sleep?” question. Look at the chart below:
The above chart shows the amount of time an average person spends in each stage of sleep. Let’s talk about this in a bit more detail.
