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How to improve the quality of deep sleep?

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Most adults need 7-9 hours of sleep, but this is not enough to guarantee this. Ten minutes of sleep quality is also important.

When you fall asleep, your body and brain go through different stages. The deep sleep phase guarantees that you wake up feeling refreshed the next morning. Unlike REM sleep, deep sleep is non-REM sleep, or slow-wave sleep.

Individuals are more likely to wake up from light sleep, but often have a harder time waking up from deep sleep. If you have to wake up from this stage, you will experience a severe drowsiness.

What is the sleep cycle like?

The sleep cycle can be broken down into two phases: REM and NREM. Right after falling asleep, people will first experience NREM sleep, followed by a short REM sleep, which together form a sleep cycle. This cycle continues approximately every 90 minutes.

Deep sleep occurs during the final stages of NREM.

NREM sleep

NREM1 is the initial phase of your transition from wakefulness to sleep, which usually only lasts a few minutes.

In NREM1 sleep:

In NREM2 sleep:

In NREM3-4 sleep: The individual begins to experience deep sleep.

For this reason, deep sleep is also called “slow wave sleep” or sleep.

One episode of deep sleep may occur between 45 and 90 minutes after falling asleep. The duration of deep sleep in the first half of the night is longer, and the duration of deep sleep in the second half of the night will be shorter.

REM sleep:

It is also known as Stage 5 sleep. A bout of REM sleep occurs about 90 minutes after falling asleep, which is after a bout of NREM sleep ends.

At this stage:

What are the benefits of deep sleep?

During deep sleep, the metabolism of glucose in the brain will increase significantly, which is used to help short-term memory, long-term memory and overall learning.

During deep sleep, the pituitary gland secretes important hormones, such as growth hormone, that help the body grow and develop.

Other benefits:

What happens if you don’t have enough deep sleep time?

Deep sleep helps you process all the information you encounter during the day. If you don’t get enough deep sleep, your brain can’t store this information in memory (hippocampus).

Deep sleep deprivation is also associated with the following diseasesDisease related:

The deep sleep stage itself is directly related to some sleep disorders:

How much deep sleep does a person need?

Every night, about 75% of Dayouyou resource network is in the NREM period, and only 25% is in the REM period. About 13-23% of the total sleep time is deep sleep.

Deep sleep decreases with age. If you are currently under 30, you need about 2 hours of deep sleep every night. If you are over 65 years old, you may only get half an hour of deep sleep, or even no sleep at all.

Young people have a greater need for deep sleep than older people because deep sleep can promote growth and development. Older people also need deep sleep, but even if they don’t get enough deep sleep, it doesn’t mean they have a sleep disorder.

How to judge your deep sleep needs time?

Easiest way to tell: If you wake up feeling extremely tired, it means you haven’t had enough time for deep sleep.

You can wear a smart wearable device (smart watch) at night to track body movement parameters. This might provide some information about sleep patterns, but it’s not accurate enough.

The doctor will advise you to do polysomnography, PSG). During the examination, you will lie on a specific examination bed, and some monitoring equipment will be installed on your body to detect:

The doctor can analyze whether you have deep sleep from the examination results.

Some suggestions for increasing deep sleep:

Moderate heating will promote the production of slow wave sleep. So taking a hot bath or massage before going to bed can improve the quality of sleep.

Getting enough sleep overall will also increase deep sleep.

For more sleep information, please see:

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