Source: National Sleep Organization, Cleveland Clinic, Sleep Foundation
The average person is asleep for 1/3 of their life. But how much do you really know about your sleep habits?
Sleep has become one of those elusive topics that consumers and doctors alike are trying to crack the code to achieve the perfect night's sleep. From sleeping apps to rings that track the different phases and stages of your sleeping habits, how do we really know what the aspects of sleep are if the data surrounding it is still so nebulous? In this article we want to break down what are the different cycles of sleep and what are the tactics that professionals are recommending to acquire the best night's sleep possible. Additionally, we'll look at some of those habits that are really causing us interruptions in our pursuit of feeling well rested in the morning.
According to professionals there are four stages of sleep. We call this the Sleep Cycle.
Stage One: The first stage is stage one which is considered the lightest sleep. During this stage your heartbeat slows, your eyes potentially start rolling back and you start to experience some spasms like jerks or twitches of the finger.
Stage 2: in the second stage we are still considering this a light sleep. During this stage you will experience slow eye movements and potentially have your eye movement stop completely. your heartbeat actually starts to slow and your body temperature begins to drop.
Stage 3: During the third stage of sleep this is when we consider this a deeper sleep. during the stage your brain waves slow down even more, and your tissues restart to repair and regrow during the stage in addition to your heart slowing down to its lowest point.
Stage 4: Stage 4 is considered REM sleep. This is the stage that everybody is trying to reach on a consistent basis. During REM sleep your heart rate and your heart blood pressure increases. This is the stage where you start to experience dreams and memories start to form. This is what people are remembering when they wake up and have bursts of dreams that they can remember in their consciousness. REM also known as rapid eye movement stage, this stage you can actually see eye movement underneath the eyelid. This is one of the hardest stages to reach especially if you experience difficulty slowing your thoughts down and having a consistent and healthy sleep habit.
Tips on Reaching REM Sleep
Some tips that we have read that could help us achieve REM sleep:
Limit drinking before bed. Limit any type of caffeine or drink that could potentially have sugar before sleep.
Another approach to better sleep is introducing meditation into your day. It has been proven to help overall Sleep Quality and helps waking up with more ease.
Another piece of advice that has been consistent through our research is exercise. Exercise is a great way to improve the duration of slow wave sleep.
Another piece of advice that we thought was unique was introducing a hot shower before going to sleep. It has been proven to decrease the amount of time it takes to fall asleep.
Finally one of the more fun pieces of advice was introducing a white noise machine. While some folks may have issues falling asleep white noise, white noise machines have been proven to help fall asleep and maybe even regulate brain patterns.
Here are the absolute Do-nots of bedtime:
Do not binge watch TV. Binge-watching creates stimulus in the brain that can affect your ability to wind down.
Do not update your social media before bed. Similar to binge watching, this can start to stimulate the brain and the light from the screen has also been proven to interrupt the body's natural ability to sleep and or wake up also known as your circadian rhythm.
Do not eat fatty spicy and or sweet foods before bed they could trigger your stomach to have acid reflux or any other health issues that could build acid.
We asked our Goodfeed contributors to test some of the sleeping apps that are out, and this is a breakdown of the top three sleep apps and tracking technology that are out on the market.
Calm App: The Calm app is great if you like to listen to stories before falling asleep. It has tons of stories and familiar voices that narrate their library. It also helps with meditation and mindfulness and breathing exercises. What it does not do is track sleep data which seems like a miss. but if you are simply looking for someone to read you a lullaby before going to sleep this is a perfect app for you.
Sleep Reset: Sleep reset offers a personalized sleeping plan. It includes guided sleep lessons around sleep science, mental and physical health and sleep hygiene which is super interesting. You can also track sleep data and sleep patterns to optimize your sleeping routine.
Oura: You may have seen many of your favorite influencers peddling the aura ring or a ring is a stylish ring that you wear that tracks many different types of data including Fitness health and sleep patterns. We found that the data from this ring was extremely helpful. it accurately tracks Your Sleep Quality and sleep trends and the different stages of sleep you reach. it then creates a sleep score that helps tell you how successful your night sleep was. it also has a very sophisticated app interface - we don't hate the ring look either.
Overall, sleep and sleep habits is something that everybody can improve. from educating yourself on the different stages of sleep and introducing new techniques to help slow down your brain before bedtime and the introduction of new technology, we are a society that is getting closer to perfecting sleep as an integral part of our health regimen.