Get Your Best Sleep, How the 4 Stages Help.
Get Your Best Sleep, How the 4 Stages Help.Can you remember a time when you didn’t give sleep a second thought? You were a gifted sleeper. And now? This post looks at what the brain and body are doing at each stage of sleep. Why we should value each stage and wake up as the best us. Beta brain waves during the day Keep us active focused and energised. Existing in the Beta wave world too long leads to burnout. Why not read this post as a story, a story about sleep…
Rhythms Rule Our Lives
Rhythms rule our lives, the most well-known is the circadian rhythm. It’s a roughly 24hr cycle which controls our sleep and other functions in the body. Our Brains have a master clock (suprachiasmatic nucleus) that switches on and off every 12 hours (even in the name of research this part of the brain is removed. It will be active for 12 hrs and dormant for 12 then awake again). Light acts as its biggest trigger. Which is why screen time late at night is such a bad idea.
https://welcomehypnotherapy.co.uk/simple-steps-to-better-sleep/
Sleep Routine
Lets focus on the most common sleep routine, one long sleep through the night (monophasic). Its ideal for people with a regular work pattern/ commitments. Every night we run through 4 or 5 sleep cycles, roughly every 1.5 to 2 hours. Each cycle has 4 stages and each stage plays a vital role in our system maintenance, reboot and update! It gives us – Us 2.0. Different types of measurable brain waves are present in each stage.
The 4 Stages of the Sleep Cycle
Stage 1
The drifting off stage, our brains produce Alpha waves of positivity and relaxation. When evening and night draw in we produce more melatonin, which helps us to feel drowsy. Our diet can affect its production. https://welcomehypnotherapy.co.uk/eat-your-way-to-better-sleep/
Stage 2
Light sleep with Theta waves, relaxing our minds and bodies. Our body temperature drops, heart rate and blood pressure go down and our muscles relax. It lasts about 10 to 25 minutes, getting longer through the night so that it makes up about 50 % of our sleep.
Stage 3
Deep sleep, hello, Delta waves! Anxiety levels go down. We relax even further, repairing and restoring our bodies and boosting the immune system. Not surprisingly it’s the hardest stage to wake from and you’ll feel really groggy if you do. We get 1 to 2 hours of it, most of it in the first half of the night. (We get less of it the older we get)
Stage 4
Dream sleep (REM or rapid Eye movement sleep). The average person’s brain waves are similar to being awake. With muscle systems conserved for breathing and circulation, you can experience dreams without fear of injuring yourself. You dream for about 10 mins in the first cycle and up to one hour by the end of the night.
We are ruled by nature and we do ourselves harm by trying to go against it. Sleep plays a vital role in maintaining good physical and mental health. It’s a delicate recipe, with the changes in the timing of cycles making it all important we get enough sleep. It’s a good idea to track your sleep for a few weeks to find out what time is best for you to sleep and wake. Figuring out how much sleep you need to feel recharged, refreshed and alert. Creating your own unique sleep blueprint.
Hypnotherapy can give you the tools to help you want to sleep, get to sleep and get back to sleep if you wake in the night and establish a sleep routine.
Author: Janet Adams
I am a qualified Hypnotherapist and Psychotherapist based in Belfast but offering treatments virtually as well.
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Phone Number: +44 7952 345840
Email: janet@welcomehypnotherapy.co.uk
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