5 Sleep Stages

There are four stages of sleep. In the first stage (10 min. into sleep), your pulse slows down and your muscles begin to relax. Your breathing

The stages of sleep can be broken down into two broad categories: non-REM and REM sleep. Non-REM (rapid eye movement) sleep can be further broken down into four more stages - stages 1-4.

While experiencing good sleep, I will unconsciously pass through five stages: 1, 2, 3, 4 and REM sleep (citation). According to the PL100 text, these stages progress cyclically from 1 through REM then begin again with stage 1, and usually,

These stages are characterized by bursts of electrical activity on electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings. EEG readings monitor electrical activity representing neuronal activity in specific neurophysiological regions. Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep is characterized by desynchronized, saw-toothed theta rhythm waves and heightened cognitive activity. Comparatively, high amplitude, synchronous delta waves, and sharp hippocampal waves characterize slow wave sleep (SWS) sleep (stages 3-4 of non-REM sleep) (Tucker et al. 2006).

There are five phases of sleep in a sleep cycle; phase 1 – light sleep with slow movement of eye which forms 4-5% of total sleep, phase 2 – eye movement stops and brain waves becomes slower which forms 45-55%of total sleep, phase 3 – extremely slow brain waves which comprises 4-6% of total sleep, phase 4 -deep sleep phase with no eye movement or muscle activity which forms 12-15% of total sleep, and phase 5- it is also called REM sleep where breathing becomes more rapid, irregular and shallow, and it forms 20-25% of total sleep time (Nichols, 2017).

Stage one of sleep involves the closing of the eyes and drowsiness, occurring for 5-10 minutes depending on the person. During this stage a person will experience Alpha waves which occur

moment you begin to drift in and out of sleep and is considered to be the transition stage from wakefulness to sleep. The individual may be awakened easily and remains responsive to external stimuli. Heart rate, breathing and muscle activity slowly begin to decelerate. One’s blood pressure and body temperature slowly decreases and activity known as hypnic jerks, sudden muscle reflexive movements, often occur. These are thought of as vestigial reflexes of the evolutionary process and are accompanied by the feeling of falling or sinking.

Throughout the night most people do not even notice all the different stages of sleep that they go into without even thinking about it. In an entire night of sleep a person goes through four different stages of sleep. When a person first lies down before their body even reaches the first level of sleep they lay there in a relaxed state slowing all of their natural body activities In the first actual

There are five stages of sleep: 1) light sleep, drowsy sleep, myoclonic jerks or sudden movements of muscle. 2) decreased muscle activity, no awareness of environment. 3 & 4) delta waves are the slowest with the highest amplitude. 5) REM sleep, rapid eye movements, dreaming occurs, fast wave activity. Stages one through four are non-REM and stage five is REM.

There are many sleep stages people go through when resting. The first sleep stage is the theta waves, also known as light sleeping. In this stage theta waves are increasing as the alpha waves fade out to put you into light sleep. If awaken from this stage most people are unaware they were actually beginning to sleep. Secondly you move on into the second stage, which is the sleep spindles. In this stage your temperature drops, heart rate slows, and your breathing becomes flat and irregular. Sleep spindles show up on paper as quick bursts of activity in the brain that last only a few seconds. During this sleep if you are awaken you will notice you were actually asleep. Next you have sleep stage three where the delta waves come in. Delta waves are the largest and slowest waves of them all; when a person hits this stage they are in the deepest stage of sleep. Lastly REM sleep is the final stage of sleeping. During this stage the body with go back through stage three and then through stage two to increase the body’s temperature. The eyes

So how does the sleep cycle work? Well it starts with you closing your eyes of course and then you start to count sheep. 1 sheep, 2 sheep, 3 sheep… and so on and so forth. There is several stages you go through when you fall asleep. Some of these stages are called non rem and rem. REM meaning rapid eye moment. The first stage of your sleep is usually the lightest as to where you can be woken really easily. You’re not in this stage very long 5-10 minutes is all. This is what they call NON REM sleep or NREM. You’ll go through several stages of sleep and a lot of the stages of sleep is NREM. The second stage which is still consider NREM, is where your body begins to slow down. Your heart rate slows down and the temperature of your body will begin to decrease. This is still light sleep at this stage. The third stage of the sleep cycle would be deep sleep of the NREM stage. During this stage of your sleep your body begins to repair its self. It strengthens your immune system, repairs bones and muscles. Now after

The majority of people have heard of REM sleep, but do not know much about it. It happens in cycles of about 90-120 minutes during our sleep and it makes up about 20-25% of an adults sleep time, but the amount of time we spend in the REM sleep cycle lowers the older we get. The brain cycles through five different phases during sleep: stages 1,2,3,4 (which are classified by their respective brain wave patterns) and REM sleep. The sleep cycle repeats itself, so one enters REM sleep several times a night. ("What Is REM Sleep?") .

Stage 2 (N2) is your first stage of true sleep. Occurring for only 10-15 minutes, your breathing and heart rate are regular, but your body temperature drops, cooling you down. Your memories are then organized for long-term memory storage.

 There are five stages of sleep, REM and NREM stages 1, 2, 3, & 4.

A typical night’s sleep is much more complicated than just closing your eyes and waking in the morning. As humans, we live our life on a circadian rhythm. This means that changes occur roughly based upon a 24-hour basis. This circadian rhythm plays a major role in when we get tired and decide it’s time to sleep. This rhythm is theorized to have helped us stay safe thousands of years ago. We would fall asleep during the time that their seemed to be threats roaming around in the dark. to Once we finally get to sleep, our brains and bodies are doing much more than laying in complete stillness. There are five distinct stages of sleep that we experience as we sleep. Each is uniquely different and serves a purpose throughout the night. The first stage of sleep is a very light sleep that lasts for 5 to 10 minutes. During this stage of sleep, you may not even realize that you’re sleeping. While in this stage of sleep our brains power down by 50 percent and produce theta waves four to seven times per second. We proceed to stage two after this. During stage two, our brains power down