Emerging research underlines the importance of deep sleep stages, which are crucial for keeping our brains healthy. Researchers stress that spending less time in these important life stages can lead to cognitive decline and other serious health problems. The complex process of sleep is composed of several different stages, each serving a critical function to our health and wellness.
Stage 1 is the first stage of sleep, the stage where people begin their descent from alertness to slumber. This time is usually short, allowing for more pronounced REM stages of sleep. After Stage 1, Stage 2 is about 25 minutes long and is a transitional stage that prepares your body to enter lighter and then deeper sleep. During sleep, the brain undergoes critical restorative and memory consolidation processes.
Specifically, stages 3 and 4 are the most important for health. Stage 3, otherwise known as slow-wave sleep, is the most restorative stage of sleep. It is in this stage that the brain does its greatest detoxifying. This glymphatic system developed to work like a waste disposal system turns on during slow-wave sleep to remove damaging proteins. Chelsie Rohrscheib, PhD, is a health expert and neuroscientist specialized in sleep. She further describes how during stage 4 slow wave sleep the body is able to remove these proteins using a cellular waste removal system, SRS.
Stage 4, which is better known as rapid-eye movement (REM) sleep, only lasts between 1 and 5 minutes. It is essential for regulating emotions and consolidating memories. This back-and-forth between slow-wave sleep and REM sleep is how our brain wakes up ready to work and think and create again.
Experts recommend strategies to enhance sleep quality. Chelsie Rohrscheib from SleepFoundation.org suggests that maintaining a regular sleep schedule goes a long way. Try to get 7 to 9 hours of sleep a night, including weekends. To help, Dr. Mitchell stresses the importance of a consistent bedtime routine. She recommends relaxing and storing devices at least an hour before bed.
For Leah Kaylor, PhD, that pre-sleep downtime is key. Try to calm down two hours before bedtime in order to wind down and let go of the stressors of the day, she suggests. Caffeine can hang in your body much longer than you would imagine, Kaylor warns. Unlike other foods, he points out, “It works even after you eat it. In order to ensure the best quality sleep, Rohrscheib recommends cutting caffeine out of your diet no less than 10 hours before bed.
Not surprisingly, the quality of one’s sleeping environment plays a large role in sleep quality. Both experts recommend a cool, dark, quiet, and comfortable sleeping environment to help promote deep, restorative sleep without disturbance.
Newly published work has begun to provide some insight on how different features of sleep architecture shape brain structure across development. Kaylor notes, “By examining a cohort over 13 to 17 years, the research provides a longitudinal perspective on how sleep architecture impacts brain structure over time.” By longitudinally tracking changes in sleep quality, our study helps enhance the existing evidence for causal relationships between sleep quality and cognitive health.
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