Their arm and leg muscles become paralyzed so that they don’t act out their dreams. The person’s eyes will often jerk quickly in different directions, their blood pressure and heart rate will increase, and their breathing may become irregular. The average adult has five or six REM cycles in one sleeping period.ĭuring this time, the brain becomes more active. Throughout the night, a person will experience longer periods of REM as they complete more sleep cycles ending at between 70 to 100 minutes. The first REM phase of the night is typically shorter and begins around 90 minutes after a person begins to fall asleep, lasting about 10 minutes. This is when people usually experience the most vivid dreams. Phase four is called stage R, or REM sleep, and is the deepest of the four stages. As the body produces more delta brain waves in this stage, it drifts closer to REM sleep. This is also when parasomnias like sleepwalking, talking or night terrors happen.ĭuring stage 3 sleep, it’s much harder for the body to wake - if a person does wake from it, they’ll likely feel disoriented at first. During this time, the body strengthens its immune system, repairs and regrows tissues, and builds bone and muscle. In this deep sleep, a person’s brain waves slow down to become delta waves as the body prepares for REM sleep. However, children and teenagers will typically spend much longer in this stage. It makes up five to 15 percent of total sleep time for most adults. This is a restorative stage and doesn’t typically last as long as stage 2. Typically, stage 2 makes up 40 to 60 percent of a person’s total sleep time.Īs the body begins to move through sleep, it will enter stage 3. After a spindle occurs, the brain waves slow down again. However, during this phase, there are also bursts of rapid activity known as sleep spindles. Their body temperature will begin to drop and their heartbeat will slow.Ī person’s brain waves will continue to slow as they drift deeper into sleep.
A person isn’t as easily roused during this time and their slow-moving eye rolls typically stop. The first phase where the person is fully asleep is stage 2, which tends to occur for longer periods than stage 1. If the person is woken up during this time, they’re likely to think they weren’t asleep at all. Some people may experience sudden jerks or muscle spasms during this phase or a sensation of falling.
This phase is often identified by a person’s slow, rolling eye movements and ability to be easily awakened.Īt this time, brainwave activity begins to slow down to theta brain waves as the body drifts to sleep. This is when the body starts to relax and become drowsy. The sleep cycle begins with stage 1 sleep. When a sleep cycle finishes, the person will reverse from REM to less deep stages, ending up again in the lightest phase of sleep. The stages start out very light and progress to deeper sleep. There are four stages of sleep - three NREM stages and one REM stage. Here we’ll cover the different stages of sleep, which are the most important, how much sleep one should get and how sleep changes throughout a lifetime. The typical person starts a new sleep cycle every 90 to 120 minutes, meaning they likely go through four or five cycles during a night of rest. These cycles evolve through the various stages of sleep, starting with NREM (Non-Rapid Eye Movement) sleep and progressing to REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep. The brain goes through several different cycles throughout the time it’s sleeping. However, that’s not necessarily the case - there’s more going on behind the eyelids than one may think. Many people believe the brain “shuts off” to rest during sleep.
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