Sleep just like health is two way. You either have poor quality sleep or good quality sleep; and although this may be true, not everyone gets to enjoy good quality sleep, at least on a daily basis as some do.
How do you distinguish between good and poor quality sleep? It is quite simple. When you sleep well, you will wake up refreshed and energized for the day unlike poor quality sleep that leaves you tired, sickly, and even demotivated to face the day head on.
Having good quality sleep is important because it plays a very significant role in your overall health.When you sleep adequately and peacefully,
- Growth hormones are released
- Your heart rate and blood decreases
- Also, your breathing rate decreases
- Your overall temperature slightly drops, and cortisol is released which is essential in regulating all the body processes.
All these things are crucial in ensuring that your body functions optimally and your health stays in good form at all times. It is because these processes don’t take place properly duringpoor quality sleep that you often wake up tired and less recharged.
This might just seem casual to some of you but trust me, this is more serious than you think especiallyif you look at it in more detail. Well, most of us feel burdened waking up 8 hourslater than we do when going to sleep. Why? Because during sleeping hours the body undergoes very many fundamentalprocesses.
You see, when you go to sleep, your body undergoes about 4 to 5 cycles. Each of these cycles is comprised of 4 stages. The 1st and 2nd stages are the light sleep stages; the 3rd stage is where you fall into deep sleep and the 4thstages which are the REM stage also known as the dream stage.During each of these stages, the waves that your brain gives off at night changes both in frequency and amplitude as you sleep.
The light sleep stages occur when you immediately sleep, and it is here wherethe waves are still rapid, but they continue to slow down as you progress through the 2nd stage and then the laststage where the waves speed up considerably. During REM sleep, it often very hard to wake up as you will be dreaming and sleeping heavily. Funny thing is once you reach REM stage, you then travel back the cycle into stage two and then back to deep sleep for a while as your brain prepares for you to wake up.
Most people often wake up during the night but hardly remember as they go back to sleep almost immediately. But if you are a good sleeper you can go through all the sleep stages without waking up. What you should know is that the brain waves associated with quality sleep are usually uniform in every stage and the transition from stage to stage is often smooth.
However, in the case of poor quality sleep, the wavesoftenhave sections in them referred to as fragmentations that are brokenup and irregular. They are, basically, a sudden change from slow regular waves too fast waves that resemble wakefulness. Scores of these fragmentations occur over the night. Not all of them wake the person up, so someone with poor quality sleep frequently doesn’t realize that he or she is not sleeping soundly.
These fragmentations tend to disrupt sleep. Of importance to know is that theirregularity can cause short REM and deep sleep which are the most important sleep stages for a human being as they are responsible for the regeneration of the body and mind.
Therefore if you want to enjoy good quality sleep, you have to get rid of this fragmentations. How? Just adjust your sleep routine, maintain a healthy lifestyle, use the most comfortable beddings, and also don’t stress too much.
For more guidance on how to have better sleep and mattress deals, go to cybermondaymattress.org.
