We all enjoy having a good night's sleep, but why is sleep important and how can we ensure that we are getting enough every night? Read this article to find out.
What exactly is sleep?
Physiologically, sleep is the restful state all human beings need to assume everyday to replenish themselves and live another day. It is a state where motor activity is reduced in which consciousness of the surrounding world is suspended due to the decreased sensory stimulation response that occurs when a person lies down and closes their eyes.
Now, science has revealed that sleep is in fact a dynamic process in which the brain continues to work even while we sleep.
Some of these activities include:
- The production and release of specific proteins essential to tissue repair and growth (especially in children).
- Replenishment to areas of the brain responsible for social and emotional functioning throughout the day.
- Assisting the mind to learn complicated tasks by retrieving knowledge that has been potentially forgotten throughout the day.
- The preservation of emotional memories, where the components become unbound throughout sleep.
Brain activity in sleep
Brain activity plays a significant role in the sleep cycle. It directs the chemicals responsible for nerve signaling via the neurotransmitters to act on nerve cells in different areas of the brain whether the person is asleep or not. These nerve cells or neurons control sleep by inhibiting the other parts of the brain that keep a person awake.
Benefits of sleep
- Memory and learning – the sleep cycle helps the brain commit new information to memory via the memory consolidation process. Scientific studies revealed that the higher test results to students that slept after learning the particular task being tested.
- Weight and metabolism – a disrupted sleep cycle and chronic insomnia states have been linked to a disturbance in metabolism and a consequent weight gain. This can also be linked to its impact on appetite-controlling hormones and the ways in which carbohydrate is being stored and processed.
- Safety – daytime errors and mishaps like falls, air traffic mishaps, medical errors, and road accidents can statistically be attributed to disturbed sleeping patterns before the event has taken place.
- Mood – when the sleep cycle is disturbed, it can cause an imbalanced amount of hormones and neurotransmitters, which may cause irritability, moodiness impatience, and difficulty to concentrate.
- Cardiovascular Health – Science has linked disrupted sleep and sleep disorders to conditions that can be harmful to cardiovascular health, such as hypertension and irregular heartbeats.
- Disease – A lack of sleep directly affects the activity of the body’s killer cells and, as a result, the immune system is weakened. Also, studies have shown that good quality sleep patterns may play an important part in fighting against cancer.
Different stages of sleep cycle
While there are five separate stages of sleep, they necessarily do not progress sequentially. The following is the normal sequencing of sleep stages:
- Stage 1
- Stage 2
- Stage 3
- Stage 4
- Stage 3
- Stage 2
Each person goes through these stages approximately four or five times a night.
Stage 1
This is the beginning stage where wakefulness slowly transitions into a light sleep. The brain produces slow, high-amplitude theta waves for approximately a brief period of five to ten minutes. Some people report not really being asleep when being woken from this stage.
Stage 2
The second stage lasts for approximately twenty minutes, which commences with a procession of "sleep spindles". They are bursts of fast and rhythmic brain activity. During this stage, the heart rate starts to slow down and the body’s temperature slowly decreases.
Stage 3
The third stage is the transitional stage between light and deep sleep, and the introduction of slow and deep delta brain waves.
Stage 4
The slow delta waves of the fourth stage contribute to its other name, "delta sleep". During this stage, bed-wetting and sleep-walking normally occur when asleep and can last up to thirty minutes.
Stage 5
Known as Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep, the fifth stage is where most dreaming occurs. The brain becomes increasingly active, the active muscles relax more, voluntary muscles become paralysed and the eye movement and respiration rate dramatically increases.
Circadian Rhythms
Known as the "internal body clock", circadian rhythms are the biological, twenty four hour cycle that influences a person to when to go to sleep, how much sleep is needed and how to sleep well. They dictate several daily bodily functions, and are often influenced by:
- The state of light or darkness
- The Hypothalamus, which controls the sleep rhythm or wakefulness.
- External stimuli like the time of meals, alarm beeps, time zone crossing (which often leads to jet lag) and night-time shift work.
Those who experience disturbances in the circadian rhythm often experience symptoms such as:
- Drowsiness
- Difficulty to concentrate
- Disturbances or loss in appetite
- Increased risk of heart problems
- Gastro-intestinal problems
- Mental and emotional health problems
How much sleep is enough?
- Adults need 7 to 8 hours each night (although some adults may function better with 5 to 10 hours of sleep only)
- Teenagers need 9 hours each night
- Infants need 16 hours of sleep throughout the course of the day and night
- Pregnant women need increased amounts of sleep, particularly during the first trimester of pregnancy
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