In the past, society’s apathy toward sleep had been partly caused by the science to explain the need of human beings to sleep.
While a balanced diet and exercise are two crucial factors for health. But as the scientific research shows, sleep is considered as the preeminent force in the health trinity. Why is it so? This is because the physical and mental impairments caused by one night of bad sleep dwarf those caused by an equivalent absence of food or exercise. It is difficult to imagine any other state – natural or medically manipulated- that affords a more potent remedy of physical and mental health.
When human beings sleep, the sleeping process consists of two types of sleep.
These sleep stages based on their defining ocular features:-
1. NREM (Non-rapid eye- movement) is divided into 4 separate stages. Stage 1 to 4, in creasing in their depth. Stages 3 and 4 are therefore the deepest stages of NREM. What is meant by depth here? Depth is defined as the increasing difficulty required to wake an individual out of NREM stages 3 and 4 compared to NREM stages 1 and 2 in the context of sleeping pattern.
2. REM (Rapid eye-movement) is often known as dream sleep, in which brain activity was almost identical to what when we are awake, experiences of dreaming.
The Sleep Cycle
The human’s sleep cycle consists of the play-out of NREM and REM in a recurring, pull-push battle for brain domination across the night. So you get the picture now. Sleeping process is not a passive process for the brain. It is best described as the cerebral war between the two, NREM and REM, is won and lost every 90 minutes or so, ruled first by NREM, followed by the comeback of REM sleep.
