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What is Happening When You Are Sleeping?
Do you know what is going on when you are sleeping? Given that sleeping will occupy approximately 30 years of your life, (OK, I hear you say “if only!”) wouldn't you like to know what is happening?
Because you aren't aware during those sleeping hours its natural to downplay sleep's role. Many people try to get by on less sleep because it seems such a waste of time. But scientists have discovered that sleeping is an active and ordered process which is as vital to health and well being as your liver function.
What Sleep Is For
Sleep is the time when our body tissue is repaired, proteins are laid down and various hormones, such as growth hormone are released. That's one reason why babies and children do so much more sleeping than adults.
But growth hormone is needed by adults too, a deficiency may cause loss of strength, energy, and bone mass, as well as susceptibility to heart problems and weight gain. Prolactin, another hormone released during sleep controls milk production in nursing mothers. Makes you wonder why nature allows babies to wake their mums up so often!
As well as these measurable bodily activities there is mental processing going on. We don't know so much about dreaming and what it is for, but we do know that it is essential. When people taking part in a sleep study were awoken as soon as dreaming began (signaled by rapid eye movement or REM) those subjects dreamed sooner and for longer on subsequent nights. The body wouldn't make such strong attempts to get enough dreaming time if it weren't necessary.
The Stages Of Sleep- Its Natural Cycle
Sleep is made up of several stages which are organized into repeating cycles throughout the night. These stages have been measured in sleep laboratories, so we know the normal pattern that each of us goes through when we sleep.
Let us take an imaginary middle aged woman and call her Jill. Jill is a normal sleeper, which means that most of the time she goes to sleep easily and wakes up in the morning refreshed and ready for the day ahead.
Jill is tired tonight after a busy week marking exam papers. She goes to bed at 10.30 and after reading for a while turns out the light and settles down to sleep. She thinks for a while about her day but soon she becomes more relaxed and begins to drift off to sleep. Her muscles grow limp and her breathing slows down. If we could measure her brainwaves with an EEG machine we would notice that they have slowed down to what we call alpha waves and soon to even slower theta waves. Jill has drifted into Stage 1 sleep.
Jill is no longer aware of what is going on in her household or outside her home. But this is light sleep and Jill would wake easily if her dog were to bark or her child call out. She would not even realize that she had been sleeping.
After about 5 minutes in stage 1 Jill begins to drift off into stage 2 sleep. Her brainwaves are a mixture now of slower theta waves mixed in with bursts of short fast waves called sleep spindles and K-complexes. She is sleeping but not yet very deeply, she could be easily awoken.
After about 10 minutes in stage 2 Jill begins to settle into stage 3 where her theta waves increase and the faster bursts gradually disappear. This together with the next stage, is known as slow wave sleep.
As Jill's sleep becomes deeper her brainwave slow even more so that only delta waves are present. This tells us that Jill is in stage 4 and sleeping deeply.
Finally about 60 to 90 minutes after falling asleep Jill begins to dream. We can tell she is dreaming just by looking at her because we see that her eyes, under her closed lids, are moving rapidly from side to side. This stage is called REM (rapid eye movement) sleep.
Jill will cycle through these sleep stages four or five times before the morning, each stage lasting more or less time than they did during her first sleep cycle of the night.
As morning approaches Jill begins
to emerge from her deep sleep and to sleep more lightly. Eventually her alarm
clock goes off and she wakes. Jill probably didn't need an alarm clock as after
such a good night's sleep she is very likely to have woken all by herself.
So you see there is order in our sleeping, with each stage being important for our overall health and wellbeing. Anything that disrupts the normal cycle, such as sleeping pills, disrupts natural sleep and in the long term is not good for health.
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