There is no need to say much about the benefits of a good night's rest, which is an important component of the life of any individual. A person tired during the day dreams of getting home as quickly as possible and, having said hello to his soft pillow, finds himself in the kingdom of Morpheus.
Sleep is our adaptation to the real world. Thanks to sleep, our internal resources and the strength spent during the day are restored, and mental, physical and emotional performance is maintained at the proper level. A person who has no problems with sleep at night feels rested in the morning and is completely ready to conquer new heights.
Sleep consists of several phases and stages of electrical activity in our brain, which clearly and consistently replace each other. Surprisingly, only developed warm-blooded animals (mammals, birds) are able to sleep the way people do.
Deep sleep, which is one of the stages of slow-wave sleep, is responsible for the recovery processes occurring in the body during a night's rest. What is deep sleep? What changes occur in the human body during deep sleep? How long should deep sleep last and can it be increased? Today we will discuss these and other important issues regarding deep sleep and its effect on our body.
Deep sleep: what is it?
Deep sleep (“slow wave sleep”, “delta sleep”, “orthodox sleep”) is a stage of slow sleep, during which certain recovery processes occur in the body. Each person has his own individual version of deep sleep, which is formed on the basis of the following data: general health, level of mental and physical fatigue, weight, age, gender, presence/absence of bad habits, etc.
During deep sleep, brain activity slows down significantly and the level of muscle activity decreases. A sleeping person does not react to odors and other external stimuli. Recently, scientists were able to prove that during deep sleep our brain does not turn off completely, as previously stated, but is engaged in processing information that it received throughout the day.
How can you determine that a sleeping person is in deep sleep? This can be done using an electroencephalogram and delta waves, which will be released on it during deep sleep. Delta waves, which arise due to the special activity of our brain, are somewhat reminiscent of the slow and calm waves of the ocean that immerse a sleeping person in a magical world of dreams.
Lucid dreaming
It sounds like some kind of esotericism, but, as you know, many people have come up with brilliant ideas in their dreams. So why not try setting a sleep vector. We are used to the fact that sleep is random, but what if I told you that you can control your sleep! How this is done: at first, for 1 month, every morning, immediately after waking up, write down what you dreamed. Then try to motivate yourself to any thought every time.
You may not be able to change your dream as a director, but a couple of times you can throw a thought even into a sleeping brain, and how useful the answer will be is unknown. The topic is working, there is a lot of data on the connection between creativity and sleep (8, 9).
How does deep sleep affect how you feel after waking up?
The more the sleeper is in a state of deep sleep during the night's rest, the better and healthier he feels after waking up. A person who does not experience any problems with the duration of this phase of sleep, the level of physical endurance and mental activity increases noticeably. Such an individual feels full of strength and energy throughout the day, he quickly and efficiently solves the tasks assigned to him, and does not experience any difficulties with orientation in time and space.
A lack of deep sleep negatively affects immunity, nervous system function, concentration, coordination and appearance. An individual who did not fully rest at night looks tired and broken in the morning, has a rumpled appearance, gets tired quickly, and cannot concentrate his attention on the tasks assigned to him. For such a person, the risk of catching an infectious or cold disease increases several times!
Many people who have problems with deep sleep develop apnea syndrome (during sleep, breathing stops for several tens of seconds). If a person regularly experiences a lack of deep sleep, then he experiences serious disruptions in the functioning of the endocrine system. The body stops producing growth hormone. This can cause the development of obesity in people who have problems with excess weight.
Deep sleep is also characterized by manifestations of sleepwalking, nightmares and other mental disorders. In such cases, waking up a person during deep sleep is strictly prohibited, otherwise it will negatively affect his well-being and will only worsen his mental disorder.
Features of awakening in each phase
People who rise with the sunrise are full of strength and have a clear mind. A person who constantly gets up at dawn does not feel tired and is not bothered by illness. He manages to do much more work than when waking up late.
All phases of dreams are important to people. You can get a good night's sleep if you have 4-5 full cycles during the night, lasting 1.5-2 hours. Every person is unique. There is no general ideal time to wake up. Owls get up in high spirits at 8-10 am. Larks feel great if they get up early, at 5-6 o'clock.
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The phases of sleep have a certain significance for awakening. A good time for recovery is considered to be the border period, when one cycle passes into another. This stage is short, it lasts only 2-3 minutes.
As the cycles repeat, the slow-wave dreaming stage lasts longer. This stage accounts for up to 75% of night's rest. Therefore, you should wake up at the end of the REM phase. But here two difficulties arise:
- It’s not easy to calculate the rise time;
- Waking up early puts some people in a state of stress.
Life becomes easier if a person finds motivation to get up at sunrise. A modified daily schedule helps cope with the reluctance to wake up early.
You need to stop lounging in bed. You need to learn how to quickly get into work. Breathing exercises help you get a boost of energy. Exercise increases blood flow. Tissues are saturated with oxygen, metabolic processes in cells are accelerated, and the body receives positive energy.
Duration of deep sleep
The duration of deep sleep varies for each person, because it directly depends on the individual characteristics of the body. For one individual, 4–5 hours of sleep is enough to fully rest and wake up refreshed, while for another, 8–9 hours is not enough so as not to feel exhausted and squeezed like a lemon in the morning.
Deep sleep lasts longer for a person who has just fallen asleep than for a person who needs to wake up soon. In the first cycle, slow-wave sleep takes about 80–100 minutes; in subsequent cycles, its duration decreases.
Scientists say that deep sleep in an average adult should occupy from 30% to 70% of the entire night's rest. Each person has their own biological rhythms, so it is impossible to name the exact time for a specific person.
Thanks to experimental work, scientists were able to determine average time indicators.
- People under 30 years old need 120 minutes of deep sleep for proper rest.
- people from 35 to 60 years old – 80 – 85 minutes,
- people over 60 years old – 75 – 80 minutes.
Don't sleep
Even more powerful magic! In English-language sources, this method is called Sleep Deprivation or sleep restriction. As you already know, poor sleep is bad, but sleep deprivation or short naps occasionally can be very beneficial even for depressive conditions (16). Likewise, wakefulness neurotransmitters increase and cortisol decreases. Once again, this method is used in the treatment of depression. If you feel bad, try to get out into society for one night, from evening to morning. It’s great to have a good team around you. I have not found data on how often this can be done, but I will assume that once every 2-3 weeks is not dangerous.
What happens to the body during deep sleep?
During deep sleep, energy accumulates in the human body and new cellular structures are formed. These processes, which are restorative in nature, take place in the body only when it is at rest. If a person has certain problems with this stage of sleep, then his body does not fully recover, which negatively affects the well-being of such an individual.
During delta sleep, consciousness completely switches off, breathing becomes arrhythmic, shallow and rare, heart rate quickens, and the galvanic skin response noticeably increases.
If you wake up a person during deep sleep, he will not remember anything and will say that he did not see any dreams, did not feel anything, and did not have and do not have any thoughts in his head.
How to increase the duration of deep sleep?
There are many ways to increase the duration of this stage of sleep. Let's look at the most effective of them.
Method No. 1. Reconsider your lifestyle
A sedentary and sedentary lifestyle negatively affects the quality of sleep. To make deep sleep last longer, start taking care of yourself: give up alcoholic drinks, cigarettes, fatty, spicy, sweet and high-calorie foods, exercise regularly, spend more time in the fresh air, ventilate the bedroom before bed.
Very often, sources of noise and other distractions prevent us from fully resting. If you live in a noisy place and you have no way to influence the noise level, then buy earplugs.
Method No. 2. Get rid of bright light sources
Bright light sources negatively affect the quality of sleep. TVs, computers, smartphones, tablets and other gadgets have become a part of our lives. But if you want to increase the duration of delta sleep so that you feel alert and rested in the morning, then get rid of these bright light sources at least 1.5-2 hours before going to bed.
Are you used to falling asleep with your phone or tablet in your hands? Can't sleep without TV? Give up these bad habits, otherwise your body will not be able to fully prepare for a night's rest.
Method number 3. Go to bed at the same time every night
Experts recommend that people who want to increase the duration of deep sleep should fall asleep at the same time. Train yourself to go to bed at the same time on weekdays and weekends.
Once you get used to the regime, you will be surprised to notice that your sleep problems have disappeared without a trace! People who have learned to go to the kingdom of Morpheus at the same time note that now in the morning they feel much better and more energetic than when they did not have such a habit.
Method number 4. Avoid late dinners and workouts
Life in the modern world dictates its own conditions and not always throughout the day we have the opportunity to eat normally or go to the gym. But it has long been proven that late dinners and going to the gym after work negatively affect the duration of deep sleep.
In order for your body to fully rest and recover at night, you should not actively exercise before bed or overeat at night. Therefore, avoid training and high-calorie foods 2 to 3 hours before going to bed.
Method No. 5. Introduce magnesium-containing foods into your diet
Magnesium not only normalizes the functioning of the nervous system and helps the body produce energy, but also has a positive effect on the duration and quality of deep sleep. Therefore, be sure to include plant foods in your diet that contain this beneficial microelement.
Nutritionists advise eating wheat bran, beans, walnuts, spinach, pumpkin seeds, almonds, peanuts, dried dates, sesame seeds, because these foods contain large quantities of magnesium.
Method number 6. Do not be nervous
The funny saying that all diseases arise from nerves, and some from love, is not as far from the truth as we would like it to be. The more nervous and worried we are, the more negatively this affects not only our general health, but also the quality of deep sleep.
How can you reduce the amount of stress if you have to live not in a good fairy tale, but in a reality that is far from perfect? This can be done through meditation. Meditation practices help not only calm the mind and organize the senses, but also increase the duration of deep sleep.
Read at night
20 minutes before bedtime, open any book and read. The fact is that when we are on social media. networks or actively communicate live or watch an epic movie - we increase some neurotransmitters of cheerfulness in the brain. Then, when it’s time to sleep, the psyche is still excited. And even if you fall asleep, the sleep is not deep. The solution here is simple - read. Reading includes imagination and sometimes also increases vigor, but more often the brain seems to relax, and alpha rhythms appear.
It is especially useful to read some information that is important to you at night (6, 7). In this case, the dream itself will look like a save button like in a computer game. So it is more effective to repeat the abstracts of the report at night.
