What is REM Sleep, and how does it affect a person's daily life?

Drowsiness, light sleep, moderate to deep sleep, deepest sleep, and dreaming are the five phases of sleep, which alternate between non-rapid eye movement (NREM) and rapid eye movement (REM). Even though it may seem like a lot of time, your mind and body are so active during that period, allowing you to be productive, energized, and healthy while awake.

What is REM sleep?

REM sleep typically begins 90 minutes after you go to sleep. Usually, the initial REM stage lasts for ten minutes. Your later REM stages develop longer and longer, with the final one sometimes lasting up to an hour. Your breathing and heart rate pick up. Since your brain is more active during REM sleep, you may experience vivid dreams. REM is crucial because it activates brain regions that aid in learning and is linked to an increase in the creation of proteins. Compared to adults, who only spend around 20% of their sleep in the REM state, infants can sleep for as much as 50% of the time.

During this stage, several physiological processes are observed. This involves quick breathing, jerky eye movements, and an accelerated heartbeat and pulse. Blood pressure increases cause a reduction in body temperature. Your brain activity is almost identical to that of while you are awake, and you prefer to breathe in more oxygen. In your sleep, your limbs could jerk and twitch. Some persons experience momentary paralysis due to the spinal cord receiving commands from the brain to stop all movement. This could be a preventative measure to prevent the person from acting out their dream movements in real life. At this point, people start dreaming and may even awaken from a nightmare. At this point, the dreams are vivid.

What are the different stages of sleep?

Each stage of sleep is distinct:

Stage 1 (Light sleep): As your brain slows down, alpha brain waves that took over as you grew tired are replaced by low-amplitude mixed-frequency (LAMF) activity. Your respiration is normal, and your body has some muscle tone.

Stage 2 (Light sleep): Your body temperature and heart rate drop. As you continue moving towards deep sleep, particular brain wave patterns called sleep spindles and K-complexes start to develop.

Stage 3 (Deep sleep): Your brain waves, also known as delta waves, are the slowest in the entire night. It is challenging to wake up, and many who are awakened from this stage encounter sleep inertia, a brief time of confusion, and reduced cognitive function. Your body physically repairs itself when sleeping deeply, increasing your immune system and healing your bones, muscles, and tissue.

Stage 4 (REM Sleep): In this stage, your brain activity resembles an awakened person's. Your muscles start to sag, except your eyes, which move quickly. 

How do sleep deprivations affect our bodies?

According to studies, getting a good night's sleep is just as vital to health as consuming food and drinking water. You can live and survive thanks to it. Lack of Sleep can have several negative impacts, such as:

• memory issues
• mood shifts
• the impaired immune system, difficulty focusing
• diabetes risk factors
• weight gain and high blood pressure
• Low sexual activity and heart disease risk
• unstable balance and early ageing

Why Is REM Sleep Important for a healthy lifestyle?

Although REM sleep is crucial for dreaming, memory, processing emotions, and healthy brain growth, all sleep is significant.

Dreaming

A widespread misconception regarding sleep is that dreams only occur during the REM stage. Most of your dreams happen while you're in REM sleep. Despite this, REM sleep is associated with more vivid dreams than non-REM sleep.

Consolidation of memory

Your brain analyses new information and motor skills from the day during REM sleep, committing some to memory, keeping others, and determining which to delete. Additionally, memory consolidation happens during deep sleep.

Emotional Intelligence

During REM sleep, your brain processes emotions. In REM sleep, dreams become more vivid and may aid in the processing of emotions. Additionally, during REM sleep, the amygdala, the area of the brain responsible for processing emotions, comes to life.

Getting Ready for Being Awake

REM sleep may aid in preparing us for waking up again by stimulating our central nervous system. This could explain why we spend more time in REM sleep as the night goes on and why it's easier to wake us up when we're in this phase.

Cognitive Development

Since babies spend most of their sleep time in REM, researchers hypothesize that REM sleep encourages brain growth.

The fact that humans and puppies are examples of animals with less developed brains than horses and birds, which are examples of creatures with more developed brains, adds to the argument.

How does a Respironics dreamstationPAP help to improve REM Sleep?

With Respironics dreamstation PAP, REM sleep length rose by 69%, REM sleep density by 73%, and REM activity by 169%. The second REM period had the highest REM density. Increased minutes of REM sleep with CPAP were substantially connected with an improved respiratory disturbance index.

Conclusion

According to scientists, all sleep stages, including REM sleep, are crucial for good health. However, deep sleep is the most critical stage for feeling refreshed and maintaining good health. The typical healthy adult sleeps 8 hours per night, including 1 to 2 hours of deep sleep. Personal trackers and sleep studies are just two tools available to determine whether you are. Talking to a healthcare professional is an excellent option if you frequently wake up exhausted.