5 Stages Of Sleep and The Study Of Apnea

Looking for information on a sleep study for apnea? Learn as much as you can about sleep to tackle apnea or insomnia.

In most people, REM sleep occurs about every 90 minutes throughout the night (about every 60 minutes in infants). The first REM period of the night is very short, about 5 minutes, the second is about 10 minutes, and the third is about 15 minutes. The final dream of the night usually lasts 30 minutes, but sometimes lasts an hour. Everybody dreams several times each night. If you slept about six hours last night, you can be sure you had about four dreams. Most dreams are forgotten, however, unless you wake up from them.

On the other hand, NREM sleep, the non-dream sleep, comes in two variations-the most frequent type, called stage 2, and the much deeper version, called delta (or stages 3 and 4). There is some thinking during NREM, but it usually is simple and fragmented.

The Transition Phase

There also is a transition phase between waking and sleeping, when some parts of the brain are asleep while others are not. This is called stage 1.

Going to sleep is like going down a stairway. You start going down into stage 1 for half a minute to several minutes, with your thoughts drifting, but you don't feel asleep. Then you go down the stairway some more to stage 2, and your brain starts putting out waves with characteristic patterns called spindles and K-complexes. Then, you go into deep stage 3 and 4 delta sleep.

Specialists call the time to the end of the first REM the first sleep cycle, and the time from then to the end of the second REM sleep the second cycle. There are four to six cycles per night, depending on how long you sleep. Usually, the changes between stages are gradual, with one stage blending into the next as you gradually move up and down the stairway. In the last part of the night, there usually is no deep delta sleep at all.

5 Stages Of Sleep

Stage 1, although it is called "sleep," is almost worthless in terms of its recovery value. Researchers continue to debate the value of the other stages of sleep. Delta sleep generally appears to be the main kind that allows the body to recover. People deprived of delta often wake up with a feeling of malaise; though nothing in the body is "broken," nothing seems to function right. Stage 2 sleep seems to be a less intense form of delta sleep and, like delta sleep, is concerned mainly with body recovery. On the other hand, REM sleep seems to be more involved with mental recovery. If you don't have REM sleep, it's harder to make sense out of your life.

These are very fine points still debated among sleep researchers. The important thing is not what stages of sleep you're having, but the total amount and quality of sleep you get. It is important that you not have much stage 1 sleep and that your sleep be continuous, not fragmented with awakenings. That's why most sleep clinicians participating in sleep study for apnea, are more concerned that you sleep well than whether the sleep is this or that particular stage.  If you are suffering from sleep deprivation then try Melatrol.  It is the number one, natural, non-addictive, sleep aid on the market today.