Waking up feeling completely refreshed and full of energy might seem like a rare luxury. For many of us, mornings are often marked by tiredness and sluggishness. But what if the key to feeling truly rested lies in a specific part of our sleep cycle: deep sleep?
We all know that getting around 7 to 8 hours of sleep each night is important, but have you ever wondered if you're getting the right kind of sleep? The quality of your sleep can be just as crucial as the quantity. Deep sleep is the stage that leaves you feeling truly rested and ready to take on the day. It's during this time that your body does most of its healing and repair work.
Without enough deep sleep, you're not just tired—you're putting your health at risk. Research has shown that lack of deep sleep can lead to problems like heart disease, memory issues, and a weakened immune system. But with the right habits, you can improve your deep sleep and wake up feeling better than ever.
In this blog post, you'll find out what deep sleep is, why deep sleep is so important, and some practical tips to help you get more deep sleep naturally. But first off, you need to understand the stages of sleep.
What are the Stages of Sleep?
Sleep is not just one continuous state. Instead, it's a cycle made up of different stages, each serving a unique purpose. These stages range from light sleep to deep restorative sleep and, finally, to Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep. Each stage plays a crucial role in things like memory, muscle repair, mood, and brain function. Understanding these stages helps us see how they all work together to give us a good night's rest.
Sleep is divided into two main categories:
- Non-Rapid Eye Movement (NREM) Sleep
- Rapid Eye Movement (REM) Sleep
Non-Rapid Eye Movement (NREM) Sleep
NREM sleep has four stages, each getting progressively deeper:
- NREM Stage 1: This is the lightest sleep stage, lasting only a few minutes. You can easily wake up during this time.
- NREM Stage 2: This stage is a bit deeper. You start to disconnect from your surroundings.
- NREM Stage 3: Deep sleep begins here. Your body starts its repair work.
- NREM Stage 4: This is the deepest sleep stage. Your breathing and heart rate are at their slowest, and your body does most of its healing and growth. This stage is vital for feeling refreshed and usually lasts between 20 to 40 minutes.
As you move through these NREM stages, you get into deeper sleep. Your brain activity, heart rate, and breathing slow down, and your body temperature drops. About 75% of your sleep is spent in NREM sleep.
Typically, sleep starts in NREM Stage 1 and moves through the deeper stages before reaching REM sleep. This cycle repeats throughout the night, with each cycle lasting about 90-110 minutes.
Rapid Eye Movement (REM) Sleep
During REM sleep, your brain becomes more active, and this is when most of your dreaming happens. You might notice irregular muscle movements and, of course, rapid eye movements. The first REM period is short, but it gets longer as the night goes on, while deep sleep periods get shorter. REM sleep makes up about 25% of your total sleep time. This percentage can change based on factors like age, recent sleep patterns, exercise, and even alcohol or drug use.
Both REM and NREM sleep are important. They work together to help your body recover, manage emotions, remember things, and stay healthy.
What is Deep Sleep?
Deep sleep, also known as slow-wave sleep, is the most restorative part of our sleep cycle. It primarily occurs during NREM Stages 3 and 4. During this phase, your brain produces slow, powerful delta waves, which help regulate various bodily functions.
In deep sleep, your body takes the opportunity to repair tissues, build bones and muscles, and strengthen your immune system. This stage is crucial for physical recovery and overall health. Your brain also processes and stores information, making deep sleep essential for good brain function and emotional well-being.
Typically, you enter deep sleep within the first hour of falling asleep. The first stage of deep sleep lasts anywhere from 45 to 90 minutes. It lasts for longer periods in the first half of the night and becomes shorter with each sleep cycle. As the night progresses, periods of deep sleep become shorter. During deep sleep, your breathing and heart rate slow down significantly, and your muscles are fully relaxed. This makes it difficult to wake up from this stage, and if you do, you may experience "sleep inertia," a state of mental fog that can last up to 30 minutes.
Deep sleep is vital for waking up feeling truly rested. Without enough of it, you may feel tired and drained, no matter how long you've slept. This is why your body prioritizes deep sleep, especially in the early part of the night.
Why Deep Sleep is Important
Deep sleep is crucial for both physical and mental well-being. During this stage, your body releases growth hormone, which is essential for building and repairing muscles, bones, and tissues. This phase also plays a significant role in strengthening the immune system and regulating glucose metabolism. Athletes particularly value deep sleep because it helps replenish energy stores and supports muscle recovery.
On the mental side, deep sleep is vital for cognitive functions like memory consolidation. It helps process and store the information you encounter each day, making it easier to learn new skills and retain knowledge.
This stage is also important for emotional regulation and overall brain health. Without enough deep sleep, your brain can't effectively convert daily experiences into long-term memories, which can impact learning and cognitive performance.
What are the Benefits of Deep Sleep?
Deep sleep offers numerous benefits that are essential for overall health:
- Energy restoration: Helps replenish your body's energy levels, making you feel refreshed.
- Glucose metabolism: Increases glucose metabolism in the brain, supporting short-term and long-term memory and overall learning.
- Cell regeneration: Promotes the repair and growth of tissues and cells.
- Hormone secretion: Aids the pituitary gland in releasing important hormones like human growth hormone, which aids in growth and development.
- Blood supply to muscles: Increases blood flow to muscles, promoting their growth and repair.
- Immune system strengthening: Enhances your body's ability to fight off infections and diseases.
- Memory and learning: Supports both short-term and long-term memory by processing the information you encounter each day.
Lack of deep sleep can lead to serious health issues such as Alzheimer's disease, heart disease, diabetes, and stroke. It can also result in sleep disorders like sleepwalking, night terrors, bedwetting, and sleep eating.
How Much Deep Sleep Do You Need?
How much deep sleep should you get then? Determining how much deep sleep you need starts with knowing how much total sleep you require. Most adults should aim for at least seven hours of sleep each night, with around 20 percent of that time spent in deep sleep. This translates to roughly one to two hours of deep sleep per night.
Deep sleep typically occurs within the first hour of falling asleep and becomes shorter as the night progresses. During this stage, your body slows down significantly, making it hard to wake up and often leaving you feeling groggy if you do.
Your body naturally adjusts the amount of deep sleep you get. For example, you may get more deep sleep if you're recovering from sleep deprivation. Conversely, frequent napping can reduce your deep sleep at night.
Deep sleep decreases with age. People under 30 may get around two hours of deep sleep, while those over 65 might only get about 30 minutes. Although older adults get less deep sleep, it still plays a crucial role in their health.
In summary, while the exact amount of deep sleep needed can vary, getting sufficient deep sleep is essential for physical recovery, cognitive function, and overall well-being. Prioritizing deep sleep helps you wake up feeling refreshed and ready for the day.
Deep Sleep vs. Light Sleep: What is the Difference?
Deep sleep and light sleep are both essential but serve different roles and have some key differences. Light sleep occurs in the initial stages of sleep and helps your body relax and prepare for deeper sleep. It's easier to wake up from, lasts a few minutes, and is mainly about transitioning into deeper stages.
Deep sleep, on the other hand, is the most restorative phase, occurring in the later stages of sleep. During deep sleep, your body repairs tissues builds muscles and bones and strengthens the immune system. It's harder to wake up from and is crucial for physical recovery, brain function, and emotional health. While light sleep helps you get ready for deep sleep, deep sleep provides the rejuvenation your body and mind need.
How to Get More Deep Sleep Naturally
Improving your deep sleep can significantly enhance your overall well-being. Here are some practical tips to help you achieve better sleep naturally:
1. Watch what you eat and drink before bed
Eating a large meal or drinking alcohol late at night can disrupt your sleep. Alcohol might make you feel sleepy at first, but it can cause you to wake up during the night. Similarly, a heavy meal before bed forces your body to focus on digestion, making it harder to relax and fall into deep sleep.
Try to finish eating at least 2-3 hours before bedtime. If you need a snack, choose something light, like fruit or nuts. Instead of alcohol, consider herbal teas like chamomile or peppermint to help you relax.
2. Create a conducive sleeping environment
Your bedroom should be a place for rest and relaxation. Using it for activities like watching TV or working can make it harder to wind down at night. By keeping your bedroom for sleep and intimacy only, you create a strong mental link between your bed and rest.
Remove distractions like TVs, laptops, and work materials. If you like to read before bed, stick to paper books to avoid the blue light from screens.
3. Ditch the devices
Technology can disrupt your sleep. The blue light from phones, tablets, and laptops can interfere with melatonin production, making it harder to fall asleep. Even reading on a backlit device can be problematic.
Keep electronic devices out of your bedroom or at least out of reach. If you use your phone as an alarm clock, switch to a traditional alarm clock. This can help you resist the urge to check your phone during the night.
4. Limit screen time before bed
Bright screens can trick your brain into thinking it's still daytime, delaying melatonin release and disrupting your sleep cycle. Try to stop using electronic devices at least three hours before bedtime.
If you must use devices in the evening, invest in blue-light-blocking glasses. Most devices also have a "night mode" setting that reduces blue light, which can be helpful.
5. Optimize your sleep environment
A comfortable and calming bedroom can improve your sleep quality. Make sure your mattress and pillows are supportive and comfortable. Keep your room dark, quiet, and cool, ideally between 60-67°F (15-19°C).
Use blackout curtains to block out light and a white noise machine or earplugs to eliminate noise. A sleep-friendly environment helps you fall into deep sleep more easily.
6. Stick to a sleep schedule
Consistency is key to good sleep. Going to bed and waking up at the same time every day helps regulate your body's internal clock. This makes it easier to fall asleep and wake up refreshed.
Try to keep this schedule even on weekends. If you need to adjust your sleep routine, do it gradually by changing your bedtime and wake-up time by 15 minutes each day.
7. Use relaxation techniques
Calming activities before bed can help you wind down. Include relaxation techniques in your nightly routine, like reading a paper book, taking a warm bath, or practicing mindfulness and deep breathing exercises. These activities reduce stress and prepare your mind and body for sleep.
Over time, these practices signal to your body that it's time to relax and sleep, making it easier to fall asleep and stay asleep.
8. Be mindful of too much napping
While short naps can be refreshing, long or irregular naps can affect your nighttime sleep. Napping too late in the afternoon can make it harder to fall asleep at night.
If you need a nap, limit it to 20-30 minutes and avoid napping late in the day. This ensures your body is ready for a full night of deep sleep when bedtime comes.
9. Adjust your sleeping position
The position you sleep in can have a significant impact on the quality of your deep sleep. When you lie on your back, gravity can cause your mouth to open, leading to increased breathing volume and more severe snoring.
This position also encourages the lower jaw to hinge downward, narrowing the airway and exacerbating obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Studies have shown that people with OSA experience more frequent and severe breathing abnormalities when sleeping on their back compared to their side.
Sleeping on your side can help reduce these issues by keeping your airway more open and reducing the likelihood of snoring and sleep apnea episodes. This position helps maintain better alignment of the jaw and throat, allowing for smoother airflow and less disruption during the night.
According to a 2022 study, subjects who slept on their side had a lower frequency of turning and experienced better sleep quality compared to those who slept on their backs.
10. Breathe better and through your nose
Breathing plays a vital role in ensuring we get a lengthy and proper sleep. And if you want deeper sleep, you must breathe through your nose because it is the only correct way to breathe. Mouth breathing while sleeping can lead to snoring and frequent interruptions while sleeping, thus affecting the quality of deep sleep you get. Conversely, nasal breathing while sleeping ensures that you wake up feeling energetic and sleep for longer.
Practicing nasal breathing during the day can also help you achieve deeper sleep at night. Hence, breathing nasally should be a priority for getting deeper sleep naturally.
MyoTape Helps You Achieve Deep Sleep
As we have said, breathing through your nose at night will help you sleep deep, as you experience no interruptions, sleep quietly, and wake up with more energy. Still, most people actually struggle to breathe through their noses at night. However, there is an effective and simple tool that will help you breathe nasally and achieve deep sleep.
MyoTape is an innovative mouth tape that gently encourages you to breathe through your nose at night. This mouth taping solution is the invention of Dr. Patrick McKeown, a world-recognized breathing expert, and author. MyoTape is the safest mouth tape that is guaranteed to give you better breathing and quality sleep.
You can check out our range of effective mouth taping products designed for everyone, including mouth tape for kids, adults, those with sensitive skin, and even those with facial hair.
