Sleep Tight by Zach DeLord

Sleep although often neglected or devalued is one of our most important bodily processes. While many people understand that sleep is important but not how complex the process of sleep really is. Sleep as we know it is made up of many varying levels of brain activity and cycles. The stages of our sleep cycle ranging in order from stage 1, stage 2, stage 3, stage 4 and REM sleep are all individually important to our body (OpenStax College, 2014). There are several theories on why we need sleep, with the most widely accepted of them being that: 1) it restores our immune system, 2) helps us catalog our memories and 3) synthesizes hormones or other bodily materials (OpenStax College, 2014). The underlying importance of sleep is traced back to our brain and what it needs to be healthy thus keeping us healthy.

Stage 1 of the sleep cycle is very light, you drift in and out of sleep and can be woke up easily. These stages is when we begin relaxing and start the sleep process also this is the stage of sleep where you do things like jerk or jump due to us being startled. Our brain waves haven’t changed much from our fully awake state while in stage 1. In stage 2 we enter an even more relaxed state where we stop our eye movement. Our brain waves slow down and then we experience abnormal brain waves called Sleep Spindles (OpenStax College, 2014). These appear as erratic brain waves amongst our normal stage 2 brainwaves.

In stages 3 & 4 we slip into even slower brain waves called delta brain waves which are common in stage 3 which alternate between smaller faster brainwaves (OpenStax College, 2014). In stage 4 we start to almost entirely make delta brain waves which correlates to how hard it is to wake someone up when they are in stage 3 & 4 sleep. We enter deep sleep and we experience little to none eye movement with no muscle activity. During this stage is when many children experience things such as sleepwalking and bedwetting because of how deep these stages of sleep are.

REM sleep is the stage of sleep where we have our most vivid dreams. REM stands for rapid eye movement and this stage includes things such as our muscles being paralyzed. Signals are sent to our spinal cord from our brain telling the body to shut off movement (Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, n.d.). Our breathing is faster in this stage as well as our heart rate being faster than any of the stages and our eyes jerking rapidly. This stage is where we dream and the reason why may not be fully understood but it probably has to do with signals sent to the cortex (Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, n.d.). As our sleep cycle goes on through the night the amount of REM sleep during each cycle increases. By the time you are near the time you will wake up REM sleep is a significant portion of the cycle and each time it becomes more because you no longer need as much time in the other deep sleep cycles as they are for restoring your immune system and other bodily processes.

In conclusion sleep is a bodily process we cannot go without and is important for our health. From helping our immune system to helping are minds catalog memories sleep has numerous benefits. While we still have much to learn about sleep it is certain a good night’s sleep can make all the difference in someone’s life.

References

OpenStax College. (2014). Psychology. Houston, TX: Rice University. Retrieved from http:cnx.org/content/co111629/latest/>

Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (n.d.) What is REM sleep? Retrieved April 10, 2017, from http://www.nichd.nih.gov/health/topics/sleep/conditioninfo/Pages/rem-sleep.aspx