What is the ratio of deep sleep to fast sleep? What to do if you suffer from light sleep. Causes of disturbances in the sequence of sleep stages

A sleep-deprived person often faces problems feeling unwell, lack of strength. It loses efficiency, and the functionality of all body systems deteriorates. Night rest - physiologically difficult process. It consists of 5 constantly changing slow and fast phases. At this time, a person has time not only to relax, but also to rethink the information accumulated during the day. It is important for everyone to know what slow-wave sleep is, since it is what allows you to fully restore strength.

The first experiments to study night rest as a physiological process consisted of interrupting it at certain time. After this, the subject’s sensations were recorded. They made it possible to establish that night rest consists of phases that change sequentially. The first scientist to study sleep was A.A. Manaseina. She determined that sleep at night is more important for a person than food.

In the 19th century, the scientist Kelschutter found that he is stronger and stronger in the first hours after falling asleep. Closer to the morning it becomes superficial. Research became most informative after the use of an electroencephalogram, which records electrical waves emitted by the brain, began to be used for them.

Distinctive features of slow-wave sleep

The slow phase takes up about 85% of the total sleep volume. It differs from the fast rest stage in the following ways:

1. Consists of 4 stages.
2. At the moment of falling asleep, the movements of the eyeballs are smooth. At the end of the stage they freeze.
3. Dreams at this stage do not have a vivid plot. For some people they may be completely absent.
4. Disruption of the slow-wave sleep phase is accompanied by a person's irritability; he gets up tired and cannot get enough sleep. His performance declines and his health deteriorates. This happens due to the fact that not all neurochemical processes are completed.
5. Breathing and pulse become slow, blood pressure and body temperature drop.
6. At this stage, complete muscle relaxation occurs.

Advice! As for REM sleep, a person wakes up at this stage without consequences for the body. All life processes are activated: heart rate and breathing increase. Specified phase rest is shorter.

The value of deep sleep

In order for a person to get enough sleep, he must rest properly. During slow sleep, growth hormone is synthesized and cells are intensively restored. The body is able to relax well and renew its energy reserves. At this stage, the rhythms of all brain structures are regulated.

An adult has the opportunity to restore his immune system. If you sleep correctly, for a sufficient amount of time, your metabolism and removal of toxins from body tissues improves. In the slow-wave sleep phase, active processing of information received during the day occurs, consolidation of the learned material.

Elements constituting the Orthodox phase

The slow-wave sleep stage consists of several elements, which can be read about in the table:

These stages have a certain percentage:

1. Napping: 12.1%.
2. Sleep spindles: 38.1%.
3. Delta sleep: 14.2%.
4. Deep delta sleep: 23.5%.

REM sleep takes up 23.5% of the total time.

Duration of the slow stage per night

Many users want to know how long slow-wave sleep should last per night to prevent sleep deprivation. This cycle begins immediately after the sleeper transitions into unconsciousness. Next comes the deep phase. Sensory perception is switched off and cognitive processes are dulled. Normally, the nap period can last 15 minutes. The last three stages take about an hour. Total duration slow phase(excluding alternation with REM sleep) is 5 hours.

The length of this period is affected by age. In a child, this phase lasts 20 minutes, in adults under 30 years old – 2 hours. Further, it decreases: from 55-60 years - 85 minutes, after 60 years - 80. Healthy rest should take at least 6-8 hours a day.

It should be noted that the night is different for each person. Some people can sleep quickly and 4-5 hours will be enough for them, while for others 8-9 hours will not be enough. Here you need to pay attention to your feelings.

It is important to know! Determining the exact time required for a night's rest is done by trial. This will take 1-2 weeks. But we must not allow permanent violation slow phase.

The human condition during deep sleep

At night, the deep stage will be accompanied by complete relaxation of the muscular system and brain. Conductivity changes nerve impulses, sensory perception is dulled. Slowdown occurs metabolic processes, work of the stomach and intestines.

During this period, the brain requires less oxygen, blood flow becomes less active. Proper night's rest will be characterized by slowing down the aging process of tissues.

Reducing the slow phase: what is the danger

Depending on whether the person will have wellness and performance. Its reduction is fraught with the emergence serious problems with health: clarity of consciousness is lost, appears constant drowsiness. Regular violation normal duration and sleep structure leads to chronic insomnia. A person has the following problems:

• increased fatigue;
• immunity decreases;
• irritability increases, mood often changes;
• metabolic processes are disrupted, mental functions and attention are dulled;
• the functioning of the endocrine system becomes problematic;
• the risk of developing heart and vascular diseases increases;
• performance and endurance decrease;
• Insulin synthesis fails.

Attention! Decreased sleep leads to the development of atherosclerosis, diabetes mellitus, oncological pathologies. A comparative analysis showed that the slow and fast phases of night rest are equally important, although their characteristics will differ.

Regardless of whether a man or woman has a disturbed sleep structure, or how much a person sleeps, if he does it incorrectly, then rest will not give the desired result. To improve its quality, you need to follow the following recommendations from experts:

1. Stick to a bedtime schedule. It is better to go to bed no later than 11 pm. At the same time, it is advisable to wake up no earlier than 7 am (this indicator varies from person to person).
2. Before going to bed, you need to ventilate the room. The temperature in the bedroom should not exceed 22 degrees. To improve your sleep quality, you can take an evening walk in the fresh air.
3. A few hours before rest, you should not eat food that requires a long digestion time. IN as a last resort, you can drink a glass of warm milk.
4. Night rest should include the period after midnight to 5 am.
5. Drinking coffee, strong tea or alcohol in the evening is strictly prohibited.
6. If a person has difficulty falling asleep, then he can drink tea using soothing herbs (motherwort, valerian), take a relaxing bath with sea ​​salt. Aromatherapy often helps you fall asleep.
7. It is important to choose a comfortable resting position.
8. Preference should be given to orthopedic devices for rest. The mattress should be flat and hard. Do not use a high headboard.
9. The room should be quiet and dark at night.
10. After waking up it is better to take cold and hot shower or do light exercises.

A proper night's rest, respecting its structure, is the key good health and good health. A person wakes up rested, productive, in in a great mood. Systematic lack of sleep will lead to serious violations functionality of the body that is not easy to get rid of.

Sleep is one of the most amazing states, during which organs - and especially the brain - work in a special mode.

From a physiological point of view, sleep is one of the manifestations of the body’s self-regulation, subordinate to life rhythms, a deep disconnection of a person’s consciousness from external environment, necessary for restoring the activity of nerve cells.

Thanks to good sleep Memory is strengthened, concentration is maintained, cells are renewed, toxins and fat cells are removed, stress levels are reduced, the psyche is unloaded, melatonin is produced - the sleep hormone, regulator of circadian rhythms, antioxidant and immune protector.

Sleep duration according to age

Sleep serves as protection against hypertension, obesity, division cancer cells and even damage to tooth enamel. If a person does not sleep for more than 2 days, his metabolism will not only slow down, but hallucinations may also begin. Lack of sleep for 8-10 days drives a person crazy.

IN at different ages people need different quantities hours for sleep:

Unborn children sleep the most in the womb: up to 17 hours a day.

• Newborn babies sleep about the same amount: 14-16 hours.
• Babies between 3 and 11 months of age require 12 to 15 hours of sleep.
• At the age of 1-2 years – 11-14 hours.
• Preschoolers (3-5 years old) sleep 10-13 hours.
• Primary schoolchildren (6-13 years old) – 9-11 hours.
• Teenagers need 8-10 hours of rest at night.
• Adults (from 18 to 65 years old) – 7-9 hours.
• Elderly people over 65 years old – 7-8 hours.

Old people often suffer from insomnia due to ailments and physical inactivity during the day, so they sleep 5-7 hours, which in turn does not have the best impact on their health.

The value of sleep by hour

The value of sleep also depends on the time you go to bed: you can get enough sleep in an hour like a night or not get enough sleep at all. The table shows the phases of a person’s sleep by time of sleep efficiency:

Our ancestors went to bed and got up according to the sun. Modern man goes to bed no earlier than one in the morning, the result is chronic fatigue, hypertension, oncology, neuroses.

With the actual value of sleep at least 8 hours, the body regained strength for the next day.

Some southern cultures have a tradition nap(siesta), and it is noted that the number of cases of stroke and heart attack there is significantly lower.

Features of awakening in each phase of sleep

Sleep is heterogeneous in its structure; it consists of several phases that have their own psychophysiological characteristics. Each phase is distinguished by specific manifestations of brain activity aimed at restoring different parts of the brain and organs of the body.

When it is better for a person to wake up according to the phases of sleep, how easy the awakening will be depends on the phase in which his sleep was interrupted.

During deep delta sleep, awakening is the most difficult due to incomplete neurochemical processes that occur during this stage. And here It is quite easy to wake up during REM sleep, despite the fact that during this period the most vivid, memorable and emotional dreams occur.

However constant shortage REM sleep can have a detrimental effect on mental health. This phase is necessary for recovery neural connections between consciousness and subconscious.

Phases of sleep in humans

Features of the brain and its changes electromagnetic waves were studied after the invention of the electroencephalograph. An encephalogram clearly shows how changes in brain rhythms reflect the behavior and state of a sleeping person.

The main stages of sleep - slow and fast. They are uneven in duration. During sleep, the phases alternate, forming 4-5 wave-like cycles from 1.5 to less than 2 hours.

Each cycle consists of 4 phases of slow-wave sleep, associated with a gradual decrease in a person’s activity and immersion in sleep, and one of rapid sleep.

NREM sleep predominates in the initial sleep cycles and gradually decreases, while the duration of REM sleep increases in each cycle. The threshold for a person’s awakening changes from cycle to cycle.

Duration of the cycle from the beginning of slow-wave sleep to the end of fast sleep healthy people is about 100 minutes.

• Stage 1 is about 10% of sleep,
• 2nd – about 50%,
• 3rd 20-25% and REM sleep - the remaining 15-20%.

Slow (deep) sleep

It is difficult to answer unambiguously how long deep sleep should last, because its duration depends on what sleep cycle a person is in, so in cycles 1-3, the duration of the phase deep sleep can be more than an hour, and with each next cycle The duration of deep sleep is greatly reduced.

The phase of slow, or orthodox, sleep is divided into 4 stages: drowsiness, sleep spindles, delta sleep, deep delta sleep.

Signs of slow-wave sleep are loud and rare breathing, less deep than during wakefulness, general decline temperature, decreased muscle activity, smooth eye movements, freezing towards the end of the phase.

In this case, dreams are unemotional or absent; long and slow waves occupy an increasing place on the encephalogram.

It was previously believed that the brain rests at this time, but studies of its activity during sleep have refuted this theory.

Stages of slow-wave sleep

In the formation of slow-wave sleep, the leading role is played by such areas of the brain as the hypothalamus, raphe nuclei, nonspecific nuclei of the thalamus and the Moruzzi inhibitory center.

The main characteristic of slow-wave sleep (aka deep sleep) is anabolism: creation of new cells and cellular structures, tissue restoration; it occurs at rest, under the influence of anabolic hormones (steroids, growth hormone, insulin), proteins and amino acids. Anabolism leads to the accumulation of energy in the body as opposed to catabolism, which consumes it.

The anabolic processes of slow sleep begin at stage 2, when the body completely relaxes and recovery processes become possible.

It was noticed, by the way, that active physical labor During the day, it prolongs the deep sleep phase.

The onset of falling asleep is regulated by circadian rhythms, and they, in turn, depend on natural light. The approach of darkness serves as a biological signal to reduce daytime activity, and the time for rest begins.

Sleepiness itself precedes falling asleep: a decrease motor activity and level of consciousness, dry mucous membranes, sticking eyelids, yawning, absent-mindedness, decreased sensitivity of the senses, slow heart rate, an irresistible desire to lie down, momentary lapses into sleep. This is how the active production of melatonin manifests itself in the pineal gland.

At this stage, the rhythms of the brain change insignificantly and you can return to wakefulness in a matter of seconds. Subsequent stages of deep sleep demonstrate an increasing loss of consciousness.

1. Napping, or Non-REM(REM – from English rapid eye movement) – the 1st stage of falling asleep with half-asleep dreams and visions, dream-like. Slow eye movements begin, body temperature decreases, and heartbeat, on the brain encephalogram, alpha rhythms that accompany wakefulness are replaced by theta rhythms (4-7 Hz), which indicate mental relaxation. In this state, a person often comes to a solution to a problem that he could not find during the day. A person can be brought out of slumber quite easily.
2. Sleepy spindles– of medium depth, when consciousness begins to switch off, but the reaction to calling one’s name or crying of one’s child remains. The sleeper's body temperature and pulse rate decrease, muscle activity decreases; against the background of theta rhythms, the encephalogram reflects the appearance of sigma rhythms (these are altered alpha rhythms with a frequency of 12-18 Hz). Graphically, they resemble spindles; with each phase they appear less frequently, become wider in amplitude, and fade away.
3. Delta– without dreams, in which the brain encephalogram shows deep and slow delta waves with a frequency of 1-3 Hz and a gradually decreasing number of spindles. The pulse quickens slightly, the breathing rate increases at a shallow depth, and decreases blood pressure, eye movements slow down even more. There is a blood flow to the muscles and active production of growth hormone, which indicates the restoration of energy costs.
4. Deep delta sleep- complete immersion of a person into sleep. The phase is characterized by a complete shutdown of consciousness and a slowdown in the rhythm of delta wave oscillations on the encephalogram (less than 1 Hz). There is even no sensitivity to smells. The sleeping person's breathing is rare, irregular and shallow, and there is almost no movement of the eyeballs. This is a phase during which it is very difficult to wake a person. At the same time, he wakes up broken, poorly oriented in the environment and does not remember dreams. It is extremely rare in this phase that a person experiences nightmares, but they do not leave an emotional trace. Two last phases often combined into one, and together they take 30-40 minutes. The usefulness of this stage of sleep affects the ability to remember information.

Stages of REM sleep

From the 4th stage of sleep, the sleeper briefly returns to the 2nd stage, and then the state of rapid eye movement sleep (REM sleep, or REM sleep) begins. In each subsequent cycle, the duration of REM sleep increases from 15 minutes to an hour, while sleep becomes less and less deep and the person approaches the threshold of awakening.

This phase is also called paradoxical, and here's why. The encephalogram again registers fast alpha waves with low amplitude, as during wakefulness, but at the same time the neurons of the spinal cord are completely switched off to prevent any movement: the human body becomes as relaxed as possible, muscle tone drops to zero, especially noticeable in the mouth and neck area.

Motor activity manifests itself only in the appearance of rapid eye movements(REM), during the period of REM sleep a person clearly notices the movement of the pupils under the eyelids, in addition, body temperature rises, activity intensifies of cardio-vascular system and adrenal cortex. Brain temperature also rises and may even slightly exceed its waking level. Breathing becomes either fast or slow, depending on the plot of the dream that the sleeper sees.

Dreams are usually vivid, with meaning and elements of fantasy. If a person is awakened in this phase of sleep, he will be able to remember and tell in detail what he dreamed.

People who are blind from birth do not have REM sleep, and their dreams consist not of visual, but of auditory and tactile sensations.

In this phase, the information received during the day is adjusted between the conscious and subconscious, and the process of distributing the energy accumulated in the slow, anabolic phase takes place.

Experiments on mice confirm that REM sleep is much more important than non-REM sleep. That is why awakening in this phase artificially is unfavorable.

Sequence of sleep stages

The sequence of sleep stages is the same in healthy adults. However, age and various sleep disorders can fundamentally change the picture.

Newborn sleep, for example, consists of more than 50% REM sleep., only by the age of 5 the duration and sequence of stages becomes the same as in adults, and remains in this form until old age.

In older years, the duration of the rapid phase decreases to 17-18%, and the phases of delta sleep may disappear: this is how age-related insomnia manifests itself.

There are people who, as a result of a head or spinal cord injury, cannot sleep fully (their sleep is similar to light and brief oblivion or half-asleep without dreams) or go without sleep at all.

Some people experience numerous and prolonged awakenings, due to which a person is completely sure that he did not sleep a wink during the night. Moreover, each of them can wake up not only during the REM sleep phase.

Narcolepsy and apnia are diseases that demonstrate atypical progression of sleep stages.

In the case of narcolepsy, the patient suddenly enters the REM phase and can fall asleep anywhere and at any time, which can be fatal for him and those around him.

Apnia is characterized by sudden cessation of breathing during sleep. Among the reasons are a delay in the respiratory impulse coming from the brain to the diaphragm, or excessive relaxation of the muscles of the larynx. A decrease in the level of oxygen in the blood provokes a sharp release of hormones into the blood, and this forces the sleeper to wake up.

There can be up to 100 such attacks per night, and they are not always recognized by the person, but in general the patient does not receive proper rest due to the absence or insufficiency of certain phases of sleep.

If you have apnea, it is very dangerous to use sleeping pills; they can cause death from sleep apnea.

Also, the duration and sequence of sleep stages can be influenced by emotional predisposition. People with “thin skin” and those who are temporarily experiencing difficulties in life have an extended REM phase. And in manic states, the REM stage is reduced to 15-20 minutes throughout the night.

Rules for healthy sleep

Adequate sleep means health, strong nerves, good immunity and an optimistic outlook on life. You should not think that time passes in a dream uselessly. Lack of sleep can not only have a detrimental effect on your health, but also cause tragedy..

There are several rules healthy sleep that provide deep sleep at night and, as a result, excellent health and high performance during the day:

1. Stick to a bedtime and wake-up schedule. It is best to go to bed no later than 11 pm, and all sleep should take at least 8, ideally 9 hours.
2. Sleep must necessarily cover the period from midnight to five in the morning; during these hours the maximum amount of melatonin, the longevity hormone, is produced.
3. You should not eat food 2 hours before bedtime, as a last resort, drink a glass of warm milk. It is best to avoid alcohol and caffeine in the evening.
4. An evening walk will help you fall asleep faster.
5. If you have difficulty falling asleep, it is advisable to take a warm bath before bed with an infusion of soothing herbs (motherwort, oregano, chamomile, lemon balm) and sea salt.
6. Be sure to ventilate the room before going to bed. You can sleep with the window slightly open and the door closed, or open the window to next room(or in the kitchen) and doors. To avoid catching a cold, it is better to sleep in socks. The temperature in the bedroom should not fall below +18 C.
7. It is healthier to sleep on a flat and hard surface, and use a bolster instead of a pillow.
8. Stomach position is the worst position for sleeping, the position on your back is most beneficial.
9. After waking up, a little physical activity is advisable: exercise or jogging, and, if possible, swimming.

Sleep is one of the most mysterious processes that occur in the human body. And one of the most significant, since we spend almost a third of our lives sleeping. And complete sleep deprivation, even for a relatively short period of time of a few days, can lead to neurotic disorders and imbalance of the entire body. Sleep is a very complex process in which brain activity changes and vital important functions body. Scientists were able to identify the phases of slow and fast sleep, which have their own characteristics and purposes.

A little history

They tried to study sleep back in Ancient Greece. True, the explanation of what was happening at that time was more mystical than scientific. It was believed that during sleep, the immortal soul could rise to higher spheres and even descend to the kingdom of the dead. Slightly modified, this interpretation of sleep lasted in scientific circles until the mid-19th century.

But even after scientists established that sleep is caused by work nervous system and the human brain and the immortal soul has nothing to do with it, it was impossible to conduct full-fledged research due to the lack of suitable equipment. It was only in the second half of the 20th century that it became possible to record nerve impulses emanating from muscles and the brain, which made it possible to determine the level of their activity.

With the help of electrical devices, many important discoveries have been made in the field of sleep. Rapid and slow-wave sleep were discovered and studied different kinds insomnia, the processes occurring in the body during lethargic sleep have been studied.

Scientists were able to reveal that human activity is regulated by circadian rhythms - daily alternations of periods of sleep and wakefulness, which continue to work even if it is impossible to navigate in time due to the lack of clocks and sunlight.

Computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging have allowed us to study in more detail brain activity, which looks completely different during REM and slow-wave sleep. Interesting processes happen to a person when falling asleep, when the body and brain begin to slowly switch off and plunge into a state of deep relaxation, but at the same time certain parts of the brain continue to work.

But the most ambitious discovery was that the reactions of the brain and body to a vivid dream that a person sees in the REM phase are practically no different from reactions to real events. This means that a person literally “lives” his dream physically and mentally. But first things first.

Falling asleep

A person who wants to sleep is always easy to recognize, even if he tries to somehow hide his condition. Signs of drowsiness include:

A sleepy person begins to stretch, rub his eyes, and turn around in search of a position comfortable for falling asleep. This condition is associated with an increase in the concentration of a special hormone in the blood - melatonin. It gently inhibits the activity of the nervous system, promoting deeper relaxation and speeding up the process of falling asleep.

The hormone has virtually no effect on the quality of sleep itself. Melatonin is only a natural regulator of circadian rhythms.

The process of falling asleep in a healthy adult lasts from 20 to 40 minutes. If the duration of falling asleep remains constant for more than an hour, we can talk about the presence of one of the many forms of insomnia and it is better to take measures to eliminate it before it turns into chronic form. Natural products can help with this sedatives, taking additional doses of melatonin or proven folk remedies.

Slow phase

Having gone through the stage of falling asleep, a person plunges into slow-wave sleep. It gets its name from the slow rotation of the eyeballs that can be observed in a sleeping person. Although it's not just them. During slow-wave sleep, everything vital functions the body is slowed down - the body and brain relax and rest.

As they studied this phase, scientists made more and more new discoveries. As a result, it was discovered that in infants slow sleep has only two stages, and in children over 1-1.5 years old and adults - as many as four, through which the body sequentially passes:

All four stages of the slow phase take approximately one and a half hours, plus or minus 10 minutes. Of this, approximately a fifth of the time is occupied by deep and very deep sleep, and the rest is superficial.

Moreover, a person usually goes through the first stage of slow-wave sleep only after falling asleep, and when slow and fast sleep alternate during the night, it “falls out.”

Fast phase

Scientists have not fully figured out what REM sleep is, how such strange processes can occur in the body, and what significance it has for humans. If everything is more or less clear with the slow one, this is the period active recovery body and complete relaxation, then the brain reactions and vital body functions during REM sleep are completely different.

During REM sleep, a person's eyeballs under closed eyelids begin to move quickly along a chaotic trajectory. From the outside it seems that a person is closely watching something. In fact, this is so, since it is in this phase that dreams appear. But eye movement is not the only and far from the main difference between REM sleep.

What was seen on the encephalogram, and later on the tomogram of the brain during the fast phase, so amazed scientists that it received another name: “paradoxical sleep.” All readings during this period may be practically no different from those taken in a state of active wakefulness, but at the same time the person continues to sleep:

In fact, the entire body is “turned on” in the dream as if it were a real event, and only the person’s consciousness is turned off. But if you wake him up at this moment, he will be able to tell the plot of the dream in great detail and at the same time will experience emotional experiences.

Interestingly, it is during REM sleep that changes occur hormonal levels. Some scientists believe that it is necessary for emotional “reset” and balancing of the endocrine system.

Having experienced exciting events again during sleep, a person then sends these memories to the subconscious, and they stop bothering him.

REM sleep also helps in regulating the level of sex hormones. Nocturnal erections, wet dreams and spontaneous orgasms occur during this phase. Moreover, they are not always accompanied by dreams of an erotic nature.

At the same time, most heart attacks or strokes occur, due to the fact that the relaxed heart and blood vessels are subjected to sudden stress.

At the beginning of the night, the fast phase does not last long - from 5 to 10 minutes, and a person spends most of the time after falling asleep in slow-wave sleep. But in the morning the phase relationship changes. The periods of REM sleep become longer and longer, and the periods of deep sleep become shorter and shorter, and at one point the person wakes up.

Proper awakening

An interesting fact is that a person’s activity and condition, especially in the first half of the day, depends on how he woke up. If he woke up from exposure to external stimuli (alarm clock, bright light, sharp sounds, jolt) during the slow phase of sleep, he still needs some time to “come to his senses.” In the first seconds, he may not even understand where he is, some parts of the brain are still so inhibited.

It is a completely different matter if the awakening occurs during REM sleep. The body is already alert and active, you just need to turn on your consciousness. A person who wakes up in this phase feels great, can quickly get out of bed and go about his business. At the same time, he perfectly remembers the last dream and can write it down or retell it.

The modern rhythm of life places high demands on the level of physical activity. Perhaps that's why in Lately So-called “smart alarm clocks” are becoming increasingly popular, which read body readings and send a signal just in the stage of REM sleep.

The advantage of such a device is that it greatly facilitates awakening, but the disadvantage is that it can wake a person up 20-30 minutes before the set time, since it begins to track sleep phases in advance, calculating the appropriate moment.

But even if you woke up easily, doctors do not advise jumping out of bed right away. Give the body 5-10 minutes for all organs and systems to smoothly start working. Stretch, lie down, tune in new day, go over your plans again in your head. And when you feel that you are completely ready for active actions- get up and start your morning routine.

Prevention of insomnia

healthy quality sleep It is considered a state in which a person quickly falls asleep and smoothly moves from one phase to another, waking up at the end of the night at his usual time on his own, without an alarm clock. Unfortunately, few people can boast of this today. Chronic fatigue, stress, poor nutrition, negative emotions greatly reduce the quality of sleep and become increasingly common reasons development of chronic insomnia.

To avoid this problem and the multiple troubles associated with it - from neuroses to serious psychosomatic diseases, try to take at least basic measures that can ensure normal quality of sleep:

And most importantly, do not reach for sleeping pills even if you have been unable to fall asleep for several nights in a row. Similar drugs They quickly become addictive and in most cases deprive a person of the rapid phase of sleep.

Under the influence of a sleeping pill, a “heavy”, very deep sleep without dreams occurs, which is very different from normal - after it the person still feels broken.

If problems with falling asleep or frequent awakenings at night have become protracted, you are often tormented by nightmares, or your loved ones talk about you walking at night, go to the doctor. The problem cannot be solved without finding out the cause that provoked it. And this can only be done after examination and consultation with several specialists: a neurologist, an endocrinologist, a somnologist.

But in most cases, temporary insomnia occurs as a result of stress or severe fatigue and it can be easily dealt with using folk remedies: warm baths, milk at night, relaxing massage, aromatherapy. A positive attitude is equally important. You can significantly improve the quality of your sleep simply by weaning yourself from thinking about problems in the evenings.

Alpha waves. At the same time, the eyeballs produce slow circular movements. The muscles relax and the heart beat slows down. In the first phase, the sleeper has a feeling of what he sees, but at the same time it is easy to wake him up. When he wakes up, he may deny that he was asleep. But if the sleeping person is not disturbed, he will gradually move into the second.

In the second phase, the brain generates beta waves, and this is immediately reflected in the encephalogram. There are sleep spindles. Slow rotational movements of the eyeball continue, but everything dreamed at this stage is in most cases forgotten upon awakening. After 20-30 minutes in this phase, the sleeper moves to the next phase of sleep.

In the third phase, the frequency of the sleeper's brain waves is significantly reduced compared to the activity of alpha waves in the waking state. During this phase, it is much more difficult to awaken the sleeper, as the muscles become increasingly relaxed, the heartbeat decreases, body temperature decreases, and blood pressure drops.

The fourth phase on the encephalogram is characterized by high-amplitude and low-frequency delta waves. The phase begins approximately thirty minutes after falling asleep. This is the phase of deepest sleep - it can be called the stage of oblivion. After staying in this phase for 20 minutes, the sleeper returns to shallow sleep. At this moment, the activity of brain waves is similar in their indicators to their activity in the first phase, but at the same time it is very difficult to wake up the sleeper. The sleeper returns to the first phase, but it is somewhat different from the initial phase of sleep.

The first four slow-wave stages of sleep normally occupy 75-80% of the entire sleep period. It is believed that slow-wave sleep is associated with the restoration of energy expenditure. Research has shown that it is the slow-wave sleep phase that is key to consolidating conscious “declarative” memories.

According to Professor A. Wayne:

• Stage 1 – drowsiness, occupies 12% of total night sleep;
• Stage 2 – gradual deepening of sleep -38%;
• Stage 3 – transition to deep sleep – 14%;
• Stage 4 - the deepest sleep - occupies 12%.

Stage II (B – stage) – regularly occurring spindle-shaped rhythms with a frequency of 14-18 vibrations per second (the so-called sleep spindles), as well as vertex potentials and K complexes. K-complexes are understood as vertex potentials followed by sleep spindles.

Stages III, IV (C-, D-, E-stages) – actually slow sleep (delta - sleep) ( Stage III occupies 25-80%, stage IV – 50%).

Slow-wave sleep is essential for restoring brain cell function Constant lack of sleep can cause headaches, increased fatigue and the ability to worsen, the appearance of nervous and other diseases.

People have always been interested in the nature of sleep, because a person gives to a given physiological state a third of your life. This is a cyclical phenomenon. During 7-8 hours of rest, 4-5 cycles pass, including two phases of sleep: fast and slow, each of which can be calculated. How long does each stage last, and what value does it bring to the human body, let's try to figure it out.

What are sleep phases

For many centuries, researchers have been studying the physiology of sleep. In the last century, scientists were able to record bioelectrical oscillations that occur in the cerebral cortex during sleep. They learned that this is a cyclical process that has different phases, replacing each other. An electroencephalogram is taken using special sensors attached to a person’s head. When the subject is sleeping, the devices first record slow oscillations, which subsequently become frequent, then slow down again: there is a change in the phases of the dream: fast and slow.

Fast phase

Sleep cycles follow one after another. During the night's rest, the fast phase follows the slow phase. At this time, heart rate and body temperature increase, the eyeballs move sharply and quickly, and breathing becomes frequent. The brain works very actively, so a person sees a lot of dreams. REM sleep activates everyone's work internal organs, relaxes muscles. If a person is woken up, he will be able to tell the dream in detail, because during this period the brain processes the information received during the day, and an exchange occurs between the subconscious and consciousness.

Slow phase

Fluctuations in the slow rhythm electroencephalogram are divided into 3 stages:

1. Nap. Breathing and other reactions slow down, consciousness floats away, different images appear, but the person still reacts to the surrounding reality. At this stage, solutions to problems often come, insights and ideas appear.
2. Shallow sleep. There is a blackout of consciousness. Heart rate and body temperature decrease. During this period, the dreamer is easy to wake up.
3. Deep dream. At this stage, it is difficult to wake a person. The body actively produces growth hormone, regulates the functioning of internal organs, and tissue regeneration occurs. At this stage, a person may experience nightmares.

Sequence of sleep phases

In a healthy adult, the stages of dreaming always occur in the same sequence: 1 slow phase (drowsiness), then 2, 3 and 4, then the reverse order, 4, 3 and 2, and then REM sleep. Together they form one cycle, repeating 4-5 times in one night. The duration of the two dream stages may vary. In the first cycle, the deep sleep phase is very short, and last stage it may not exist at all. The sequence and duration of stages can be influenced by the emotional factor.

Deep dream

Unlike REM sleep, the deep phase has a longer duration. It is also called orthodox or slow wave. Scientists suggest that this condition is responsible for restoring energy expenditure and strengthening the body's defense functions. Research has shown that the onset of the slow wave phase divides the brain into active and passive areas.

In the absence of dreams, the areas responsible for conscious actions, perception, and thinking are switched off. Although during the deep phase, heart rate and brain activity decrease, catabolism slows down, but memory replays already learned actions, as evidenced by external signs:

• twitching of limbs;
• special breathing order;
• playing different sounds.

Duration

Every person individual norm delta sleep (deep phase). Some people need 4 hours of rest, while others need 10 to feel normal. In an adult, the deep phase takes up 75 to 80% of all sleep time. With the onset of old age, this duration decreases. The less delta sleep, the faster the body aging. To increase its duration, you must:

• create a more effective wake/rest schedule;
• before a night's rest, give the body a couple of hours physical activity;
• do not drink coffee, alcohol, energy drinks, do not smoke or overeat shortly before the end of wakefulness;
• sleep in a ventilated room in the absence of light and extraneous sounds.

Stages

Sleep structure in deep phase is heterogeneous and consists of four non-rem phases:

1. The first episode involves memorizing and understanding the difficulties that occurred during the day. At the stage of drowsiness, the brain seeks solutions to problems that arose during wakefulness.
2. The second phase is also called “sleep spindles.” Muscle movements, breathing and heart rate slow down. Brain activity gradually fades, but there may be brief moments of particularly acute hearing.
3. Delta sleep, in which the superficial stage changes to a very deep one. Lasts only 10-15 minutes.
4. Strong deep delta sleep. It is considered the most significant because throughout the entire period the brain reconstructs its ability to work. The fourth phase is distinguished by the fact that it is very difficult to wake up a sleeping person.

REM sleep

REM (rapid eye movement) - the phase or from the English rem-sleep is distinguished by the increased work of the cerebral hemispheres. The biggest difference is the rapid rotation of the eyeballs. Other characteristics of the fast phase:

• continuous movement of organs visual system;
• vivid dreams are brightly colored and filled with movement;
• independent awakening is favorable, gives good health and energy;
• Body temperature rises due to vigorous metabolism and strong blood flow.

Duration

After falling asleep, a person spends most of the time in the slow phase, and REM sleep lasts from 5 to 10 minutes. In the morning the ratio of stages changes. The periods of deep breathing become longer, and deep periods become shorter, after which the person wakes up. The rapid stage is much more important, so if it is interrupted artificially, it will adversely affect emotional state. The person will be drowsy throughout the day.

Stages

Fast phase, which is also called paradoxical sleep, is the fifth stage of dreaming. Although the person is completely immobile due to complete absence muscle activity, the state resembles wakefulness. The eyeballs under closed eyelids periodically make rapid movements. From stage 4 of slow-wave sleep, a person returns to the second, after which the REM phase begins, which ends the cycle.

The value of sleep by hour - table

It is impossible to say exactly how much sleep a person needs. This indicator depends on individual characteristics, age, sleep disturbance and daily routine. A baby may need 10 hours to restore the body, and a schoolchild – 7. Average duration sleep, according to experts, varies from 8 to 10 hours. When a person alternates between fast and slow-wave sleep correctly, even after short period every cell in the body is restored. Optimal time for rest is the period until midnight. Let's look at sleep efficiency by hour in the table:

Best time to wake up

If you look at the dream value table, you can see that the time from 4 to 6 in the morning brings less benefits for rest. This period is the best for awakening. At this time, the sun rises, the body is filled with energy, the mind is as clean and clear as possible. If you constantly wake up with the dawn, then fatigue and illness will not be a problem, and you can do much more in a day than after waking up late.

What phase is best to wake up in?

The physiology of sleep is such that all stages of rest are important to a person. It is advisable that 4-5 complete cycles of 1.5-2 hours pass per night. The best time to get up varies from person to person. For example, it is better for owls to wake up between 8 and 10 am, and larks get up at 5-6 am. As for the dream stage, everything is ambiguous here too. From the point of view of the structure and classification of phases best time for awakening - those couple of minutes that occur at the end of one cycle and the beginning of another.

How to wake up during REM sleep

As the cycles repeat and the duration of the slow phase increases to 70% of the night's rest, it is desirable to catch the end of the REM stage to awaken. It is difficult to calculate this time, but to make your life easier, it is advisable to find the motivation to get up early in the morning. To do this, you need to learn, immediately after waking up, not to lie idle in bed, but to spend breathing exercises. It will saturate the brain with oxygen, activate metabolism, and give a charge of positive energy for the whole day.

How to calculate sleep phases

Self-calculation is difficult. You can find circadian rhythm calculators on the Internet, but this method also has a drawback. This innovation is based on average indicators and does not take into account individual characteristics body. Most reliable method calculation - contact specialized centers and laboratories, where doctors, by connecting devices to the head, will determine accurate data on signals and oscillations of the brain.

You can independently calculate the stages of a person’s sleep something like this. Duration (average) slow stage– 120 minutes, and fast – 20 minutes. From the moment you go to bed, count 3-4 such periods and set the alarm clock so that the time you get up falls within a given period of time. If you go to bed at the beginning of the night, for example at 22:00, then safely plan to wake up between 04:40 and 05:00. If this is too early for you, then the next stage for the correct rise will be in the time interval from 07:00 to 07:20.

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