![]() By contrast, melatonin or other sleep aids can be useful in the short term, but they only offer superficial support, allowing the underlying problems driving your sleep issues to continue. When you wake up, eat, exercise, and go to sleep at roughly the same time each day, you bring all of these clocks into harmony, which is central to high performance.īy focusing on your circadian rhythm, you have a much higher likelihood of addressing the root causes of your sleep quality issues. Interestingly, every cell in the body has its own circadian clock. We share our circadian rhythms-the 24-cycles governing our sleep-and-wake patterns, energy metabolism, and appetite-with other living things. We could reduce all conversations about sleep quality to one sentence: Stabilize your circadian rhythm. How to increase your deep sleep: Honor your body's love for rhythm Without proper sleep, ghrelin spikes while leptin drops, intensifying hunger, and interfering with satiation cues meant to let you know when it's time to stop eating. Sleep deprivation impairs two appetite-regulating hormones, ghrelin, which stimulates appetite, and leptin, which reduces appetite. It can also inhibit impulse control, which ordinarily prevents overeating. Sleep quality influences appetite in two ways: according to research published in Nature Communications, insufficient sleep can trigger cravings for unhealthy food. During deep sleep, the pituitary glands release high amounts of human growth hormone, repairing muscles and tissue and replenishing energy stores, leading to muscle development and other gains that occur in response to exercise. Recovery after exerciseĭeep sleep is essential for building muscle in response to exercise. With this and other roles deep sleep plays in our cognitive function, issues with deep sleep can manifest in problems with attention and alertness or recalling recently learned information. While memory consolidation also occurs in REM sleep, studies have shown deep sleep supports declarative memory (recalling information) and procedural memory (learning new skills). ĭeep sleep is critical for many aspects of our daytime performance, including (but not limited to): Consolidating memoriesĭuring deep sleep, the brain consolidates memories and skills we've learned throughout the day into a long-lasting form. It's essential for processes as diverse as immune and hormone regulation, mood, and memory. Scientific research into deep sleep has demonstrated its vast and multi-faceted roles in our health. Why deep sleep is the foundation of high performance This pattern repeats an average of four to six times throughout the night. Each night, we cycle through three stages of non-REM, followed by one stage of REM sleep. īecause we're most in need of recovery after being awake all day, pockets of deep sleep are typically concentrated earlier in the night, with lighter stages happening closer to morning. Researchers broadly link non-REM sleep with physical recovery, while REM sleep is more prominently associated with emotional processing (though there is overlap between the two).Įxperts sometimes call REM " paradoxical sleep " because our brains closely resemble their waking states: breathing becomes irregular, heart rate and blood pressure increase, and we dream (though it’s possible to dream in non-REM sleep too). Deep sleep is one of three stages of non-REM. ![]() There are two types of sleep: rapid eye movement (REM) and non-REM sleep. What makes deep sleep different from other sleep stages? With all but our critical functions offline during this time, deep sleep is a period devoted to regeneration, making it the foundation not only of our health but our performance. This puts the body into a state of physical paralysis, where our breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure reach their lowest points of the night. Deep sleep: A time of restorationĭeep sleep is technically called slow-wave sleep because electrical activity in the brain slows dramatically. This article will help you optimize the quality of your sleep while avoiding easy-to-overlook habits taking a silent toll on your daytime energy levels. Many people find that even after covering the basics of sleep hygiene-like avoiding afternoon coffee or exercising regularly-their sleep still isn't as refreshing as it could be. In this article, we examine the purpose of deep sleep, warning signs you may need more than you're getting, and guidelines for how you can increase your deep sleep. As a result, subtle and seemingly minor habits can interfere with your deep sleep and sabotage your mood and energy levels. ![]() During deep sleep, the body undergoes many types of repair and regeneration, making it vital to our sense of waking up refreshed. Inadequate deep sleep can be the quiet culprit of daytime fatigue or performance issues.
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