Sleep Study Findings Page 2
The amount of sleep not only affects your mortality but also your personality. Some people are by nature long sleepers, and some are short sleepers. Studies show that people, who tend to sleep longer, tend to be more introverted and creative. People who require less sleep tend to be more extroverted and concrete.
Whether or not you are a long sleeper or a short one, getting too few hours of sleep can make one cranky and less energetic, which the majority of people have probably experienced. Continual lack of sleep can lead to mental issues such as depression, deprive one of thinking clearly, and hinder the quality of work.
Recorded brain waves have helped in the study of the different stages of sleep. The studies have indicated that there are four stages of sleep that occur in cycles each lasting about ninety minutes.
When you first fall asleep, your brain waves will slow down, as you become more relaxed. As you experience the third stage your body and mind become more unaware of the world outside. The fourth stage is the deepest stage in the cycle known as Rapid eye movement, which is the stage in which most people dream. After ten or more minutes of REM sleep, the sleep cycle repeats. This goes on all through the night at least three or four times. During REM sleep, not only do your eyes move around quickly, your heart rate increases, and your automatic body processes speed up. These periods last about twenty minutes a stretch and occur four or five times during the night, alternating between REM sleep and non-REM sleep. During this time your body functions slow down and you get your deepest sleep.
Myths of Sleep
If you sleep longer, you'll be more awake and have more energy in your life. Getting more sleep than your body needs actually will rob you of energy and damage your effective sleeping patterns. If your body sleeps longer than it needs to you put stress on a number of other factors such us your melatonin hormone levels, your exposure to sunlight, and your body temperature rhythm.
Sleeping for longer than normal periods of time or trying to catch up on sleep only weakens your effective sleep system, which in turn can lower your immune system.
You need to Catch Up on Sleep that you have missed. Unless you have not slept for several days, there is no need to catch up on sleep. During the first 3 - 4 hours of sleep is when we experience most of State 3 and Stage 4 sleep. Sleeping longer than you usually do is not beneficial in anyway.
I feel low on energy; I must not be getting enough sleep. Quantity is not the answer here, quality is. People have a tendency to think that sleep is a very basic thing. The truth is that sleep is actually quite a complex system that most of us take for granted. Due to the fact that most people do not understand how our inner sleep system works, we aren't aware of the actions being taking that are damaging our effective sleep systems and patterns that are depriving us of energy.
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Matt Daren
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