The Riverside Press-Enterprise
ELUSIVE SLUMBER
11-14 hours 9-11 hours 8-10 hours 7-9 hours 7-8 hours
America is not getting enough sleep. A recent study shows that 76% of Americans say their daily life has been interrupted by a lack of sleep with more than one in three losing sleep over financial worries. In July, California passed a state law requiring schools to start later, giving teens more time to sleep. Sleep deprivation is associated with injuries, chronic diseases, mental illnesses, lost work productivity and health care costs due to chronic conditions, including obesity and depression.
Stage 1
This is a light, shallow sleep. You still hear things and have a sense of awareness. Your brain has slipped into sleep, but you don't feel like you're asleep.
12-15 hours
Stage 2
This is still considered a light sleep, but not shallow. You are asleep but can be easily awoken. In this stage, your body is processing memories and emotions and your metabolism regulates itself. Breathing and heart rate typically decrease slightly.
Your body doesn't just hit each sleep stage once a night, nor does it spend an equal amount of time in each of them. In fact, it cycles through all of these stages multiple times a night. Each cycle lasts, on average, 90 minutes, but some cycles can be as short as 50 minutes and some can be as long as 100 minutes or more. Here's how it works:
Awake
2%-4% 2-9 minutes
Stage 3
This is a deep sleep. You become less responsive to outside stimuli. Breathing slows and muscles relax as heart rate becomes more regular. Your body secretes growth hormone associated with cellular rebuilding and repair. Your immune system is also strengthened.
Melatonin
REM
This is the deepest sleep. The brain is very active while your body is actively paralyzed. Most dreaming happens and your eyes move rapidly in different directions. Heart rate increases and breathing becomes more irregular. It's also the peak of protein synthesis at the cellular level.
is a hormone that our brain produces in response to darkness. It helps with the timing of your circadian rhythms (24-hour internal clock) and with sleep. People with hormonal imbalances can suffer from insomnia.