While you're little doubt accustomed to rapid eye movement, did you recognize there's a sort of sleep that's even as important? It's referred to as deep sleep. 

Although solely a tiny low fraction of total sleep is spent during this section, it's necessary to assist in restoring your body's functions, notably your memory!

If you rouse exhausted once after several hours of sleep, there's a real probability that you just failed to get enough deep sleep whereas you slept.

What are the Stages of Sleep? 

Now that your curiosity is whetted, what's deep sleep anyway? The simplest thanks to perceiving that's to completely perceive the stages we tend to undergo throughout sleep. 

Sleep has two major phases: REM and non-REM sleep. Your initial slumbers begin with non-REM sleep. You may pay many minutes transitioning from being tuned in to falling asleep. Your body functions and brain waves can cut down, whereas your muscles relax.

During the second stage, your vital sign can decrease, and your brain waves can slow but have occasional bursts of activity.

Next comes the third state, wherever your brain waves area unit the slowest. This era is observed as slow wave or deep sleep. There will be a fourth stage; however, which will be combined with the third one? 

Rapid eye movement (REM) is at the end, wherever your brain waves are extraordinarily active.

What is Deep Sleep, and How Long Does It Last?

During the stage of deep sleep (stage three), your brain waves, breathing, and heart rate becomes the slowest they will be while you are asleep.

You will find it hard to wake up even with loud noises.

This difficulty in waking up is why several sleep disorders are associated with deep sleep. These include night terrors, sleep eating, sleepwalking, and bedwetting.

The first stage can last from 45-90 minutes. It is longer during the first part of the night and then shortens with each sleep cycle.

Why is it Important?

You may think of learning as something you do while awake, but your brain is highly active during deep sleep. It processes more sugar during deep sleep, which supports short-term and long-term memory. This helps overall learning.

Other benefits of deep sleep include:

• Regenerating your cells.
• Restoring energy.
• Building bones and muscles.
• Strengthening your immune system. 

What if You Don't Get Enough Deep Sleep

Not getting enough deep sleep can have highly negative effects on your body. The loss of slow-wave sleep has been linked to a drop in human growth hormone production. The hormone has many functions, a key one being its role in maintaining heart health.

Your brain can be another organ that suffers from a lack of deep sleep! Since it is during deep sleep that you process the day's information, your brain may only be able to process this information if you get enough deep sleep.

Poor sleep quality is also linked to such severe conditions as stroke, diabetes, heart disease, and Alzheimer's disease.

How Much Deep Sleep Does Your Body Need?

About 75% of your sleep is spent in non-REM sleep, while the rest is in REM sleep. About 13-23% of your total sleep time is spent in deep sleep. 

The amount of deep sleep you get will decrease as you grow older. If you are under 30, you may get two hours of deep sleep, while you may only get 30 minutes if you are older than 65. Some seniors get no deep sleep at all.

If you lose several nights of sleep, you will have a sharp rebound in your deep sleep. Not only will you have more slow-wave sleep than normal, but it will also be deeper. 

This effect is probably due to a build-up of substances in the brain that induce sleep when you go for a long period without getting enough sleep.

How to Get More Deep Wave Sleep

Subjecting yourself to heat, such as a hot bath or sauna, may promote more sleep-wave sleep. However, once you go to bed, sleeping at 60-67 degrees provides the deepest sleep.

Follow your circadian rhythm! When you stick to your sleep-wake cycle, you will likely sleep better at night and stay asleep all night. Go to bed early if you are a morning person, and stay up later if you are a night owl.

You are more likely to get high-quality sleep if you go to bed simultaneously every night, so force yourself to stick to a consistent sleep time.

Your diet can greatly affect whether you will enter deep sleep. For example, low-carbohydrate diets can cause you to sleep more deeply.

And exercise will always help you to sleep well! (As long as you do it several hours before bedtime.)

Antidepressants can increase the duration of slow-wave sleep periods.

One thing that sleep experts cannot stress enough is the need to eliminate blue light (like phones or computers) when you are trying to fall asleep. Avoiding bright lights at least an hour before bed will help you sleep.

Most people are familiar with white noise machines to help them sleep. However, pink noise can also cause you to spend more of your night in a deep sleep. These machines simulate the noise of waves lapping against a beach or leaves rustling in the wind.

Deep Sleep Rejuvenates Your Mind and Body

If you don't get enough deep sleep, your chances of feeling depressed, gaining weight, or getting sick increase dramatically.

Deep sleep improves your hormones and physical renewal, making it a vital part of your schedule. 

Following the tips in the previous section should help you get enough deep sleep to keep yourself in top form.

Stop into your local Texan Mattress location to learn how a Graphene Mattress can help you reach a deeper sleep by lowering your body temperature and increasing your melatonin production.